Archives for October 2000

HUMAN RESOURCE FLEXIBILITIES IN THE PUBLIC SERVICES

Book News, PublicNet: 25 October, 2000

By David Farnham and Sylvia HortonThe introduction of new public management first in the UK and subsequently in most other European member states has been the subject of a great deal of interest within the last decade. However, the impact of this on personnel policies and practices has been less well documented, although they have had far reaching effects. This book seeks to fill that gap by mapping out the changes in personnel management occurring throughout Europe and, in particular, evaluating the changes that have been driven by the move to greater flexibility and market responsiveness in public personnel policies including an examination of the US for comparative purposes.

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SURVEY CHALLENGES WHITEHALL MANAGERS

Headlines, PublicNet: 25 October, 2000

Civil servants feel less positive than any other group of workers, including those in local government, the health service and private industry. This is the conclusion of a survey by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development covering all four groups.The survey report revealed that civil servants have the lowest levels of satisfaction and commitment in all the groups. They also have least trust in management; a less dynamic, creative and friendly climate in the workplace; a less positive work-life balance; a greater sense that promises have not been kept and lower satisfaction with life in general. The report also makes it clear that civil servants feel let down, with satisfaction rates on a range of issues to do with commitment scoring up to 20% below those from local government and the health service. In addition 51% feel that they are underpaid, compared with 41% of local government staff, 46% in the health service and 33% of private sector employees.

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JOINING UP TO HELP TEENAGERS DECIDE THEIR FUTURE

Headlines, PublicNet: 25 October, 2000

Six departments together with agencies in the public, private and voluntary sectors are being brought together to support teenagers in the Connexions initiative. Connexions is an advice and guidance service for all 13 to 19 year olds. It will provide an improved universal careers advice service as well as giving teenagers extra help and support to prepare for the transition to work and adult life.One of its objectives will be encouraging more young people to stay in education or training, so that an increasing number have the qualifications they need for further education or the world of work. The new service has been designed to prevent teenagers falling though the gaps between the various support services. Two out of three children in care fail to get more than one GCSE. Currently nearly a third of all young people drop out or fail to achieve their learning goal in full-time education creating a lost generation of young people outside education, training or work.

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COMPETITION FOR ON LINE JOBS HOTS UP

Headlines, PublicNet: 24 October, 2000

More public sector jobs are going on line with the arrival on 1st November of www.lgjobs.com  This follows the launch of jobs4publicsector which went live on 20 October. The new service is a joint venture between the Improvement and Development Agency and jobsgopublic, a specialist Internet recruitment company.lgjobs.com is an enhanced version of an earlier IDEA venture, Jobsearch, which has provided a basic jobs advertising service for local government for the last three years. The new service offers different levels of sophistication ranging from a basic advert to a full recruitment service. The Agency believes that the time is ripe for the new service because local authorities have largely overcome their scepticism about the use of the Internet. Smaller authorities with limited budgets see it as the way they can attract high calibre candidates without the high cost of traditional advertising.

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WHITEHALL CONNECTS UP TO KNOWLEDGE

Headlines, PublicNet: 24 October, 2000

Knowledge held in different departments across Whitehall is now being shared through the Government Secure Intranet in the first phase of the Knowledge Network. Some 54,000 civil servants can now tap into briefings and policy research findings of colleagues in different departments, so bringing joined up government a little closer to reality. They will also have access to local and regional statistical information.The first phase of the Knowledge Network project gives read only access to the database, but it is planned to allow users to add their departmental information so that a continually updated picture of cross cutting issues can be available across government. Progressively, more data held in departments will also be added to the database.

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BUSINESS-AGENCY LINK TO TACKLE N-S DIVIDE

Headlines, PublicNet: 23 October, 2000

A Chinese agency set up to promote trade and investment with Britain is to join forces with the regional development agency (RDA) for the North East to attempt to break down the North South divide.The China-Britain Business Council (CBBC), and One NorthEast have established a dedicated office for regional businesses seeking to enter the China market.

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MORE POWER TO DRIVE SPECIALIST SERVICE IMPROVEMENTS

Headlines, PublicNet: 23 October, 2000

The NHS is to give more power to the regional bodies trying to ensure fairer delivery of specialist services not available in every town and city.Regional Specialised Commissioning Groups (RSCGs) were set up in April 1999 to plan such services across health authority boundaries, ending ad hoc decisions and different standards of care in different parts of the country.

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APPROACHES TO CAREERS IN MANAGEMENT

Abstracts, PublicNet: 23 October, 2000

Mavin SCareer Development International, (UK), 2000 Vol 5 No 1

Start page: 13. No of pages: 8

Questions the generalizability of the traditional career development model, suggesting that it may not be applicable to women’s careers. Sets out the potential differences between men’s and women’s careers and their attitudes towards them, focusing on the ways in which family commitments and employers’ assumptions about the effect of these on career commitment, may affect women’s careers. Points out that women are making steady advances in the workplace. looking at the reasons for this and the reasons for their inability to reach the top organizational positions. Discusses if the breakdown of traditional career structures will make any difference to women’s career patterns, pointing to evidence that new opportunities are opening up as organizations change and re-organize. Calls for more research into women’s career patterns, arguing that this will present the opportunity to re-evaluate career development theory in general, opening up the possibility of developing integrated career structures for both men and women.

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PUBLIC SECTOR JOBS ONLINE

Headlines, PublicNet: 20 October, 2000

Automation of the public sector recruitment process has been given a boost with the launch of job4publicsector.com. The new service offers recruiters and jobseekers a fast track to a better match of job profile to CV. It is also claimed that by automating the whole process it will cut the cost of recruiting by 50%. Advertising accounts for some 12% of the recruiting bill with the processing of applications making up the remaining cost.Jobseekers can post up to five CVs and they are notified by e-mail when a suitable vacancy is posted. This facility also benefits recruiters because it facilitates head hunting. The service currently covers central and local government and the health service with over 250 vacancies on display. The jobs on offer range from a special needs assistant in South Yorkshire to a senior auditor in Somerset.

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BETTER PROCUREMENT KEY TO SPEEDIER ROAD DELIVERY

Headlines, PublicNet: 20 October, 2000

The task of the new procurement division of the Highways Agency will be to streamline buying and issuing of contracts in order that the roads programme is speeded up in line with the government’s recently announced ten year transport plan.Better procurement practices are seen as key to speedier delivery of future road schemes. The plan is to speed up the time it takes to appoint consultants for design and survey work. It is also likely that future schemes are more likely to use the same company to design and build a scheme, so that all interested parties are involved from the start. Appointing one company earlier in the process will cut out the need for a lengthy tendering process once the scheme has got the go ahead.

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