Courtenay HR

Pipelines in the Public Sector

With public sector recruitment activity reaching the highest levels for many years and pay structure increases outstripping those in the private sector, making a move into the public sector as the next career step might seem quite attractive to many candidates. And, perhaps for the first time, with the agenda of change sweeping many of the local and central government environments the prospects of securing an interesting and challenging role seem higher than ever to those in the private sector who may be looking to move across.

Consequently, you would be forgiven for thinking that recruiting for the public sector must also be easier than ever before. Sadly not. Whilst change may be afoot, and pay and benefits now being set at realistic levels, particularly for senior posts, finding good candidates and getting them on board is still harder than ever.

One opportunity that presents itself to those of you with the tough job of resourcing their key positions is to start developing your own pipeline of talented individuals. This term is fast becoming the most used phrase in private sector resourcing, next to ‘talent’. But what does it mean and how useful is it really for the public sector in general?

Essentially, building a pipeline of talent for your organisation means getting to know, and nurturing, relationships with a group of people who may, at some point in the future be interested in joining your organisation should you decide they ‘fit’.

Aren’t we doing this already? No is the answer. You may be meeting people for roles in the organisation; many in fact, but most will disappear to other jobs or fall by the wayside. Perhaps only a treasured few will find their CV being filed away in your ‘Gold File’ for future reference. But let's be honest, even then they very rarely get a re visit.

Building a pipeline means something much more different and requires a significant increase in commitment to make it happen. Daunting words; particularly for many HR folk in the public sector who are already snowed by the servicing of many open positions.

But it doesn’t have to be like that and, for the public sector in particular, buying into this approach could deliver significant benefits to these organisations as well as improve the ability to resource key positions.

Many public sectors organisations have a great story to tell, but many also have the problem of historical stigma to overcome. Things may be improving but for many candidates there is still a lot of convincing to be done to win them over. There is still a big PR exercise to be done.

By taking the pipeline approach, you create the opportunity to roll out this PR, subtly, over time, supplementing it with messages from others in the organisation who may be future colleagues for the potential new hire. You get the opportunity to say so much more and avoid the problem of having to cram the persuasive stuff into the space of one or two interviews. Over time, you can build a relationship with some of these individuals which can be a very powerful influencing factor when it comes to deciding their next move. This is something you just don’t get to do inside the normal recruitment process.

You will also find out how endeared a candidate can become to you when you take a longer term interest in them. Let’s face it, no one else is doing this and it is often cited by candidates as the one big problem with both recruitment consultancies and organisations alike.

Making this whole approach happen for your organisation sounds onerous but whilst it has implications for the way you manage your resourcing process, the physical work involved is not significant. Its more about organisation and contact management than it is about doubling your workload. If you can pull it off, the benefits of taking this approach can be great and it will put you ahead of many other organisations that are fighting to attract individuals from the same pool of talent.