Recruitment and retention resource – Skill shortage areas

Does your council have specific recruitment adverts or campaigns for a career in your skill shortage areas? This could be an opportunity to promote the profession and engage with experienced professionals. Your recruitment campaign could be specific to your skill shortage areas or as part of wider engagement. 

The LGA has developed a national recruitment campaign aimed at attracting new talent into the sector and highlighting the benefits of a career in local government, which could support you in raising awareness of opportunities. 

A campaign toolkit has been provided for councils to adopt locally, including materials such as social media assets, posters and banners to enhance and complement existing local recruitment activity. 

It may be useful to promote the experiences and thoughts of existing staff as a means of engaging potential applicants. Employee quotes, demonstrating their career progression and promoting workplace benefits could be a beneficial way to improve recruitment rates. It can also positively engage current staff.

Combined recruitment campaigns

Coordinating recruitment campaigns within your region or local councils could be an opportunity increasing awareness of careers in local government. Reaching a wider audience and geographical area could support with increasing applications. This could be focused on skill shortage career paths such as building control, social care or Digital.

Current employees

Current employees may have their own networks and could promote vacancies to fellow professionals. An employee referral reward system may be a useful mechanism to fill vacancies rather than using external agencies.

Reviewing recruitment statistics can help shape your recruitment plan. What days of the week are the best to advertise a job? What period of the year do you have success in filling vacancies? 

How do you engage your target audience? Beyond posting jobs, does your council/department have an excellent social media presence? Which platforms do you use and had success in promoting vacancies? Are you tailoring your social media presence for the audience you are trying to reach? 

Reducing your reliance on agency staff is important for creating a stable workforce and reducing spend. A coordinated approach to engage temp/agency staff to move into permanent employment may support in filling vacancies. Are you selling the true benefits of permanent employment – annual leave, flexible working, TOIL, pension, career development? Work with your directorates to understand their current reliance and spend on agency staff, and how this can be reduced. A myth busting exercise might be an opportunity to promote the benefits of having a permanent contract. 

For some positions you may want to consider reviewing the job titles and descriptions. Is the job title representative of the level? Is the job description a good outline of the purpose of the role? What qualifications or experience are necessary vs ‘nice to have’. It could be beneficial to review job descriptions in line with similar roles at other organisations.

An effective interview process can have a positive impact on recruiting to your skill shortage areas. If the process is long and not ‘applicant friendly’, it could deter candidates from applying or continuing with their application. You may want to review which parts of the application process are necessary and how to improve efficiency for the applicant and hiring manager. Some organisations are exploring supplying the interview questions to candidates prior to the interview day. 

The LGA has worked with the Better Hiring Institute to develop a Better hiring toolkit

A one stop shop for recruitment could allow all queries to come through to one central point and reduce the amount of time applicants wait for a response. A designated role or person responsible for enquires may speed up processes and engage applicants. A designated individual could have the responsibility for advertising vacancies and referrals while creating a consistent approach. 

Reviewing existing skillsets and encouraging movement within the council could reduce losing talent. Training and development may be needed at the beginning, so a coordinated plan will be required. This could be an opportunity to free up resource for existing employees and allow them to focus on high priority projects/tasks. 

Tailored recruitment campaigns to former armed forces personnel, parents/guardians returning to work or underrepresented groups could be a means of filling vacancies and creating a more diverse workforce and attract varied skills. 

There are many benefits for working in local government, and at times, not always made aware to all applicants. It could be fruitful to promote the wider benefits of working in local government.

Having an effective workforce plan/succession plan is important for recruiting and retaining staff. Conducting regular succession planning could be used as an opportunity to identify and develop potential successors for key roles. You can find out more information on the LGA’s workforce planning programme, including information the workforce planning network.

As part of your recruitment strategy, it will be important to create some actions on how you can encourage former workers back into the sector whether that is those who have retired or left local authorities for other reasons. Look at opportunities to engage talent into your skill shortage areas.

It may be beneficial to offer to pay membership fees for employees, or offer financial incentives paid on appointment and/or after a certain length of service.

During busy periods or when additional resource is required, you may want to offer part-time project work to encourage retirees to lead or support with specific projects.

Not all young people will be aware of the vast careers in local government and what is involved day to day. Video content or articles could be an opportunity to showcase the work local government employees do, and demonstrate the varied career paths that are available.

Leading presentations to first and final year students is an opportunity to engage students with career paths within local government. Informal Q&A sessions could be used to further engage students. It could be beneficial to work with other local councils to promote different career paths.

Some university students may be looking to secure a year placement as part of their degree. Creating placement or internship opportunities could create a candidate pipeline and build experience into sector.

Students in schools and colleges are often looking to secure work experience. A robust and supportive work experience programme could engage the future workforce.

The Local Government Graduate Programme is the LGA’s flagship national graduate programme for local government. For over 20 years, the programme has been offering a unique opportunity to place high quality graduates in councils, helping them to meet strategic goals and build a pipeline of future talent.

Every year thousands of graduates across the country apply to Impact to kickstart their career in local government. Applicants undergo a rigorous, multi-stage assessment process before the highest calibre candidates are matched with councils. Graduates complete a number of placements across service areas within their council, while also undertaking a bespoke leadership and management programme including a CMI-accredited Level 7 qualification.

Further information about Impact: the local government graduate programme

Impact Finance is specialised stream within Impact, designed for graduates who want to pursue a career in public finance. It offers a unique and tailored development pathway into local government and other public services for aspiring finance professionals.

The four-year programme is geared towards developing graduates with a passion for finance and communities into future local government and public sector leaders, helping them gain practical work experience while studying for the CIPFA Level 7 Apprenticeship. The programme is currently delivered in London, with plans to roll out nationally in future.

Further information about Impact Finance

Pathways to Planning is a graduate recruitment programme which offers councils an affordable and reliable way to attract and retain new planners.

Harnessing the Local Government Association’s extensive experience recruiting graduates to work in the public sector, Pathways to Planning promotes planning as a career to a diverse audience of university graduates who are interested in working in the public sector. It then uses a robust assessment process to select those with the competency and commitment to become local government planners. Councils conduct interviews and select their preferred graduate(s) to employ.

Pathways to Planning graduate planners will work full-time for the council while also studying on an RTPI-accredited master’s degree in planning to rapidly upskill them. The programme also offers additional learning, development and networking opportunities to its graduate planners, along with ongoing support for councils who take part.

While councils are responsible for paying a minimum salary of £24,000 to their graduate planner, all other programme costs are covered: there is no charge for the marketing or recruitment processes, and the programme offers a minimum £5,000 bursary which can be used to support a Chartered Town Planner apprenticeship or two year part-time master’s degree in planning. 

For more information, councils can visit the Pathways to Planning information for councils or email [email protected]

Your local college or university may welcome guest lectures and look to bring in sector leads. This could be a great opportunity to give real life examples that are relevant to the varied careers in local government. The council could also set real life projects as part of student’s courses.

Open days are an opportunity for those still in education to gain an insight into the working world and could be a useful means of promoting the everyday activities of your skill shortage professions.

Schools are continuing to engage with employers so it could be fruitful to form a plan on what activities could be carried out to engage young people with council careers.

Open days and key dates

You could use open days and key dates such as GCSE, A Levels and T Levels result day as an opportunity to promote council careers. National apprenticeship week is another avenue to promote careers in local government. 

The LGA has developed resources to support council's role as Corporate Parent that focuses on supporting Care Leavers, and encouraging more councils to offer training opportunities. 

Effective workforce planning is required to understand your short term and long-term vacancies. It is also an opportunity to review what training may be required to equip staff with the skills to deliver the work. Find out more about the LGA’s workforce planning offer

It may be beneficial to offer financial support to students undertaking relative degrees, or offer additional funds to incentivise working at the council.

Maximising the use of your apprenticeship levy can help enhance the skills of existing staff and create entry level routes. Find further information on the LGA’s support offer

Working with the sector could give the opportunity to form partnerships with external stakeholders as a way of promoting careers such as with The Careers and Enterprise Company. 

Reviewing the type and level of work colleagues are undertaking may be useful when reviewing caseloads. Are systems and technology supporting colleagues to work efficiently and can admin support take onboard some routine tasks to relieve pressures? Teams may want to review caseloads and consider the number of cases and the complexity.

Investing in talent could be an opportunity to retain, develop and create future leaders. Formal, such as qualifications, training or online courses could be used as a mean of develop the skills and knowledge of employees. Councils could use informal learning activities such as mentoring, reverse mentoring or allocating time for employees to choose their own development. Wider ideas could include job shadowing, internal work experience or talks. Creating a culture of continuous learning could be beneficial in retaining talent and creating an agile and productive workforce. Find information on our managerial leadership development opportunities

Under 25-year-olds make up only 4.6 per cent of the current workforce in local government, which could impact on the skills to deliver services in the future. Therefore, working with young people or those who are early on in their careers is an important step to retaining talents. Your council may want to consider introducing an early careers/young employee network. The LGA has developed resources to support in forming an early careers network

It is important to retain skills and knowledge especially when attrition occurs. Engaging experienced or senior members of staff, with junior or aspiring leaders can be a beneficial means of retaining and developing talent. As a council, directorate and team you may want to consider creating a mentoring programme that supports with retention and develops skills inhouse.

Offering career breaks as an option to employees rather than them leaving could be a useful way of retaining staff.

Introducing or reviewing your hybrid/flexible working policies may improve work-life balance amongst employees and positively impact recruitment and retention. A one size fits all approach may not benefit all, as not all colleagues may welcome home working. Further information on hybrid/flexible working

Secondments could be used to retain staff within the sector, and support in recruiting and retaining talent. These could help employees to develop their knowledge and strengthen skills. Partnering with other councils or the private sector could support in developing secondment opportunities.

Sickness and absence can impact employees and councils and result in pressures with workload. You may want to review and address the reasons for sickness and absence and work with your Human resources team, health and wellbeing and employees to address the causes.

Does your organisational structures promote and enable career progression? Are employees clear on the routes they can take to advance their career, or does it result in them leaving the organisation to achieve this? The LGA’s organisational design offer can support in reviewing your directorates structures. Career pathways could be beneficial for internal progression, not just for staying in one team, but utilising their skills and knowledge in different teams/directorates.

Has your council reviewed career grades for your hard-to-fill vacancies? Torbay Council implemented career grades which made a difference and Folkestone & Hythe DC has created a ‘grow your own’ strategy with career grades.

Developing the skills of line managers is important to equip them with the skills to support employees. Line managers have an important role in build relationships, address challenges and retain staff. You may want to consider what support and training you give to line managers. The Boosting middle leaders programme brings together councillors and officers.

Temperature checks are a useful mechanism in understanding how your employees are feeling. If there are issues, you will want to know, so you can actively respond to these.

Factors that can have an impact on whether an employee feels valued include:

• a lack of team meetings/meeting overload
• negative culture
• poor access to health and wellbeing
• limited or no progression
• a feeling of being overwhelmed.

At times there may be more of a focus on recruiting new staff to the organisation, which may neglect celebrating the work current colleagues are doing. It could be useful to review how you recognise the work of current employees. Would it be beneficial to have ‘shout outs’ where you highlight the great work teams/colleagues are leading on, or are there other ways you can do this? Awards or other types of celebrations could be used to celebrate the work employees do.

It may be beneficial to understand why colleagues are working at the council and the reasons for staying. Using focus groups to engage staff and understand what is keeping them in the council could be used as recruitment purposes. It may also allow teams to continue the best practice taken from this.

Working with your trade unions and holding regular meetings between management and staff representatives may be beneficial in identifying challenges, issues and addressing these. It could be beneficial to focus meetings on recruitment and retention, and what packages of care may be required to retain staff.

Creating a local or national network for councils could create a space to share best practice on improving recruitment and retention. Networks could allow councils to work together to resolve the challenges the sector faces, rather than doing this individually.

Identifying the reasons why employees are leaving is an important approach to improve retention rates. Further information on exit interviews can be found in the LGA’s Recruitment and retention best practice