The Civil Service has responded to criticism that its recruitment and retention policies must be reformed to keep talented staff.
In a study released by the Industrial Society, report author John Knell argues the Government must reinvent employment practices in the Civil Service – or risk losing valuable employees to the private sector.
The Civil Service should become more dynamic to promote innovation, outdated grading systems should be revamped, and staff should be given the opportunity to move within the service, he said.
In the report, Most Wanted – the Quiet Birth of the Free Worker, Knell draws a picture of a new group of employees who are able to manage their own careers and happy to move between companies in search of both financial reward and job satisfaction.
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A Cabinet Office spokeswoman said Cabinet Secretary and Head of the Home Civil Service Sir Richard Wilson had set out a programme of action in a report to the Prime Minister on civil service reform.
“In particular, he outlined a new drive to open up mobility between departments and to increase the number of secondments in and out of the service so that by 2005 65 per cent of senior civil servants should have had experience outside the Civil Service,” she said.
