You are all very welcome. I want you to try to keep to between five and seven minutes. Mr. Boyle, you have already sent us a submission. Perhaps you would summarise the difficulties, if any, you are having recruiting or retaining staff.
Presentation by Civil Service Commission
Mr. Boyle
By way of opening, I would like to give a broad indication of where we are in terms of our recruitment programme, the impact the current employment market is having and our responses to that.
The Office of the Civil Service Commissioners is a recruitment organisation providing recruitment and selection services to Departments, the Garda Síochána, local authorities and health boards. Within those sectors, we cater for a workforce of around 50,000. Last year we recruited more than 4,500 staff across a very broad spectrum. To give an indication of the range, we recruited 2,500 clerical staff and 400 middle management staff for Departments, 550 Garda trainees, 400 prison staff, 430 senior management and professional staff for Departments and 330 senior management and professional staff for local authorities and health boards. That is the broad range. In addition to that, we provide recruitment and selection services within the Civil Service in terms of promotional competitions and the like. We also provide services for An Bord Altranais in relation to trainee nurse recruitment.
We felt the impact of the changing labour market on three levels. First, there are fewer people responding to our advertisements. For example, in 1998 there were 9,000 applicants for a clerical officer competition. A recently advertised competition, by contrast, attracted 6,000 applicants. Second, there are more people withdrawing their applications or refusing job offers. Recent indications from our contacts with Departments and from other research that we have done suggests that up to 30% of candidates who are offered positions decline to accept them. Of those who accept positions, a further 25% to 30% leave during the first year. The third point in that regard is that Departments and agencies are themselves experiencing a higher turnover rate among new recruits. In particular, there is a high level of turnover in clerical recruitment. In 1999, for example, the 2,500 clerical staff we appointed contrasts with 650 clerical appointments in 1996. We have to bear in mind that the overall size of the Civil Service remained relatively static over that period.
Despite all of this, we are still attracting significant numbers of recruits and still filling vacancies, although the increased level of activity and expenditure that is required leaves us running faster in order to stand still. Overall, there is no shortage of interest in the Civil Service among job seekers. Market research that we conducted in 1999 indicated that 18% of the labour force still find the Civil Service to be the most attractive career option. Job security and flexible working arrangements are cited as strong reasons for that. We see it as absolutely essential that the Civil Service should compete successfully for its fair share of the talent available in the labour market. We are actively involved in promoting the Civil Service, and the wider public service, as a career choice which has many strong selling points.
A career in the Civil Service offers an opportunity to contribute in a meaningful way to national life. Flexible and family friendly arrangements, such as flexi-time, career breaks, and job-sharing arrangements, are positive features of employment in the public service. There are training and development opportunities which are attractive as well. Pay rates in the Civil Service will not lead the national trend, but the overall package that the Civil Service has to offer is an attractive one. By way of response to the challenge with the competitive markets we have taken a number of measures to improve our competitiveness in that area. We are advertising more frequently and speeding up the selection process. We are investing increasingly in advertising and marketing with a view to raising the profile of the Civil Service as a potential employment.
Our Estimates for the current year provide a new provision of £200,000 to enable us market the Civil Service. Initiatives other than in the advertising and marketing areas include colour advertising, more extensive use of radio, website and Aertel, attendance at all the major careers fairs and exhibitions, other projects such as investment in the Careers World CD-ROM development for use in schools and colleges, market research to improve our understanding ofthe market and the establishment of newlinkages with career advisers at second and third levels.
We realise we have a big challenge on our hands and we are preparing for it. We recently completed two important pieces of research - one on the image of the Civil Service and the other a study of retention patterns in the Civil Service. These two exercises complement one another and we are drawing on them to develop marketing and retention strategies for the future. These strategies will be formulated in the wider context of the ongoing programme for modernisation of the Civil Service. Given that this modernisation programme is an inherent part of the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness we are committed, in partnership with the wider Civil Service, to achieving real progress over the life of the agreement.