Did you know that the British workforce is currently larger than pre-pandemic levels? While this is great news for the economy, it has become much harder to fill skills gaps, particularly in crucial sectors such as social work. This has left many of us scratching our heads over how to find those rare job seekers.
For our public sector clients this is even more difficult, due to competition from the private sector. Typically the private sector has more freedom to provide higher salaries, and less bureaucracy results in faster reactions to a changing marketplace. This will often be a more attractive offer to active job seekers. So how can public organisations compete?
Here are our 4 top tips on how to attract candidates from the private sector…
1. Target passive candidates
If you want to fill skills gaps in your workplace, your target demographic should be passive candidates! While this may sound surprising, a LinkedIn study demonstrates that just over two thirds of potential employees are not actively seeking new roles.
That is a massive proportion of candidates to be losing out on through only putting yourself forward to active job seekers. In fact, a majority of the workforce would be open to a new opportunity to develop their career.
But how can you target these candidates if they’re not actively looking for work?
One of the ways you can reach passive candidates is through a Resourcing service. For example, our resourcing team were able to successfully source 3 Building Control Surveyors from the private sector through reaching out to passive candidates on LinkedIn and Jobs Go Public’s talentpool.
The advantage of this method is that you are able to sell your organisation’s unique points to passive candidates who are open to new opportunities. Moreover, conducting hiring through a Resourcing team can save you time and money by freeing up HR resource and filling vacancies faster.
Another way to catch the eye of passive candidates is to build on your employer brand, which brings us to…
2. EVP, EVP, EVP
If you want to stand out against the private sector you need to actively market your Employer Value Proposition (EVP). More than two thirds of candidates research a company while deciding whether to apply.
This means that you can’t afford to limit promoting your EVP to your job adverts alone. You should take every available opportunity to market yourself as an employer, leveraging tools such as networking events, careers sites and social media.
These channels should focus on your existing employees. When it comes to selling your work culture, your current staff are your biggest asset. If they love working at your organisation, this will shine through in your communications. This gives prospective candidates a chance to preview your work culture and decide if their values align with yours.
It is also a great way to show off to candidates what the public sector can offer beyond salary packages:
3. The benefits of working in public service
While the inability to negotiate beyond organisational pay bands may be a frustrating source of lost candidates, there is so much more to working in the public sector than just salary.
Using the channels discussed above provides you with an opportunity to show prospective candidates how rewarding the work can be. After all, the opportunity to make a difference is a unique characteristic of public sector employment.
The public sector can also offer unique benefits to employees, such as the renowned Local Government Pension Scheme, higher job security, a culture of flexible working and new challenges such as managing the variety of stakeholders involved in local government.
On top of promoting these unique characteristics as part of your EVP, you should also communicate with your current workforce. For example, a yearly survey on your benefits package will allow you to find out if you’re addressing the current needs and concerns of job seekers.
Moreover, if your current staff feel valued and well looked after, this will reduce turnover and increase the likelihood of employee referrals, another valuable source of passive candidates.
4. Optimise your job descriptions
Our final tip on how to attract candidates from the private sector is to optimise your job descriptions. We recently discussed the benefits of switching to a skills-based hiring model. It’s likely that there are many candidates who have the skills to excel in your vacancies but do not meet all of the essential criteria of your job description.
For example, asking for a certain number of years’ experience in local government may put skilled employees off of applying for your roles. In this competitive market you can’t afford to be losing candidates who have the potential to perform an excellent job.
Gaps in experience can be solved through providing private sector hires with mentors within your team – sourcing active job seekers with vast public sector experience is much harder.
Ready to attract those passive private sector candidates? Get in touch with our team to see how we can help!