Digital and data roles are known to be difficult to fill, not only in government but in the wider sector, due to a shortage of skills and high demand. For MHCLG Digital, we found that longer and more traditional recruitment methods were not attracting the people we needed at the pace we required.
In this blog post, we share how our department applied digital thinking, and took bold, innovative steps to overcome the challenges associated with digital and data resourcing, and improve the quality, diversity and speed of hiring specialists into our team. And how this has supported our departmental goals and the government objectives to build digital skills at scale.
Adopting a digital, user-centred approach to recruitment
An initial discovery exercise helped our digital and data recruitment team identify pain points and areas for improvement across the attraction and recruitment process, spanning speed of hiring, the quality and quantity of applicants, and candidate experience.
These insights laid the foundation to develop user-centred solutions in order to:
- fulfil urgent resourcing needs impacting delivery of key programmes and causing heavy reliance on external resources
- significantly reduce time to hire in line with government objectives
- improve diversity of our digital and data teams – not only ethnic or gender diversity but also diversity of geographies and industry backgrounds
- increase reach to technical talent amid market scarcity
- improve the candidate experience and retain people throughout the process
What we did
We designed, tested and iterated a range of solutions, using best practice and working in collaboration with our HR colleagues. From in-house digital recruitment panel training which upskilled over 100 digital and data colleagues, supporting them in their role as hiring managers and making hiring simpler and faster as well as the candidate experience better, to the ongoing development of an accessible library of online job descriptions aligned with the Government Digital and Data Profession Capability Framework, acting as consistent templates for recruitment and supporting workforce data and career progression.
A new type of recruitment events: Digital Recruitment Days
Our most significant initiative was to design a new type of innovative face-to-face recruitment and assessment events called Digital Recruitment Days. We held the pilot in Wolverhampton in late 2023, which was followed by events in Leeds, Darlington and Manchester in 2024, expanding our reach outside London. We also piloted a virtual format in spring 2024.
Meet us, connect, get hired
The unique conference-style format gave the opportunity for talent to meet and connect with colleagues working in their specialist field, hear from and ask questions to our digital leaders, including our Chief Digital Officer and Chief Technology Officer, learn more about MHCLG and gather employment information from our HR colleagues.
Participants also went through a compressed interview and assessment process with subject matter experts from our teams. Job offers were made in the days immediately following the event, followed by improved and speedy onboarding.
The events were supported by a targeted advertising campaign reaching out to under-represented groups, distinctive employer brand and varied engagement on the day to ensure attendees were able to get an authentic feel of the work environment and culture.
We moved away from a behaviour-based approach to test technical skills, experience and ability. Some technical skills were tested using a bespoke practical coding exercise to allow candidates to demonstrate their skills.
We had to ensure the department was ready to deploy the new approach, from adapted interview techniques to objective setting and enhanced probation reviews. We did this through a range of learning interventions. It was crucial for teams to conduct collective post-event retrospectives to help iterate and improve the next one.
Outcomes: what we achieved
Across 6 events, we were able to:
- Hire more than 90 new colleagues across 16 in-demand digital and data roles
- Engage with more than 430 attendees, nearly 170 of whom were deemed appointable
- Achieve a high retention rate of nearly 90% to date
- Improve our recruitment diversity metrics
- Significantly decrease time to hire and time to fill in line with digital and data government imperatives
- Deliver efficiencies and financial savings in terms of cost to hire, productivity and replacing external resources at speed
We had a high turnout of experienced professionals from diverse backgrounds and geographies reflecting the broad appeal of the opportunities presented, which also contributed to hiring successfully for our regional offices. The format was particularly attractive to private sector professionals, who were able to get an immediate feel and ask questions about working in the Civil Service.
What participants have said
"The Digital Recruitment Day experience made me want to start immediately." – User Researcher and new colleague, Darlington
"The assessment centre was a unique format. It offered a nice change to the typical interview process." – Cloud Solutions Engineer and new colleague, Leeds
"The Digital Recruitment Day was the best recruitment experience I ever had. The format was different, made me feel at ease and confident to discuss my experience and aspirations with people who work in my field whilst getting a good idea of the organisation from their leader." – Delivery Manager and new colleague, Manchester
"The passion was brought through. You could tell that staff were happy and that there is a big focus on user-centred approaches." – Live Service Manager and new colleague, Wolverhampton
"I really enjoyed seeing how the recruitment process was tweaked and improved between the events in the spirit of good agile delivery." – Hiring Manager and Senior Product Manager, Funding Service team
Find out more
This experience has taught us a lot. It has enhanced collaboration between teams and empowered us to innovate in order to generate positive outcomes for the department and make a difference for the communities we serve.
If you have questions or would like to discuss how our experience could be useful to your department, please contact me or my team at digitaldatajobs@communities.gov.uk.
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