What does next generation/civil service HR mean for civil servants

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What does next generation/civil service HR mean for civil servants

What does next generation civil service human Resources mean for civil servants?

All civil servants rely on their colleagues in HR and learning to ensure that they are given the support they need to do their job and opportunities to develop their skills. Departments and agencies range from the small to the very large with a variety of locations, structures and workplaces.

Local HR services are better placed to understand the nature of the business and the needs of employees carrying out specific types of work. Whilst PCS supports consistent practices across all departments, we are concerned that NGHR/CSHR may impair HR’s ability to respond quickly to local needs and provide good access to specialist support for managers and staff. This will be compounded by the drive towards remote and on-line shared services.

Civil Service Learning will take responsibility for commissioning generic learning products from external suppliers and developing a range of “blended” provision. It will also co-ordinate learning that falls under the civil service professions. Departments will remain responsible for providing business specific training (such as tax qualifications).

Whilst the Professional Skills for Government framework will continue to be used and developed, along with specific professional capability and qualification frameworks, the emphasis will be on online learning. The government decided in 2010 not to seek to renew the licence of its sector skills council Government Skills. At a time when skills renewal is especially important there is a risk that the progress made in recent years will be undermined and that civil servants will find it harder to access learning opportunities.

NGHR/CSHR Resourcing will provide a centralised service for recruitment, vacancy filling and redeployment. One cross-government e-recruitment system and a central applicant/candidate database should give civil servants a better way of finding job opportunities and a less time-consuming means to apply for them. One benefit of the system is the surplus database which will ensure that information is better communicated across departments, and will be put in place ahead of the roll out of the rest of the service. The Resourcing team and the Cabinet Office have assured PCS that the e-recruitment system aligns with the Protocol and Vacancy-filling agreements that operate across the civil service.

The Employee Policy expert centre will focus on rationalising and standardising HR policies and creating a definitive source of policy information. Working with the “strategic centre” at the Cabinet Office, it will become a central focus for national consultation on terms and conditions in a number of key areas.

Expert centres for equality and diversity and for shared services could assist in improving practice in these areas, although current cuts in resources and funding are likely to limit their potential effectiveness. The impact on HR policy, terms and conditions and employment practices remains to be seen but there is a danger that management will seek to gear rationalisation towards lower rather than higher standards.