The drive to achieve greater efficiency out of public sector resources has led to a perceived need for recruiting individuals with important commercial skills such as an ability to innovate, effective resource management, project management and risk management.
Trends such as the drive towards partnership working in local government, a need for tighter financial management in the health sector, and a focus on driving value in central government are all creating a growing requirement for many behaviours that are associated with senior management in the private sector.
What are the most significant competencies required in the public sector? How do these requirements vary across different parts of the public sector?
Most importantly - is the public sector attracting people with the skills that they need?
Public sector performance needs to improve, if it is to serve the best interests of our nation. However, it all depends on the objectives and goals of our Civil Service leaders. My experience with public servants in general is that they are insular in their thinking, lack innovation with no dynamic approach. My perception is that their current crop of leaders lack the bravery to employ people from the private sector as they will offer a threat. In stead of doing whats right for the public service, they recruitinternally or people with similar capabilities when in reality what is needed is someone who will shake up the status quo. The service is in dire need of innovation, change management, offering value for money efficient services. it is too easy to increase taxes to pay for services instead of looking to introduce radical change programmes and efficiency drives. Do I hear job protection ?
SADLY THE OCCUPATIONAL MOBILITY IN THE UK IS POOR, RE-TRAINING DOES NOT EXIST EXCEPT FOR BASIC SKILLS MUCH OF PUBLIC SECTOR RECRUITMENT IS GEARED TOWARDS INTERNAL APPOINTMENTS WITH LITTLE OPOPORTUNITY FOR DYNAMIC PEOPLE WHO WANT TO WORK AND IMPROVE PUBLIC SERVICES. THE DWP FOR MANY WELL QUALIFIED PEOPLE IS POOR AS IT SERVES VERY FEW PEOPLE, MANY OF ITS EMPLOYEES ARE NOT INTERESTED IN THE JOB OR THE CUSTOMER, TOO MANY ETHNICS AND A POOR RECRUITMENT SERVICE, WHICH HAS LITTLE QUALITY CONTROL OR ACCURACY IN ITS EXAMS OR PLACEMENTS AND TAKES MONTHS TO GET ANYTHING DONE.
BRITAIN REALLY NEEDS A GOOD SHAKE OUT IN THE PUBLIC SECTOR AND ITS HR FUNCTION, SINCE THERE ARE ALREADY 3M UNEMPLOYED AND MANY GRADUATES AND OTHERS WITH NO FUTURE AT ALL IN BRITAIN. EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES ARE A MYTH DRAWN UP BY SPIN DOCTORS, WITH NO REAL VISION OF THE REAL WORLD SUCH AS MANDELSON AND CAMPBELL
Returning to this debate (something odd has happened to the dates!) as I am midway through recruiting to two roles where private sector skills are sought by the public sector and being found. Also having given two seminars last week on private to public movement. I have two wider observations.
One is that there is potentially a wider learning for private sector people who are knocking on the door of the public sector and finding it slammed in their face - the experience as written is expressed much as other excluded and minority groups have expressed their frustration at moving into roles and spheres where they don’t speak the language, or where people don’t understand the skills they can bring, or where they don’t know how to frame their application, or where there are insufficient role models etc. So there may be a personal learning there - but more importantly this may also be a way to tackle the public sector at a more systematic level: by appealing to the sense of fairness and a need to accommodate and understand that talent may not present itself looking and sounding like the people around you.
Secondly, as I said in my seminars last week, if we’re honest there are five situations here:
1. Some jobs DO need public sector experience
2. Some people who would benefit from accessing private sector talent pool can’t see it
3. Some people like the idea of it, but bottle out in reality when there’s a lower-risk alternative
4. Some people say they want it, and perhaps even really do need it, but don’t understand what they’re getting
5. Some people understand and want it for the right reasons.
Of these the most worrying category is number 4 as they have the potential to lead to high profile failures and reinforce negative perceptions of the transfer. It’s partly our job (at Veredus) to tackle 2-4 and encourage them towards situation 5 or towards situation 1 (if that’s honestly true).
From the perspective of the candidate it’s important to realise that situations 1-5 do exist and try to identify through the research and conversations before and during the process which category the presetning opportunity happens to be in. I draw an analogy with the process of “qualifying” a lead as part of a complex sale.
Lastly, I feel that although we’re framing this debate in terms of private and public sectors, all of the issues we’ve spoken about here are present to some extent at least for people within those sectors looking to move from one area to another (eg Health to Local Government, B2B to B2C).
Britain’s Got Talent . No matter what sector an applicant comes from its essential to look at the skills on an individual basis. Candidates should be considered on their work, life experiences, achievements and skills appropriate to the position. Through initial applicant screening many talented individuals may drop through the net .If given a chance at interview they may make a huge impression and difference if allowed to serve the nation. Alan Sugar, James Caan do not have the formal qualification required to work in public positions yet their experience has been embraced at the highest level of government to implement change .They understand risk and have made the important mistakes to hone their leadership qualities .This action needs to filter down trough the public sector ranks .A more open platform at interview would recognise achievement whether gained in the private, public or third sector and the right candidate found .
Martin has put it in a nutshell.
The public sector appears to be very adept at advertising for “outsiders”, singing all the right songs and getting the numbers right to be politically correct, then appointing the “internal” as “(s)he “knows the sytem!”
What a waste of taxpayer’s money. Accountability and paying the penalty for poor performance needs to come the the fore. Some basic Private Sector principles will pay dividends for the whole community.
My recent experinces at endeavouring to transfer to the Public sector, in particular NHS, have all fallen on stony ground, despite being very well qualified for the positions it seems that “desirable NHS Knowledge” has a higher weighting over “essential Skills” salary and reward structure is another story!
How many Middle Managemetn roles are filled by private sector people - I’d bet less than 10% - conversly who in business would want a Public Sector Person in the current climate!
It’s all about accountability, of which there is none in the public sector. We all occasionally make errors in judgement which we pay the price for in the private sector. This is not the case in the public sector. This leads to stagnation and a failure to develop real world skills.
There is little chance of anyone with genuine talent moving from private to public sector despite the current trend of ‘business outreach’. This is just a sham by the public sector to shake things up a bit internally. That job you applied for, you had all the skills, you did your research impeccably, the interview went great; but no, you didn’t get the role, or the next or the next! The role has gone to someone internally as they always do or possibly to someone in another part of the public sector.
Ask them this. How many senior roles have been filled by people from the private sector in the past 12 months?
I have held senior management and director positions in various companies, large and small in the “private sector” for 44 years. Now I work as a Business Consultant and Interim Manager. I am past the employable age for permanent posts, at 61 (even for the “public sector”). My efforts to obtain Non Executive Director roles have also failed (over 12 applications in two years). What is it that they do want (not what they post on the Job Adverts and in the Information Packs). I believe, from having previously been a NED in an NHS PCT, that they need much the same skills as used in the “private sector” - i.e. strategic planning and thinking ability, business planning, operational management, and yes - commercial skills. They dont seemt to want to take on somebody with many years of those skills under the belt, preferring, I think, to opt for the “safe option” of others from the public sector organisations, who are not going to “rock the boat” and try to change things.