An Executive Agency (EA) of the UK government based in Wales and on the South and East Coast of England was going through a large Digital Transformation programme where they were building out their own capabilities in order to manage the reorganisation and move back in-house from a largely outsourced service. This saw the introduction of several different new services including, 24/7 IT Service Desk, Technical Architecture and Service Design, Delivery Management, PMO and a new Data team. In order to manage these services internally, the EA needed to increase internal capability, however they struggled with recruiting permanent staff as a result of their locations, below-market salaries and losing potential candidates as a result of their cumbersome and disjointed recruitment process.
Working with the ICT and Digital department, supported by Human Resources, we identified the challenges faced by the EA. Salaries offered proved to be challenging, as well as finding local talent (within commutable distance to the offices) with the desired skill sets (i.e. Technical Architect). A further challenge we faced was the resourcing and onboarding process which often involved 2 stages and a panel of interviewers, resulting in limited availability of internal staff for interviews and for providing feedback.
In order to overcome the identified challenges, our focus was to engage with candidates who were within commuting distance of the HQ and wanted to enjoy the lifestyle balance offered as opposed to commuting to London. Therefore, the extra time and flexible working pattern was the payoff for the reduced salary in comparison to the remuneration offered by London based departments. Coupled with the offer of being a part of a growing function that provided learning opportunities and potential for progress/promotion helped overcome the salary challenge. Our analytical software proved to be valuable in mapping specific skill sets within the local labour market and giving us insight into which local companies we were competing with in regard to talent attraction, and which candidates were commuting to London for work.
Through continuous improvement meetings with the key stakeholders, we managed to reduce the time to hire and onboarding process by 30% and achieved a fill ratio of 90% of all resourcing requirements within the agreed phased delivery (i.e. 3 months for phase 1 and 3 months for phase 2).
Specialist skill sets successfully resourced: Technical Architects, Network Architect, Delivery Managers, Service Desk Analyst, Service Desk Team Lead, Service Transition Managers, Service Design Leads
