What are the incentives for people to cross over to the public sector?

A recent report sponsored by the New Local Government Network suggested that there is a looming crises in local government as a third of the workforce are set to retire over the next ten years, with authorities set to lose significantly higher proportions of senior managers.

This has a number of implications for public sector organisations as a whole. In particular, public sector organisations need to widen their talent pools and attract people from other sectors in order to ensure a more rounded pipeline of people for top team succession.

How to attract this talent is a major challenge for the public sector. How important are the differences in financial reward? Are public sector organisations doing enough to try and recruit senior talent? Are there issues of perception that public sector organisations should be doing more to address to attract the best people?

There are 14 comments for this topic. You can leave your own comments at the bottom of this page.

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On the reward front there aren't really sufficient incentives as pay lags behind the private sector. The basic pay is augmented with a reasonable package, but pension benefits are not going to attract that many people. The public service motive can drive some people - i.e. the attraction of working for the public good rather than to line the pockets of shareholders - but when it comes down to it, are people really going to move for a pay cut?

Good people tend to want interesting and challenging jobs that they are given responsibility for delivering on and are allowed to get on with. There is plenty of scope for this in the public sector, but I wonder whether people are actually aware of this. Perceptions may be a problem here - does the public sector promote itself properly?

On Peter's point - I don't think the public sector does promote itself well, but then "the public sector" doesn't exist as an entity, and there are no champions for it: only parts of it. there is an enormous legacy effect still form the low regard of public sector in the 1980s. Some of the most inspiring leaders in the UK today work in the public sector - but they tend to talk to public sector audiences, not to the private sector.

On Paul's point, people repeatedly move to pay cuts to work in the public sector and take even bigger pay cuts to work for charities. It happens every day. At Veredus we have very many examples of this. Perhaps we should start talking about the premium you have to pay people to get them to work in the private sector rather than the cut they have to take to work in the public?

There are two main drivers here: salary differentials and cultural factors in management and exec positions.

It is difficult to cross from private to public as the penalties economically, culturally and evolutionarily are considerable. It will require a major culture change within the public sector to encourage the best private talent and it is not just a salary issue. I have always been reluctant to make the move as the entrepreneurial attractions of the private sector cannot be met within the public sector. Only at the most senior levels when we speak about exec chairmanships or specific expertise transfer is this likely to occur.

The answer in my opinion lies in greater extensions of public private partnerships and through this coupling there is greater knowledge transfer, skill set transfer, collaboration, joint initiatives and far greater integration between these sectors.

I'd agree that the entrepeneurial space may be limited, however, the salary differentials aren't as bad as people may think if you take the entire renumeration package into account. Many public sector roles are now highly paid and they also come with other benefits such as final salary pensions schemes which are not so available in the private sector.

Overall I would suggest it is a cultural issue more than a financial one.

I made a switch from private to public sector about 7 years ago (and back into private sector again two years ago). For the first switch I took a 25% cut in total package although the cash-heavy nature of the public sector package meant that I felt a bit better off because the bottom right hand corner of the payslip was a bit bigger.

The cultural issue was a big one. As I've alluded to elsewhere the decision-making process is completely different, much more consultative and formalised. A result of that is that you have to be happy progressing a large number of initiatives simultaneously rather than being able to expedite one or two things very very quickly.

The degree of (public) accountability in the public sector is very much higher than in the private sector. That won't appeal to everyone.

All that said the opportunity to make a tangible difference to peoples' lives is a very attractive proposition.

I am very keen to move over from the Private Sector into Public service, and obviously salary offers are not my main driver for this. Disregarding money, employment packages in the Public Sector can be very attractive, and has been said above, the public service motive is a strong one. Conversely, many people I have spoken to have commented that I would find it frustrating, and whilst many bodies within the Public Sector market themselves as being "dynamic & commercially oriented", it is clear that the sector as a whole still has a very long way to go to reach that holy grail. At the same time, whilst I have no concrete evidence to back up my impression, I do feel that my private sector/commercial background is a negative force to prospective employers in the Public Sector - perhaps the cultural differences are a greater consideration to the Public Sector than they are perceived to be by Private Sector individuals like me?!

Paddy - it clearly depends on the particular organisation and what it (thinks it) needs. If the job description is specifying public sector experience or experience that can only be gained there then they seem to be declaring their hand. Assuming that isn't the case then here are some indicators of how serious the organisation is about really getting someone from the private sector:

- are they advertising and if so where? Sunday Times, or commercial trade press (eg Marketing say) is a good indication they're serious
- are they using consultants and doing search? (More credible if they are)
- are they explicitly using private sector language, and explicitly mentioning examples of backgrounds that would work for them?

If you want a more specific conversation about you as an individual please call me at Veredus on 020 7932 4267

This is a fundamental issue for those considering a switch from private to public sectors, and I agree that there are now probably fewer differentials in overall package especially given the massive spending boosts from New Labour over recent years.

The bigger hurdle in my opinion is the perception of public sector culture. I don't believe that a consultative approach, nor a multi-layered role or project-based position, is any different from that expected in most senior private sector positions. It seems to be to be more about the expectation of obstacles from government initiatives; self-serving staff with less interest in organisational objectives; and bureaucratic meddling where the means seem to be the objectives...

Still, this from someone on the outside who perhaps should stay there...

I've spent all my life in various roles in the not-for-profit sector. Generally people work in this sector through choice and are as far removed from self-serving as you can get. The commitment from staff to deliver the organisation's aims has been overwhelming wherever I've worked because they can see its making a real difference to people's lives. That makes for a great atmosphere to work in. We don't get huge bonuses, but the salaries are reasonable and comparable to the private sector I think.
Far from being an obstacle to recruitment, I have noticed an increasing trend that not-for-profit organisations are looking to recruit people from the private sector to "bring commercial experience in". I find this slightly worrying - its another unfair perception of the public sector that these skills are only to be found in the private sector.

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