Children’s Services Told ‘Don’t Delegate Recruitment’

Public sector recruitment is too often left in the hands of inexperienced human resources staff or narrowly focused recruitment consultants, a leading recruitment consultant said today.

Speaking at the National Children’s Services Commissioning Conference in London Hamish Davidson, chairman of recruitment consultancy Rockpools, told children’s services workers that they should involve themselves personally in the process.

“Recruitment, even for very senior posts, tends to be undertaken by very junior HR staff, person specs tend to be over-detailed, tend to be heavily rigid and formulaic, and tend to rely heavily on the
possession of a specific qualification,” he said.

He added that looking for a specialist who “ticks all the boxes” could lead to “best in class” candidates with a track record in leading companies losing out to apparently professionally qualified but less able people. “As a result, public sector is stuffed full of these so called ‘qualified’ experts,” he said.

“Never let go of the hiring process,” he told children’s services workers at the Guardian-backed event. “Don’t delegate and own your own decisions.”

He advised directors who could carry operations, had strong financial
skills and the resolution to stay the course. “You don’t want to go
looking for ‘commissioning experts’,” said Davidson. “You just want
to go looking for bright leaders.”

“Never let go of the hiring process,” he told the Guardian-backed event. “Don’t delegate and own your own decisions.”

He advised directors not simply to look for candidates who “tick all the boxes” but who could carry operations, had strong financial skills and the resolution to stay the course.

“You don’t want to go looking for ‘commissioning experts’,” said Davidson. “You just want to go looking for bright leaders.”

He also warned against delegating the verification of references.

“I’m sure many of you in this room would consider giving a good reference to someone you wanted to get rid of,” he said. “Be aware that other people will also be willing to do that.”

He also advised directors not simply to look for candidates who “tick all the boxes”, and to seek out “leaders not experts” who could carry operations, had strong financial skills and the resolution to stay the course.

He said his clients in the public sector were simply looking for people “who get things done”, who had a history of past delivery and demonstrated pace and passion.

He urged delegates to value confidentiality in the recruitment process, hire for success not failure and not to overlook the potential of internal candidates. He told them to sell their vacant positions not with a complicated job specification but by emphasising the concepts and values of the job.

Services directors should not be put off by skills gaps, which can be addressed, he said. Instead they should be wary of candidates who demonstrated key competencies but did not share the values of the organisation.

“Skills gaps can be addressed,” he said. “You can’t deal with value gaps.”