Local Government Recruitment and Retention Project
Over the last year SOLGM has been undertaking a project on recruitment and retention of staff in local government. It was concern expressed by Chief Executives of the growing problems faced in recruiting and retaining people with the necessary skill sets required in the sector which led to SOLGM undertaking the project. To download a copy of the research report written as part of this project >>>>
Briefly, the Research report identified that:
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key critical skills and labour shortages are prevalent across local authorities. Key shortage areas being: building control, civil engineering, IT specialists, policy analysts, environmental consents
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other critical knowledge shortage areas are: asset management, change management, strategic thinking, and people management skills
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contributing factors to local government skill shortages are increasing labour market competition for skilled employees, and the negative public perception of local government (tertiary/secondary students, etc) as an employing sector
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the impact of skill shortages cause delays in projects approvals, etc, which also exacerbates negative public perceptions of the sector,
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the current skill shortages and subsequent recruitment and retention difficulties experienced by local government are likely to increase over time
Following consultation with Chief Executives, the next stage of the project will involve:
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the development of a national ‘umbrella’ brand for the local government sector as an attractive industry to work and develop a career in and the marketing of that brand. Associated with this will be the development of:
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Local Government Careers resources for tertiary students, secondary schools and migrants.
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a careers ‘toolkit’ for use at careers expos, etc
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a focus on the current and future predicted key skill and knowledge sets shortages identified in the research report for sector training initiatives and in identifying appropriate training providers and developing a ‘good practice’ model for education and training
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the examination of the feasibility of a Graduate Recruitment programme including national and regional components
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the development of links with the tertiary and secondary school sectors so that local government is involved in individual university, polytech, and secondary school career events, and also national and international career expo events.
The current Strategic Plan can be downloaded here
Antony Crane has been appointed to manage the Recruitment and Retention Project. If you have any questions relating to the project please contact Antony,
acrane@solgm.org.nz
phone 04 494 6259.