Recruiting civil servants efficiently

The Central government recruited more than 40,000 new staff in 2007-08, with 78 per cent for positions at junior grades. The National Audit Office (NAO) analysis of how six organisations recruit identifies three common issues: the costs of staff used in the recruitment process are too high; the length of the recruitment process is too long; and the quality of the recruitment process needs to be improved. There is no centrally held data on the cost of central government recruitment programmes but the NAO has found the internal staff costs of recruiting an individual vary from GBP 556 to GBP 1,921 per position. There is the potential to reduce these costs by up to 68 per cent, which could deliver savings in internal staff costs across government of up to GBP 35 million a year, without compromising the quality of the candidates appointed. It can typically take 16 weeks to recruit a new member of staff. Time could be saved by better anticipating recruitment demands, using resources more effectively and, where possible, standardising the process. There is little evidence that central government organisations systematically test the quality or effectiveness of their recruitment process. Information on turnover of staff or surveys of candidates and managers are not routinely used to identify the successes and failings of the recruitment process. The report identifies a range of possible ways of improving external recruitment, including: better workforce planning and the standardisation of advertisements and job descriptions; tailoring the amount of resource used in recruitment to the type of vacancy; and sifting out unsuitable candidates at a much earlier stage in the process.