Agility. Why is it so critical for government recruitment?

To answer that, let’s reflect briefly on the private sector, which excels at planning and executing strategic business plans and corporate objectives.

In a similar respect, many government departments are adept at setting and executing bold, visionary policies.

The challenge, however, is that we live in a dynamic and constantly changing environment.

Priorities can shift quickly, often in tandem with the amount of resourcing and investment available to deal with them.

So, how can teams respond effectively? As resourceful leaders and talent executives, we must all be in a position to adapt and flow. Agility makes that possible, talent acquisition leader Matt Saxty writes.

Become a champion of agile government recruitment

The ability to reprioritise and change direction has become increasingly important for government departments. Leaders in these departments recognise that the ability to plan and execute policy no longer suffices. This capability must be augmented with an agile and flexible way of working.

Lean, flexible recruitment strategies must be in place to deploy these new government operating models. The right strategies also make them effective.

An agile government recruitment function drives this success.

Government recruitment teams are modelled on a range of factors, including hiring volumes, requirement scoping, locations, technology, and process. What is changing, however, is the need for teams to respond quickly to fluid requirements. Government departments must be readily able to scale up.

Explore an example of government recruitment agility

Want to better understand how your government recruitment function can become more agile, and the difference it can make? Let’s use a real-life example.

We recently supported a large Australian government department with their organisational transformation program. We helped them scale up by deploying a Hudson Talent Solutions project team of more than 50 people within six weeks to support them with a significant volume of recruitment activities for both internal and external candidates.

In that example, the support for our clients’ transformation programme required a multi-step approach by Hudson Talent Solutions, including:

• Allocation of dedicated resources based on an initial scoping of client requirements
• Deployment of several team members from the Hudson Talent Solutions shared services team
• Ongoing use of our internal talent pool, managed by our Talent Acquisition Manager

The great benefit for government departments in adopting this ‘partnering approach’ is the opportunity for immediate scalability. They also become highly responsive to the ever-changing business landscape.

Agility is an important part of the picture in government recruitment, but it’s only one part. Continue the journey towards a more effective government recruitment function with three tips for government recruitment success.