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Recruitment of Under-Represented Groups into the Senior Civil Service

Hooker H, Jagger N, Baldwin S
Research Report DWPRR 512, Department for Work and Pensions, June 2008

a study commissioned by the Department for Work and Pensions

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) commissioned the Institute for Employment Studies (IES) to explore the attitudes and job search behaviours of the senior managers who are from under-represented groups, including women, those with a long-term health condition or disability, and those from ethnic minorities. The main purpose of the project is to provide detailed information on the job search behaviours and perceptions of senior potential candidates from the under-represented groups so that DWP are more able to target these groups more effectively when recruiting for senior posts within the organisation.

Current employment and career prospects

There were significant variations across different groups of managers in their responses to which factors had been more influential when deciding to join their current organisation:

• Career prospects and promotion opportunities, challenge of the job and the reputation of the organisation were more influential for male managers, while flexibility and opportunities for flexible working, location and reasonable travel time to work were more important for female managers.
• While job security was more important for those with dependent children, location of the organisation was more important for managers with a long-term disability.
• White managers were more likely to mention that the challenge of the job had influenced them, whereas flexibility and opportunities for flexible working, location, reasonable travel time to work, and the prospect of being part of a culturally mixed workforce were more influential for managers from other ethnic backgrounds.
• The influential factors for managers who had decided to join the civil service were the location of the organisation and flexibility and opportunities for flexible working.

Job search behaviours

Current job search activities of senior potential managers

The findings of NORAS data indicated that as many as six in ten (59 per cent) senior managers were actively looking for a new managerial position at the time of their data collection, which was between September and November 2006. The results of the survey data were consistent with that of NORAS; 56 per cent of the survey managers reported that they were actively seeking a more senior managerial position.

• Over two-thirds of managers (67 per cent) reported that they regularly browsed relevant job adverts; the same proportion indicated that they were happy with their current position but would consider a job move if ‘the right offer’ came along.
• Almost three in ten managers were registered with a recruitment consultant and over four in ten said they would look for a new position if personal circumstances changed.
• Only one in three stated that they had no plans to move on at the present time.

Job search methods used by those from under-represented groups

The results showed the following significant differences in terms of job search methods used to apply for senior roles:

• While female managers were more likely to say they would look at press and online adverts, male managers were more likely to say they would work with head-hunters if they were looking for a new job.
• Managers with a disability were more likely than non-disabled managers to report that they would use professional associations.
• Black and Asian managers were more likely than those from white and mixed backgrounds to report that they would use online job searches. Black managers were most likely to say they would look at press and online adverts, as well as using professional associations and interim work. This table also indicates that online job adverts are on a par with press adverts for the potential candidates from ethnic minority groups.

Taken together, the use of online searches and online advertising were among the top three type of job search methods (after press advertising) when looking for jobs. However, only around one in ten reported that they had found their current employment through online job searches or online advertising. The factors explaining the discrepancy between the two sets of findings were the age and length of tenure of the survey managers.

Attitudes towards working in the civil service

When managers were asked to indicate how far they agreed or disagreed that they would consider working in five different organisations, the civil service and local government were found to be at the bottom of the list. The findings indicated that white managers were least likely to consider working in the civil service or in local government, with black and Asian managers being the mostly likely groups to consider working in the civil service.

There were significant differences between the following groups of managers:

• Female managers were more likely than male managers to say they would consider working in the civil service, whereas male managers were most likely to say they would consider working in large corporate organisations.
• Those with a disability were also more likely than non-disabled managers to consider working in the civil service or in local government.
• Managers who were already working in the civil service were the most likely sectoral group to say they would consider the civil service.

Differences in the attractiveness of senior roles in the civil service

Across the survey as a whole a high proportion of managers (78 per cent) held the view that the working environment within the civil service was too bureaucratic, and over two-thirds (69 per cent) thought it was overly hierarchical. However, over half of all managers (56 per cent) perceived the civil service as having a cultural environment where diversity issues were taken seriously, and almost as many (51 per cent) thought men and women had the same chance of doing well within the civil service. Only around three in ten (29 per cent) agreed that career progression was uneven for everyone.

On the negative side, over half (51 per cent) of all managers saw the civil service as an impersonal place to work and only nine per cent thought that it had a creative working environment. There were differences between the following groups of managers:

• Females were more likely than males to perceive the civil service as taking diversity issues seriously, and as offering good career prospects, but they were also more likely to think that the civil service had a highly pressurised environment and that access to progression was unequal among different groups.
• Males were more likely to perceive the civil service as having a working environment where men and women had the same chance of doing well. They were also more likely to agree that the civil service was an impersonal place to work.
• White managers were more likely to think that the civil service was too bureaucratic, overly hierarchical and an impersonal place to work. However, they were also more likely to think that the civil service would take diversity issues seriously and that men and women had the same chance of doing well within the civil service.
• Managers from other ethnic groups were more likely to agree that access to career progression was unequal for different groups in the civil service.
• Non-disabled managers were more likely than those with a disability to perceive the civil service as offering a supportive environment and having an organisational culture where men and women had the same chance of doing well.
• Those with a disability were more likely than non-disabled managers to think that the civil service offered good career prospects, but it was an impersonal place to work, had a highly pressurised environment, and access to career progression was not equal for all within its culture.

Conclusions

The profile of the achieved sample of the attitude survey that was carried out as part of this research project showed that it broadly represented the actual profile of the managerial population within the 2001 Census data for corporate managers in public administration. The data indicate that ethnic minority managers and women are clearly under-represented in more senior managerial roles, although the results do not seem to be conclusive on the profile of those with a long-term health condition or disability. Part of the difficulty with disability status is that data sources use different definitions of ‘disability’, although most ask about whether or not individuals have a registered disability. This attitude survey relied on managers’ own definitions as to whether or not they had a long-term health condition or disability that affected their day-to-day living. After methodological inconsistencies are taken into consideration, the survey data provided a representative sample of managers with a disability, which was used with confidence to draw conclusions from.

In order to put the results of the attitude survey into a contextual background, the 2001 Census data was used to construct statistical models to examine what factors influenced someone becoming a corporate manager or a corporate manager within public administration. Overall, the findings of the first model displayed that being male, a graduate, white, a commuter, without children, without caring responsibilities and aged 45 and above makes one significantly more likely to be a corporate manager, and in that order. The second model with the relevant data for becoming a corporate manager within public administration showed similar findings to the first model, in that being female, non-white, not commuting, with dependent children and care responsibilities makes one significantly less likely to be a corporate manager within public administration, and in that order.

Taken altogether, the findings of the census data indicate that there seems to be a historical bias towards women and those from ethnic minorities which puts them in a disadvantaged position within the managerial population of public administration organisations in general. The detailed analyses of the survey data provided some additional information on various aspects of perceived employment and career prospects of managers across the survey, and also between different groups of managers within the data. The results of the sub-group analyses indicated significant variations between groups of managers in terms of attitudes, job search behaviours and personal ambitions. These findings will offer some practical explanations for the existing trends within the recruitment field when targeting certain managerial groups. For example, the findings confirm that using online advertising as a recruitment strategy to attract senior potential candidates from minority ethnic groups would be as effective as it would with white candidates.

Furthermore, the results of the survey showed that potential managers from under-represented groups (women, those with a disability, and those from ethnic minorities) were more likely to consider working in the civil service. This finding indicates that the availability of potential candidates may not be the main issue when dealing with recruitment from under-represented groups. It may be more about how to change the perceptions about certain aspects of the working culture within the civil service. The findings displayed higher proportions of managers from under-represented groups perceiving the civil service as having an organisational culture where access to progression was unequal for different groups.

Recruitment of Under-Represented Groups into the Senior Civil Service, Hooker H, Jagger N, Baldwin S. Research Report DWPRR 512, Department for Work and Pensions, 2008.
ISBN: 978-1-84763-477-1. PDF Download only: £free

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