Manchester City Council share their experience of managing the development of finance staff, while also attracting finance professionals from other sectors.
Growing your own finance talent
As befits a local authority that has been around since 1838, Manchester City Council takes a long-term view when it comes to workforce planning. As a large organisation with a broad range of opportunities for ambitious finance professionals, it has a successful history of recruiting staff into junior positions and then supporting them in their growth up through the organisation.
This ‘grow your own’ approach is evident in the council’s apprenticeship and graduate programmes, which attract school leavers and university graduates into a career in the public services. It also manifests itself in the work experience placements that the council offers to local schoolchildren and students.
In addition to attracting talented individuals into a career of public service, the council’s efforts in this regard are also helping to increase the diversity of its workforce, so that it is more representative of the communities that it serves. As these individuals rise up through the ranks, they bring their ideas, insights and perspectives to bear on a broader range of activities and decisions.
The council recognises, though, that this approach requires constant attention, so that it is able to maintain a steady pipeline of new recruits. It is better, the council finds, to recruit a smaller number of people each year, rather than a larger cohort every once in a while. This also means that the council needs to offer a suitable range of opportunities for these new recruits, so that they can gain exposure to different aspects of the council’s activities.
This focus on recruiting staff at junior levels is not, however, a panacea to all of the council’s financial recruitment challenges. With 40% of finance staff over the age of 50, and therefore potentially considering retirement at some point in the near future, succession planning is a source of concern. And the council is facing recruitment ‘pinch points’ at newly qualified level and to more senior posts.
Cuts to back-office services across local authorities have resulted in a smaller pool of potential applicants to experienced-hire positions. The council considers that the rationalisation of local government finance departments has led to fewer progression opportunities for ambitious professionals across the board. This has caused skilled finance staff to leave the sector for more plentiful opportunities elsewhere.
The council is keen to attract – or to attract back – applicants from other sectors, especially the commercial sector. However, it faces barriers in the lack of clearly defined finance career paths and the less-than-attractive levels of pay when compared to the private sector, as well as other public sector bodies such as the NHS. Even the bureaucratic-sounding nature of its finance job titles seem to turn off potential applicants from outside local government.
The council is committed to building on its successes and to creating an environment in which all finance professionals – whether ‘home grown’ or external hires – can develop their skills and expertise while gaining breadth and depth of experience across the council’s activities. By doing so, the council hopes to enhance the pool of candidates not just for its own future finance roles, but also for those across the wider local government sector.
More on financial recruitment
Find out more about our Financial Recruitment Project and read our case studies.
