Partner Article

Prolonged period of declined funding driving sea-change to recruitment processes

Along with the private sector, local authorities are facing years of budget cuts and this extended period of reduced funding is creating significant change to the recruitment process. At the heart of this change is the requirement to transform local government and to move towards shared services, functions, and partnership agreements.

Partnerships between the public and private sectors can result in the type of savings that help an organisation to survive and continue to deliver services when funding is tight; and in the case of local government find new revenue streams to offset the impact of sourcing £9bn of savings by 2015.[ According to the National Audit Office, source The Guardian online Friday 7th June 2013.]

Gill Kelly, Associate Director of CIPFA Recruitment Services, advises; “Employers need to get to grips with the complexities of shared services and partnership arrangements that will shape the future of local government.

“When funding is tight finding the right people to instigate and drive these changes is vital and will determine whether an organisation thrives or fails. Human resources and recruiters must ensure that new appointments to senior management posts have the following core attributes; an ability to identify and unlock potential assets, financial modelling expertise, and advanced project management skills.”

Gill Kelly recommends the following five tactics to adopt to help transform your organisation:

1. Ensure that new appointments to senior management posts have the ability to source and utilise untapped resources and assets. Securing new revenue streams will help in lean times.
2. Cultural change is a key step in the path towards shared services and partnership agreements. Good change management practices should also be embraced and applied across the organisations.
3. HR must ensure skills and knowledge are transferred to the newly merged department. When two finance departments join forces, for example, there are immediate savings to be gained. But it is crucial that knowledge and talent is retained in the newly formed merger.
4. Communication must be clear and transparent for agreements to work. Too often organisations pay lip service to the role of communications, yet the move to shared services or functions will result in changes to, how an organisation is structured, employees and their roles, locations, and procedures.
5. Use interim help to deliver transformation projects. Interim teams made-up of skilled specialists with project management and financial modelling expertise will generate long term gains for an organisation.

Working in partnership, if done successfully, can result in a reduction of costs and the transformation of more than one organisation to suit leaner times. Successful sourcing and recruitment of talented individuals with a specific skills set to drive these transformation can prove a challenging task. Utilising some or all five strategies will help to you to focus your attention on key requisites and to tackle the complexities of shared services.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Harriet Subramanian .