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HDA OVERVIEW
HDA Press

 

21st October 2010

 

Public to Private Sector Career Transition - Implications following 20th of October Comprehensive Spending Review announcements

(Call for your opinions / past success stories)

 

For the 2009-10 financial year the UK Public sector budget deficit hit a record £155bn. Yesterday’s Comprehensive Spending Review announcement by the Chancellor, George Osborne, is the result of a Treasury-led process to allocate resources across all Government departments, based on Government priorities, whilst aimed at protecting the economy.

The headlines from this week’s announcements in Parliament are:

• Whitehall: £6 billion of Whitehall savings, and the core Cabinet Office budget will be reduced by £55 million by 2014/15;
• Foreign Office: savings of 24% via a sharp reduction in the number of Whitehall-based diplomats and back office functions, though the Department for International Development's budget will rise to £11.5 billion over the next four years;
• Police: spending will fall by 4% each year of the spending settlement, whilst avoiding any reduction in the visibility of police on the streets;
• MOD: the defence budget will reach £33.5 billion in 2014/15; implying a saving of 8%, and including a confirmed reduction of service personnel;
• Local Government: cuts to local government budgets equating to 25 per cent over the next four years, with overall savings in funding to local councils of 7.1%, together with an end to the ring-fencing of all local government revenue grants from April next year. This will be in conjunction with the devolution of financial control to councils in order to support 2011-12 reforms to local services.
• In addition, the state pension age for men and women will reach 66 by the year 2020, saving over £5 billion a year by the end of the next Parliament, however this implies a longer working life for many, and hence more competition for future job opportunities.

What this means to millions of public sector staff and career public servants is that over the next 4 years, it is anticipated that almost 500,000 jobs will be lost from the UK public sector. At a secondary level of course, this means a) tougher times for those private sector businesses with business models largely devoted to supporting public sector contracts. It also means an added strain to the benefits system. A volatile period follows.

The Government is however confident that the private sector (large businesses, SME’s and self-employment) will continue to fuel the economic growth which will assimilate the majority of those transitioning from public sector roles.

Career public servants very often cite a commitment to public service and ‘Public Sector Values’ as the reason for their chosen career, in addition to relative stability and relative job security, (particularly under New Labour), an attractive and stable benefits and retirement platform, and a clear succession path. The challenge for public sector staff at all levels who feel that they may be impacted this week’s CSR announcement, and who are contemplating the very personal impacts over the coming months and years is to consider the following very personal questions:

• Am I scared about a volatile future and do I prefer the stability I know, or do I see change as an opportunity to develop myself and take my career forward?
• Do I actively embrace change now (eg. taking any voluntary redundancy offered), or play wait-and-see?
• Do I prefer the stability of what I know or do I embrace embarking on a steep learning curve?
• What is the optimal direction for my career based on my strengths, weaknesses, interests, objectives and commitments to my family?
• What do I have to offer elsewhere in the public sector, or in an alternative sector; whether private or charitable – do I have transferrable skills?
• Do I prefer being an employee or do I anticipate benefits being my own boss, albeit that I may not have been my own boss before?
• As a public servant, with a strong commitment to service, can I contemplate a commitment to commercial objectives and attention to business rather than service drivers – ie. turnover growth, profit maximisation, brand development, etc.

In the light of this week’s Comprehensive Spending Review announcements and the expected impact of these announcements ; as a career transition and talent consultancy for over 30 years, HDA (www.hda.co.uk) has worked with thousands of people transitioning their careers within organisations, within sectors, within industries, internationally, and out of employment into a meaningful and economically active retirement. During this time we have assisted and come across many successful people who have effectively transitioned from public sector to private sector roles, to become significant commercial contributors. We have also assisted and come across many successful people who have effectively transitioned from public sector to charity sector (‘third sector’) roles. Together with our online career transition partner, Abintegro (www.abintegro.com ) we are very interested to hear opinions from senior people (in the HR community and more broadly) who have successfully experienced this transition, or who have public sector to private sector opinions / success stories that they would like to share. Abintegro will be delighted to include interesting opinions in a series of online videos on the topic, and HDA will be delighted to incorporate interesting opinions and referenced ‘success stories’ in our articles, case studies and briefings.

Please contact either or both of the undersigned if you have an opinion that you would like to share with us on this topic. We look forward to hearing from you.

• Clayton Glen – CEO, HDA Associates: clayton.glen@hda.co.uk
• Tony Heard – Director, Abintegro:  tony@abintegro.com

 

For more information on the above article, please contact info@hda.co.uk

 

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