The Civil Service will look to “buy in” the people with the skills it needs, according to a new Cabinet Office plan.

The document ‘Meeting the Challenge of Change’ sets out the Civil Service’s approach to filling “significant gaps in organisational capability and individuals’ skills if the Civil Service is to meet today’s and tomorrow’s challenges”.

The plan says that meeting the skills gaps the Civil Service has today will require it “to buy in more people with the skills that we are missing to deliver the government's priorities."

The plan continues: “We will buy in resources where necessary to get the right skills and experience for particular projects.” It goes on to highlight digital, project and commercial skills as the most likely to be bought in. 

Looking beyond the immediate need to address current pressing skills gaps, the plan outlines how the Civil Service will build its own internal capabilities through investing in individuals and their learning and development. The other aspect of the threefold approach is to borrow the people with the skills it needs from across the Civil Service and the commercial world.

Other initiatives announced in the plan are:

• the introduction this summer of a corporate talent pool – the Civil Service High Potential Stream 

• a new unconscious bias learning product for use in recruitment and selection

Nic Hammarling, head of diversity at business and occupational psychologists Pearn Kandola, tells Recruiter that the Civil Service is following in the footsteps of a number of organisations such as the Royal Mail and employers in the banking and legal sectors.

She says that research shows that unconscious bias where individuals act on the basis of stereotypes can be reduced to “non-significant levels” by the use of tools and techniques.

• Click for more news on how the Civil Service is changing the way its entry-level talent acquisition works.