The National Audit Office’s report on the methods used for recruitment by the Civil Service concluded that it is far too slow and costly to continue in its current way. The government claim they have the answer by using certain technology, they can improve recruitment and save as much as £35 million.
The NAO found that a typical rate of recruitment for a civil servant was 16 weeks and the internal costs ranged from £556 to £1,921 per employee. By improving their method of recruitment they could reduce their expenses by 68%. They also noticed that after spending the time and money recruiting and training civil servants that the retention of their personnel is poor with between 14% and 52% leaving within the first year of employment.
The shadow Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude remarked that “It’s time to open up Whitehall’s closed job shop. Making greater use of the internet will save money, expose unnecessary bureaucracy and ensure healthy competition in the job market.”
The use of the internet and even a low cost recruitment agency to making these saving. A Cabinet Office spokesperson stated “our recruitment costs are already in line with the private sector average and we are working to reduce them further, for example by using the internet to make our practices more effective and efficient.”
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