A Civil Service of “All the Talents”
Posted by Tamara Toothill | Posted 13/09/2022
Words by Josh Irving, Head of Executive Search at Sanderson Government & Defence
Sanderson Government & Defence have been awarded a place on the newly released Crown Commercial Services framework for executive recruitment into government.
We are delighted that the UK Government has placed their faith in us once again to continue to support them with senior civil service roles. The future of government relies on an effective, dynamic, and diverse civil service to support the administration of the day and produce value for UK PLC.
In order to be an accredited supplier to government we have had to demonstrate that our approach ensures that we can build diverse talent pools to support the government’s own diversity objectives. Our prior track record documents us overachieving against government targets on the diversity of shortlisted and appointed individuals across the defined protected characteristics.
For us this is not enough!
True diversity also encompasses diversity of thought, diversity of career, diversity of location and diversity of educational background, amongst many other variables that make up the rich tapestry of the workforce. What excites us about the work we will do to support government is our approach also brings diversity across all these areas. We are embedded in the private sector as well as our work in government, defence, national security, and other secure sectors. We have offices across the UK as well as internationally and more importantly we are always proactive in reaching out to individuals to bring them into government roles rather than rely on more common passive approaches.
Traditionally, a lot of senior government recruitment has been done through advertising roles to encourage a fair, open and transparent process. This has not been hugely successful at widening a talent pool outside of existing public sector employees. A HR Director at one of the main government departments said to me, “how can it be open, transparent, and fair if the private sector is not involved?”. Historically, much SCS recruitment has been reliant on moving existing civil servants around government.
There is much to be said for existing experience in government and the career civil servant and nobody wants to lose this great knowledge base. To have a civil service of “All the Talents” we need to look further afield and bring in fresh ideas and ways of thinking.
At Sanderson Government & Defence we are optimistic and excited about what the UK can achieve and delighted to be at the heart of supporting this.