Introduction: green shoots in the public sector garden

​The silver birch at the bottom of the garden has finally burst into green this week. There are more tits and finches zipping around the bird feeder (more than the measly four I counted in the RSPB Big Bird Watch weekend in January) and the mood of conversations with customers is starting to look forward after what felt like a long 2023 of budgets being locked down, teams being asked to deliver more with less, and a general slowdown in the musical chairs game of talent and resourcing. Figuratively and literally, we are seeing green shoots around us!

January, February and March has been our busiest ‘input’ quarter for a long time, busier than the same time in 2022. This factors in the number of requirements customers have for resource (in any form) and how many times a customer meets with an associate or candidate of ours. Whilst not all organisations or programmes have their final budgets for 2024 yet (not unusual at this time, so don’t read more into that), the majority of programme and workforce leaders know what they will need from us over the coming year and can start planning accordingly. It’s clear that the market is again looking at its resourcing needs ahead of increased workloads and deadlines.

Our industry is an interesting one – people are sometimes a little sceptical about trying to recruit or land external teams. In fact, it’s usually bottom of the list of things they want to do. I’ve generally found that’s because people don’t like having to assess someone’s cultural or technical skillset, begrudge spending money on rates or salaries and find the process pretty time consuming. However, it’s exciting when a customer recognises the value of a talent solution business and entrusts them to play their role – not just in finding people but becoming embedded into the organisation to learn more about how it functions, understand its nitty-gritty and do some horizon scanning.

We’ve experienced this recently with an ALB organisation that was setting up a portfolio of projects for a government policy backed drive. Suffering from a particular issue which always hinders their talent search, the customer was refreshingly open to allowing us our seat at the table and listened to our recommendations. Another customer in the blue-light services has allowed us to engage in a very different conversation, approaching the core problems of recruitment and retention, rather than a plastered solution.

Tougher times call for innovation, consideration and a recognition that we are all in this together.

Now that the blossom and greenery have returned, the lime green parakeets of south London look slightly less ridiculous than they did during dreary mid-winter-time. Standing out can be what makes or breaks you. I’ll always challenge my teams to set themselves apart from their competition and be different – offer value where unexpected, challenge routine and know your worth in the process.

If you’re a public sector organisation looking for the right talent for your team or you’re a professional looking for your next opportunity in the public sector, then we’d be happy to talk to you about how we can help.