Local Government Recruitment and Retention – A Vision for 2030

On 30 November 2023, the PPMA hosted a roundtable discussion on the possible recruitment and retention challenges that could be faced in the future by local authorities. The Commercial Services Group - partners of PPMA - report back on outcomes of the session.

We were delighted to hold another roundtable with our partners PPMA following on from London and Manchester earlier this year. Our hosts Sheffield City Council welcomed CSG, APSE and our Chief Executives and Human Resources colleagues from councils across the country to their stunning council buildings in the city centre. Our objective was to take forward some of our discussions exploring what local government can do to raise a more positive profile, attract new candidates particularly the young into the sector and plan for the changes that are undoubtedly coming. We wanted to explore how we could ensure the sector is fit for the future and take advantage of developments such as further automation and AI.

Whilst acknowledging that councils are working hard to fill roles, for many it can feel like an ever-increasing merry-go-round being forced to adopt unsustainable practices simply to fulfil short-term needs. All councils have limited resources therefore the question is how to make the most impact not just for now but to allow for planning for the future.

The group saw it incumbent on Human Resources Directors and their teams to look for ways to help break the cycle contributing to this but they need the council to support them. Some of the themes explored included the limitations of the existing recruitment process – post a job and they will come! One colleague challenged that surely this is now a broken model.

The discussion also explored broadening the horizon of both job seekers to consider local government and hiring managers to be open to different types of candidates. Hiring managers find comfort in detailed job descriptions with essential criteria but this often limits the number of likely interested candidates. The group discussed other options such as bringing people into the organisation not necessarily into a fixed role and letting them discover what opportunities were available within the council.

Local Government Recruitment and Retention – A Vision for 2030 This could be a much better way forward and some of our councils are looking to explore this option for certain roles. Innovations in apprenticeships and attracting more graduates were other areas explored in the two-hour discussion.

“There is no doubt that councils face challenges in the recruitment and retention space but it certainly isn’t for a lack of creative ideas and different ways of thinking. We discussed several approaches that can help take councils forward in this competitive environment. It is clear however that CEs and HRDs need the trust and support of their wider teams to try innovative solutions to attract more diverse candidates,” commented Steve Wilson, Commercial Director CSG and facilitator on the day.

Thank you to all our attendees. The roundtable will be written up in full and shared via the PPMA, APSE and CSG. We hope that by supporting these events we help create more opportunities for councils to collaborate, share their experiences and support one another. The role of collaboration specifically and the opportunities to work at regional level were highlighted as something that certainly our attendees were keen to do more of.

We will share the outputs as soon as they are published.

The Sheffield Roundtable was attended by APSE Head of Business Resources Lindsay Airey.

About the PPMA

The Public Services People Managers Association (PPMA) is the first choice association for people professionals in public services. For more than 40 years they have been a collective voice for a highly qualified, passionate, committed and diverse public services Human Resources (HR) and Organisation Development (OD) community. They play a critical role in influencing key decision-makers and stakeholders involved in people management and workforce issues.