Public sector recruitment inefficiencies ‘costing taxpayers millions’

Nick Elvin

Inefficiencies in recruitment by UK councils are costing taxpayers hundreds of millions of pounds as a result of lost productivity, according to Omni RMS.

The RPO provider conducted a Freedom of Information request to all local councils in the UK to gain insights into differences between public and private sector recruitment.

The results revealed that it takes 93% longer for councils to hire when compared with UK averages, with these inefficiencies resulting in a productivity cost of over £350,000 for every 100 new hires.

In total, councils declared that 124,649 new hires were made in 2014, with an inefficiency cost of over £437 million due to the extra time taken to make appointments.

The complete FOI data examining council recruitment activity in 2014 shows that the average time taken to hire an employee is 55.4 days, compared to the private sector where the average time to hire is 28.6 days according to research published by Glassdoor this year. This efficiency amounts to a 93% increase in the time taken by councils to recruit when compared with the average UK employer.

When extrapolated to include the average wage and working hours of a public sector employee, the 26.8 extra days it takes to hire an employee could carry a productivity cost of up to £3,507.58 per employee, amounting to a £350,758 inefficiency cost per 100 employees hired, equating to over £3.5m for every thousand jobs.

Stand-out cases include East Northamptonshire Council, taking an average time of 151.2 days (five months) to recruit, followed by Enfield Council, which took 145 days to recruit on average. Wolverhampton City Council came third, taking an average time of 138 days to recruit for each vacant position last year.

Two thirds of councils were also revealed to undertake a reactive recruitment process, beginning from the vacancy arising, rather than implementing a proactive strategy.

“Reducing the time taken to fill vacancies and the cost of recruiting is a problem every business faces,” said a spokesperson for Omni. “All managers who are responsible for a recruitment budget need to think strategically about the recruitment process. Hiring in a proactive way rather than reactive will not only reduce inefficiencies in the process by shortening time-to-hire, but will also result in the placement of the best candidate for the job.

“Ultimately, a gap in hiring is the most costly part of recruitment. A proactive strategy will focus on identifying talent gaps and have a comprehensive candidate relationship management strategy in place. A multi-channel approach that includes candidate management tools that engage with pools of suitable applicants alongside other proactive initiatives such as referral schemes will generate a talent pipeline to meet the business’s resourcing needs.”