Post-pandemic skills solutions can reset public sector innovation

How do we access the talent needed for public sector innovation? Attracting tech talent relies on a flexible environment that employees want to work in

The need for digital innovation in the public sector is palpable. The UK Government recently set out its agenda to drive digital transformation in the NHS and social care – just one example of a much wider focus on expanding the use of tech within public sector innovation to drive a faster, more personalised experience for citizens.

Achieving this will require a regular supply of technical talent, of which there is very little to go around. However, the private sector is fiercely competing for tech talent in ways that can help publicly funded organisations evolve.

With a recession looming, the first thing to be dispensed with is payroll headcount, which is often deemed surplus to requirements. With public services arguably more important than ever when people have less disposable income, this creates a situation where the public sector needs to do more with less talent.

So how can the public sector bypass the competition to access the talent they need? While the demand for digitally skilled employees has always exceeded supply, public sector leaders can’t hope to compete with private sector companies not hamstrung with the same reputation of being more traditional risk-averse and restricted by government budgets. Instead, they should consider a more fluid talent acquisition model.

Keeping up with the competition

The digital priorities in public sector innovation are arguably more urgent than those in the private space – given the wider societal impact they will have. This pressure has led to the development of new initiatives like the NHS’s Track-and-Trace and digital COVID Pass, as well as the growth of virtual learning platforms in the education system to enable remote learning.

But private companies naturally have an advantage when it comes to attracting the talent needed to deliver such digital projects. They can offer competitive salaries, novel perks, the prestige to work for a “cool” brand and faster career progression.

While the public sector may not be able to offer some of these incentives, tight budgets do not mean they should face staff shortages or be bereft of the access to the skilled talent that the private sector does.

Time is of the essence

The public sector isn’t known for being agile or fast paced; if organisations cannot reach the skilled workers to complete a task quickly, they find themselves at the mercy of large consultancies and the associated extortionate fixed costs.

The sector has started to make positive steps to engage with upcoming talent and broaden its talent pool. For example, initiatives like One Digital and Digital Skills Innovation Fund and those helping women returners back into public sector STEM careers, are vital for training and future-proofing the workforce. But while forward planning is important, the sector cannot afford to ignore the present, either.

The constant need to improve public services increasingly means enhancing them with technology. Therefore, the need to attract highly skilled employees who can support this transformation must be addressed through more flexible approaches to workforce management, for all the reasons already mentioned. By doing so, some public sector bodies are benefiting from a more flexible approach for finding talent.

A more flexible way forward

In the post-pandemic workplace, attracting and retaining tech talent relies on establishing and nurturing a more people-first and flexible environment that employees want to work in. Creating this culture not only appeases the demands of today’s talent but gives organisations access to new talent routes. This includes working with talent on-demand so that their workforces can be scaled up and down based on changing requirements – perfect for the public sector that is more beholden to strict budgets and timelines. Furthermore, in the advent of the sharing economy, it makes more sense than ever to share, as opposed to “own”, talent. Embracing this approach will give the public sector a competitive edge, even against the private sector.

Tactics like this also give the public sector access to talent they otherwise might not be able to work with, for example using freelancers who can apply their skills to any digital project. However, working with freelancers directly can add another layer of complexity – draining time and resources that the sector just doesn’t have. Working via a mediator like a private talent cloud platform takes this burden away and opens up a broad pool of expert talent. Public sector bodies like the Ministry of Justice are already using this kind of model to tap into on-demand talent, which has become a crucial part of its digital transformation strategy.

The challenge facing the public sector to deliver digital transformation in the wake of a pandemic that pushed citizen services to their limit is no mean feat, not least because our dependence on tech-enabled solutions has skyrocketed since COVID-19. And as demand from the UK population for faster public services continues to grow, it must find a way to become competitive in the race for the talent to deliver them.

This piece was written and provided by Callum Adamson, CEO and Co-founder, Distributed