With the state carrying the can for bankers’ excesses, public sector resourcing professionals are understandably concerned over when and how recruitment budgets will be cut, and whether the sector can compete with the recovering private sector in meeting the talent shortages it still faces.

“There is major uncertainty over what will happen post-election and what the new policies will be,” says David Morgan, founding partner at Morgan Law.
Morgan adds that in the last two to three months more organised clients have been preparing for budget cuts by introducing streamlining and cost-cutting exercises.

And Joanne Marchers, chief personnel officer at Hartlepool County Council, says that to cut costs she is looking at developing the council’s in-house resources more effectively.

Marchers says it is imperative that the council maximises technology and demonstrates it is achieving real savings for its organisations. “We need to develop more efficient recruitment processes beyond website information and an electronic form,” she says.

But while recruitment technology can offer an alternative to agency use, Dean Shoesmith, head of HR at the London Boroughs of Sutton and Merton and vice-president of the Public Sector People Managers Association (PPMA), says good agencies successfully advise clients on creative advertising and the best use of digital media.

And for Shoesmith it is social workers, highway engineers, planners and analytical forecast professionals in particular that are in short supply. “Our concerns are the recruitment and retention of scarce, key-knowledge workers to forecast future financial pressures to ensure that we don’t recruit new employees and then face downsizing and redundancies soon after.”

Morgan adds that UK organisations in financial deficit are looking for turnaround specialists that go in and spearhead cost savings involving finance, HR and procurement. “There is also a big focus on shared services,” he says.

While driving efficiencies remains a key concern, the war for talent rages on for specialist teachers, according to Stephen Moir, corporate director: people, policy and law, Cambridgeshire County Council.

And John Dunn, director at Randstad Education, says the UK currently lacks maths and science teachers but that gap is closing: “There are still shortages in science and maths teachers but even these shortages are starting to lessen because teaching is now the first career choice of graduates. The teacher shortage of three years ago has abated significantly.”

But Dunn says that schools should resist compensating for this shortage through the overstaffing of teaching assistants: “Recruiters have an opportunity to help schools save money when the spending cuts come along as we can provide cover and be a cost only when the cover is needed. There is still a lot of naivety in schools that are choosing to overstaff.”

But with the private sector eyeing recovery, whether 2010 will be a year in which the sector can compete for talent is uncertain, says Morgan.

There is no secret with regards to remuneration with salary caps; it will be more difficult to attract talent into the sector when private sector bonuses and roles are going up. It is going to be a tough year recruiting