Case Study - Collaboration – the key to success

Collaboration not competition is the key to successful public sector recruitment in Surrey and the ethos of Surrey Jobs, the UK’s first web based partnership between public sector employers in one location.

“Public services in Surrey were losing out against the private sector and people commuting into London”, said David Cooke, Head of Personnel at Mole Valley District Council and Chair of the Surrey Jobs Management Board.

“We were in an impossible situation competing with each other for talent.  When one organisation recruited it was invariably at the expense of another.  It was ridiculous.  This competition didn’t help improve service standards it just meant organisations having to pay more”.

To resolve the situation a number of public sector Chief Executives got together to work out what they could do to retain talent in the County and establish the public sector as an employer of choice.

Nigel Hannam, Programme Director for the Surrey E-Partnership and Head of E-Service at the County Council said: “E-recruitment on a partnership basis was obviously the way forward so we started talking to JGP about what we could do, while at the same time securing Government Pathfinder funding for the project”.

Surrey Jobs was the result.  A web based portal where prospective job seekers can click on a map of the County and search for vacancies by location and job type, as well as finding out about what different organisations do and the benefits of working in Surrey.

If interested candidates can apply on line and “once only” application forms mean that 90% of the information requested need only be filled in the first time.  Applicant details are also stored in talent pools, which all the organisations can access enabling them to proactively approach candidates sending them jobs by e-mail.

Now three years since the project was launched the results have been extremely impressive.

David said: “Surrey Jobs has been successful in so many ways.  The cost savings are huge, the time to hire has been dramatically reduced, our turnover rates have gone down from 10% to 8%, the lowest they have been anytime in the last ten years, and the overall image of the public sector in the area has improved.

“In addition it has been fantastic for organisational development.  For a small authority like Mole Valley talent can drained away as good staff leave to progress their careers elsewhere often out of Surrey and the public sector altogether.  Surrey Jobs gives talented people far more opportunities to move around within the area and sector preventing the loss of talent and organisational knowledge”.

The partnership has received much national attention including being cited in the Government’s Pay and Workforce Strategy.  It has also been short listed for a number of awards including Personnel Today and the SOCITM.

Nigel said: “The attention it has attracted has been good for the County and we are now looking at how to exploit this technology further by working with JGP to develop such things as skills and competency frameworks and career pathways across our the different member organisations”.

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