Is talent more crucial in the public sector than the private sector? Lets look at some of the following arguements:

Complexities in the economic and social sectors are increasing exponentially – with every emerging technology, thousands of new areas are created, requiring more policies, more strategies, more regulations, more supervision, governance, programs, enforcement and implementation. How will the public service assemble the right team of people to manage these complexities 10 to 20 years from now?

Funding will play a crucial role in determining the design, strategy and policies of public sector hiring/employment. Cost constraints are already being translated into lesser new appointments, smaller pay rises and lesser promotions. This will result in a higher demand for more flexible and optimized hiring/employment schemes that come with less fixed cost structures and leverage on a wider talent base.

Third party help, though independent, are seen as non-strategic even in areas which are least risky. The liberal use of external consultation to address new and complex areas will not be sustainable as fees increase, areas to consult multiply rapidly and traditional consultation delivers more blueprints and strategy documents and less how-to-respond-and-solve guides at every level down the organization. How can the public sector build in-house capacity to address these limitations?

Plus, no other organisation hires people for such a wide spectrum of sectors, positions and deliverables as the public service does. It is very challenging to identify the right people for so many jobs across many sectors and levels of positions. Maybe this is the reason for that highly standardised and organised hiring procedures world over when it comes public sector recruitment. Paper qualifications have been used as the traditional benchmark for hiring the right public employees, and are still being extensively and sometimes, exclusively used for filling up positions. After all, it is an objective, fair and equitable method of allocating people to vacancies. Of course, a couple of interviews and an aptitude test were thrown in for good measure along with a strict post-selection training schedule that has to be adhered to by every new recruit.

But are these methods of hiring sufficient? Do they bring in the right people with the right competencies, skill sets, innovative capabilities and passion to meet the challenges and deliver the best within their scope of work or is it time for more dynamic and highly adaptive hiring schemes? ...

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