18 minute read
Frameworks
Recruiting in the public sector
Recruiting talent to the public sector is not easy, but Crown Commercial Service’s Executive & Non-Executive Recruitment Services framework helps to ease some of the pressure
Public sector recruitment is hard at the moment, with funding cuts and budget squeezes meaning there are likely fewer positions available and fewer resources available to fill vacant positions. The pandemic has led to people retiring earlier than expected and Brexit has caused a shortage of employees. These problems are universal across the job market so there is also competition for the top talent, with the private sector often able to provide higher salaries and better benefits.
The framework can help you with your recruitment process, from start to finish and offers several suppliers and services.
It allows all public sector organisations to access executive and non-executive recruitment services for permanent, fixedterm and inward secondment roles.
The framework splits the available recruitment services into core or non-core and both are available on a modular basis, so you only buy the services you need when you need them. The core modular services are identifying and attracting potential applicants to apply for positions, assessment and evaluation and offer and appointment. These all include customer planning. Buyers are able to access all core services from suppliers as part of an endto-end recruitment service. Non-core modular services are not included in the end-to-end recruitment service, but can be accessed if needed. The non-core modular services include strategy and planning, talent development services, talent mapping, reserve lists and talent pools, executive development and
coaching, technology services such as applicant tracking systems (ATS) and video interview and international recruitment. First steps Before you start your candidate search, Before you start your candidate search, think about what you want to achieve think about what you want to achieve. Do you want to hire someone for a vacant position on the same job description as the person who left or could you shuffle some responsibilities? Would it be better to hire two people to share a role or to fill a vacant position internally? Look at how your organisation works and see if you could benefit from redefining some job descriptions or reallocating some roles or responsibilities to make your organisation run more smoothly. Identifying and attracting potential applicants The framework can connect you with agencies that will be able to help you from the beginning of your candidate search. Firstly, write attractive adverts and job descriptions. Public sector positions can sometimes be E
uninviting for those looking for a new job or a career move. Make sure your job ads are personable and enthusiastic and make the job look enjoyable. Try not to use overly formal language that could put people off.
Highlight what is good about working in the public sector, that may be different from the private sector, for example job security and having a positive impact on society. Emphasise the importance of the public sector and the essential services you provide. Think about the benefits you can offer that won’t cost any money, such as working from home and flexible hours. Despite the pandemic, a lot of private sector organisations still don’t offer these benefits, even though a lot of workers want them, it doesn’t cost a penny and can in fact improve employee satisfaction and therefore productivity as well. It can also widen your candidate pool, for example to parents with school-age or younger children, who may not have been able to take a full-time office job before.
You can also provide benefits such as training and mentorship which are littleto-no cost and will actually benefit your organisation in the long run, by improving the skills and confidence of your new hire.
Young hires can also reverse mentor their senior colleagues by providing guidance on things like social media, cybersecurity and software implementation.
Don’t be afraid to advertise your open positions outside of government job boards, for example if you are hiring for an admin role, post your job ad on an admin job website.
It does not hurt to invest in technology – an efficient, easy-to-use and well-run application platform can make you more inviting to potential applicants and increase the number of applications. Good technology can reduce your costs elsewhere in the long run. Also updating the technology you use for day-to-day operations can make you more attractive to applicants. E
Social media is a great place to advertise for local positions and can help you attract young people who may not have considered a career in the public sector or others who are looking for a career change.
Think about your brand. If you are a local council for example, make sure the local residents know what you do, have a local newsletter, send councillors to local events, respond to queries promptly etc. If local residents have a good perception and awareness of what the council does and a positive attitude towards them, then they are more likely to want to work there.
Assessment and evaluation The framework also offers assessment and evaluation as a core module, meaning there are suppliers to help you find the best candidates once you have put your job ad out there.
Make sure you have policies and strategies in place to help you evaluate the best candidates – a supplier will be able to help you with this. Consider assessment tools such as AI, which can save the hiring team money as well as help you find the most qualified candidate.
Work with your supplier to come up with appropriate and informative interview questions and avoid the old classics like
Work with your supplier to come up with appropriate and informative interview questions and avoid the old classics like “Where do you see yourself in five years’ time?” and “What is your biggest weakness?”
“Where do you see yourself in five years’ time?” and “What is your biggest weakness?” Assess the interest of the applicant in the vacant position, those who are genuinely interested in the role are more likely to be successful and stick around for longer.
When interviewing a candidate, create a positive and welcoming environment. Be friendly and approachable and start with some small talk and general chit-chat before launching into the interview. Acknowledge and respond to their answers and don’t just move from one question to another. If someone is coming into the office for an interview, make sure you are prepared, you have a room set up and the place looks friendly and welcoming, as well as clean and in good repair. This can be the difference between a candidate accepting a position or deciding to go somewhere else.
Be prepared for the questions a candidate might ask, and have an answer ready. You can also use this opportunity to share the pros of working for your organisation. For example, they may ask about benefits or career advancement. Public sector organisation tend to have well-defined and clear career progression opportunities that may not be available in the private sector.
You should always keep an open mind, if your admin assistant has retired after 30 years in the same role, don’t assume that the perfect candidate is a similar person. It might be the perfect position for a recent school-leaver rather than someone with years of experience.
Make sure you follow all guidelines and regulations, whether these be legally enforceable or at your organisation level. Note that some government agencies have very E
strict regulations and you need to make sure you follow these.
Think about the criteria that are necessary for the role. Does someone need experience or could you hire someone inexperienced and train them up? Is a degree really necessary? This can be a barrier for applicants from lowersocioeconomic backgrounds, who could do the job just as well as someone with a degree.
Offer and appointment The final core module of the framework is offer and appointment. Make sure you have a flexible recruitment process and get back to candidates quickly, acknowledge receipt of their application, thank them for coming in for an interview etc. If a candidate doesn’t make the shortlist, or doesn’t make it past the interview, let them know. This creates a good impression in their mind and they are more likely to remember you as an employer. If they have to wait a long time to hear back from an interview, they may already have taken another job. If they never hear back from you, they are unlikely to want to apply for another job in your organisation, even if they may be a good candidate. Remember word-of-mouth is important, particularly if you are a large local employer such as a council or a hospital.
Make sure to check references before offering your candidate the job.
Your appointed supplier will be able to help you with the job offer. Remember, there is no guarantee your chosen candidate will say yes.
When making a job offer, your chosen candidate should receive all the information they need to make an informed decision. If there is information missing, this may lead to them leaving the role prematurely if something unexpected happens once they start the job. A
job offer should include the candidate’s name, the job title, the salary and start date. It should also include terms and conditions, benefits and requests for any required legal documents, such as proof of right to work in the UK.
Once a candidate has accepted a job offer, make sure a contract is sent promptly. This should already be prepared.
Your organisation should already have templated offer letters and contracts, but make sure everything is approved by the relevant team or manager and the legal department or representative.
The chosen candidate may have questions, make sure these are answered promptly.
The framework Crown Commercial Service’s Executive & Non-Executive Recruitment Services framework lists suppliers that are able to help in every category listed above. It also provides several other benefits. Hiring managers are able to choose which suppliers they engage with and how.
The framework offers the ability to direct award, which can save time and money, especially if you are looking to fill a vacant role quickly.
The framework includes capped maximum costs, to protect buyers from market price increases. This is incredibly important at the moment. There are also no hidden costs, as everything is included in the cost of the service. There are discounts available for hiring more than one candidate.
Suppliers will do a lot of the work for you, for example, it is a requirement that they develop employer value proposition, which ensures that candidates want to work for your organisation. The EVP also includes any benefits that the employee will receive including pay and learning and development opportunities.
Suppliers must also work towards civil service diversity and inclusion requirements, that are also likely in place in your organisation and can help you achieve your own D&I aims.
Finally, framework support is available from CCS’s customer and agreement management teams.
More information is available on CCS’s website, including details on how to buy and all the framework documents.
If you have vacant roles to fill, or are looking for a new recruitment services provider, CCS’s Executive & Non-Executive Recruitment Services framework provides all the information and suppliers you need to be able to do this, as well as customer service teams to help you along the way. L
FURTHER INFORMATION
https://www.crowncommercial.gov.uk/ agreements/RM6290
Cabling considerations: greenfield vs. brownfield smart building design
Smart buildings are on the up, here is everything you need to know
Smart buildings are making their move. Around the world, more than 115 million smart buildings are expected to be operational by 2026. But what many fail to consider is that there are two types of smart buildings represented in this number—greenfield and brownfield smart buildings. As the industry rolls out 70 million more smart buildings in the next four years, it’s safe to assume that most will be brownfield projects (renovations to existing building) vs. greenfield projects (new construction). Brownfield and greenfield smart buildings come with their own benefits, challenges and cabling considerations. As a result, they must be managed differently.
What to know about greenfield smart building design Because they’re designed and built from the ground up, greenfield projects don’t face the restrictions and constraints often found in brownfield projects. In a greenfield project, it’s easier to align visions and goals across teams because everything is fresh and new.
Although this “newness” may seem like an advantage, it can also create unanticipated obstacles. With a blank canvas, it’s easy to get carried away with possibilities and lose sight of needs and practicality. It can also be difficult to prioritize needs vs. wants.
Creating a “smart building” doesn’t mean that all systems must be integrated. Instead, a smart building establishes purposeful, meaningful connections between systems to add value to people and processes based on what needs to be observed and managed.
For example, a smart hospital wants its irrigation systems to connect to the internet to check upcoming weather and adjust accordingly. But does the irrigation system need to communicate with the hospital’s imaging systems? Even though it’s possible to make this happen, it’s not beneficial because it offers no advantage.
Because greenfield projects have no existing infrastructure to work with, they typically take longer than brownfield projects. Project planning may begin several years before a facility becomes operational. Technology evolves so quickly, telecommunications budgets and scopes that are created in 2022 may not address what will be needed in 2028 when a building opens its doors. Technology, needs and priorities will change over time - and cabling designs, plans and programs of work need to be agile enough to adapt to these shifts. What to know about brownfield smart building design Brownfield projects are much more common than greenfield projects. In a brownfield project, distinct personnel and technology silos with established historical records already exist. There are also dynamic relationships and interplay to consider when it comes to working with existing contracts with vendors, responsibilities, liabilities and capabilities.
In addition to managing the traditional cost, resource and time constraints that come along with any project, brownfield smart building projects must also work around existing restrictions and limitations. This may include legacy platforms and systems, facility layouts that can’t be changed and fully occupied buildings that can’t be vacated in order for work to take place. All these situations create additional complexities that are significantly different from those found in greenfield projects.
From an ICT perspective, legacy systems in brownfield projects must often be integrated with new systems, technology and network architectures.
Using healthcare as an example once again, a brownfield smart building project always needs to take into account the maturity of existing technology. Nurse call systems, for example, may be in place for 25 or 30 years, which means that the systems currently in place may not be built for Ethernet or IP. This can make integration difficult.
It’s also important for the project team to understand the expected lifespan of the technology already in place. Are there end-of-life concerns?
Some systems, like nurse call systems, can’t simply be taken offline or removed and swapped for something new. They must remain operational until a new system or new infrastructure is installed, tested and verified—including integration with other smart building systems. Existing cabling often poses challenges during brownfield smart building projects as well, with a menagerie of cables and connectors that have been deployed over the years. In the end, these differences need to be able to work together.
When working in an existing environment, visions of new technology and capabilities must be tempered with reality. What’s possible and what isn’t based on the facility and existing infrastructure? What works for one existing building may not work for another. Buildings are designed to last decades or longer, so creativity is often necessary to turn a 60-year-old building into a facility that can efficiently and economically use technology.
Based on these factors - existing systems and infrastructure - a brownfield smart building project could vary from a simple bootstrap upgrade to a major forklift upgrade that requires significant changes to existing IT infrastructure.
Start your next smart building project Greenfield and brownfield smart buildings are both crucial to creating a safe, sustainable and efficient future. But they also need to be approached differently. Belden’s team of experts understands the intricacies of smart building design - and the cabling infrastructure required to support greenfield and brownfield smart buildings to meet your goals. L
FURTHER INFORMATION
Belden.com
Advertisement Feature Embracing agile digital transformation in the public sector
Public sector organisations are starting to recognise the importance of Agile when implementing digital transformation projects to drive forward the sector’s digital capabilities. Although Agile can be seen as the most effective route for delivery, it’s best practice to think about all project implementation tools when considering a digital transformation project
Jon Grainger, CIO, interviews David Laycock, delivery manager, to discuss the successes of Agile within the public sector; how it is coming up-to-speed, and the key things to consider when implementing digital transformation strategies. Here is a taster and takeaways from the interview:
What is Agile? Agile will vary between projects, but ultimately, it embraces the fact that we can’t know everything upfront and that plans are designed to evolve.
“Agile is a mindset,” comments David. “It’s about being pragmatic. It’s about being kind of nimble but with a structure.”
Agile strategies work in cycles. Organisations develop a plan for a particular cycle, completing all the short-term tasks, before coming together in a review to discuss what went right, what went wrong and what the next steps should be.
Experience problems vs method problems Agile can help teams to manage timescales and understand the necessary next steps to drive digital transformation projects forward. However, it’s important that organisations aren’t using Agile to substitute for a complete lack of experience.
“It doesn’t matter what method you go through, if you’ve never done something before and nobody in the team has ever encountered it, you’ve no point of reference,” explains Jon.”It’s not really a method problem, it’s an experience problem.”
Is Agile a ‘silver bullet’? By no means is Agile a solution to any and every project. It’s not about retrofitting your digital transformation project to Agile methodology; it’s about evaluating your needs and picking the right strategy.
“Just because we work in an Agile space, doesn’t mean to say you have to adopt an Agile approach for something and make it fit,” continues David.
Organisations that use Agile in the right way can end up delivering services up to 50 per cent faster, and improving satisfaction by up to 25 per cent, so it makes sense that public sector organisations are keen to adopt it. However, it’s more important that it’s done right.
Simply put, Agile isn’t a ‘one-sizefits-all’ solution. It’s often best suited to projects that are complex and have urgent and novel elements, which is why it tends to suit the public sector.
IT is one of the most popular areas for Agile techniques, as it often solves problems that haven’t been encountered before. However, linear or waterfall project delivery also have their place.
Psychological safety In Agile, where mistakes and ‘failures’ are common and analysed, it’s important all employees are protected psychologically within the culture of the organisation.
Psychological safety means all members of a team feel safe enough to ask questions, admit mistakes and challenge the status quo. That’s why culture and mindset is so important for Agile projects to succeed. In Agile projects, it’s about learning quickly, rather than failing fast.
“Psychological safety, that’s a core fundamental in smaller teams. Being able to feel safe gives that little bit more flexibility to be able to get on with things,” adds David.
“Ultimately, the objective is to get the feedback and go: ‘okay, we made a mistake, we’ve learnt and move on’” states Jon.
A ‘no blame’ culture is a key part of this, which is why implementing the right people to perform digital transformation is so important, especially if these are temporary, external parties rather than permanent members of your team.
Public sector culture: learning and curiosity Over the last ten years, there’s been a significant change in how the public sector works.
Ten years ago, there was a lot of scepticism when it came to Agile, as some organisations didn’t see it as a legitimate strategy. However, today it’s adopted a lot more, especially when it comes to digital transformation.
“Remember Agile is a mindset. It’s about being pragmatic.’ Says David. “If you want to use government and the public sector as a model, I would say start small. It’s about understanding what you are trying to achieve, learn things and fail fast.”
Watch the full interview between Jon Grainger and David Laycock here. L
For more information on enabling agile digital transformation in your organisation, visit Certes IT Agility Ability or call us below.
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www.certes.co.uk 01675 468 968
