A View From The Public Sector

Key Responsibilities:

• Provision of operational HR support to managers across organisation
• Management of industrial relations and relationships with trade unions
• Development and delivery of workforce plan for County Council to address current and future workforce needs across all departments
• Manage organisational development agenda including structure and culture
• Manage communications with staff internally and deliver an external council newsletter to 315,000 households and businesses
• Delivery of learning and development to meet staff and managers skills and knowledge as required to deliver services

Why did you join the Public Sector?

Varied, interesting and challenging work agenda and contributing to an organisation which is a force for good rather than focussed on profit and shareholder returns.

What do you consider to be the most significant challenges in your organisation?

Improving services to meet customer expectations whilst at the same time reducing overheads, delivering efficiency savings and balancing the budget.

Specific challenges for my role is to change the age profile of the workforce to address the imminent retirement peak and loss of a significant proportion of the skilled workforce, and to deliver development to managers which helps them achieve in a constantly changing environment.

What words would you chose to describe the Public Sector?

Challenging, interesting, forward thinking, progressive, supportive

What are the benefits of a Public Sector Career?

• § Varied and interesting work.
• § Good opportunities and clear career pathways.
• § Good pay and benefits package including annual leave, flexi leave and pension scheme

What advice do you have for anyone considering a career within the sector?

The public sector is vast with the different employers (e.g. police, local government, nhs, probation etc) operating in different ways.  So anyone interested should find out more about the organisations which make up the public sector and narrow down their preference, then talk to the appropriate recruiting team to see what is available and whether visits, taster sessions or work experience can be organised.