THE public sector has a problem. It suffers from a serious case of ageing population. Ticking away is a demographic “timebomb” that will see 30 per cent of local government employees retire in the next decade. Less than 10 per cent are under the age of 25; in London that falls to just 6 per cent.
So how does the public sector deal with the problem? The private sector learnt many years ago that an online recruitment strategy provided an effective complement to traditional recruitment routes. The public sector, however, has been slower to engage with web technologies. But things have begun to change. The Government is putting pressure on the public sector to conform to the rallying cries of e-government, social inclusion, modernisation and efficiency, as well as adhering to the Data Protection Act and ensuring that minority groups are effectively catered for.
Public sector employers are now recognising not only the speed and cost advantages of engaging e-recruitment services, but are developing a greater understanding of how web-based job and employer marketing serves to complement traditional offline routes. Even newspaper publishers have embraced the web.
The Times is no exception: www.timesonline.co.uk helps to ensure that public sector employers advertising in Public Agenda reach a wider audience with their recruitment messages. It’s all part of the service.
Now The Times’s Public Agenda has joined with the UK’s leading public sector e-recruitment service, Jobsgopublic. Adapting web technology and many years of experience in online and offline marketing techniques, Jobsgopublic has created a new tool to help public sector employers to take their message to potential new employees. The surprise, perhaps, is that these techniques are being applied to an old idea: the recruitment fair.
Advertisement
Jobsgopublic Live is a public sector fair with a difference, promoted through offline and online routes. Visitors register free of charge at jobsgopubliclive.com, enter their employment profile and upload a CV. Exhibitors are granted exclusive access via the web to the visitor database, where they can search for suitable candidates, view their details and make contact with them before the event.
Applying technology to the recruitment fair concept enables exhibitors to own a relationship, by e-mail or phone, with a candidate in whom they are interested but have not yet met. An informal chat, a little exploration of their mutual suitability and booking an appointment to meet at the event not only secures a positive impression in the mind of the candidate, but also greatly increases the prospect of an effective return from the fair itself.
The idea is that there will be no more brochure collectors; no more employers manhandling visitors on to their stands press-gang style; no more employers saying: “We don’t really know how effective recruitment fairs are.” It will be something very different indeed.
Modernisation, capacity building and all the other buzzwords will ring hollow if the public sector cannot attract talented people. To appeal truly to a young, diverse, aspirational audience, the public sector needs to prove it can engage an effective mix of traditional and e-recruitment ingredients. Jobsgopublic Live is a fresh step in that direction. The public sector needs to move with its audience; otherwise it will go elsewhere.
Andrew Wilkinson is the head of marketing at Jobsgopublic