Value for Money
Civil service workforce: Recruitment, pay and performance management
Published 29 November 2023
5 recommendations
Cabinet Office
People and operationsPerformance managementProject and service deliveryWorkforce
nao.org.uk
Government has opportunities to improve the efficient management of its workforce, including on recruitment, pay and performance management.
Recommendations (5)
Source: NAO Recommendations Tracker · PAC follow-up below
Cabinet Office
Rec 1
Accepted
Implemented
By June 2024, the Cabinet Office should require departments to report fully and regularly against the recruitment metrics it has developed, particularly those on recruitment costs, so that both departments and the Cabinet Office can monitor and benchmark recruitment performance.
Cabinet Office
Rec 2
Accepted
Work in Progress
By the end of 2025, the Cabinet Office should review how recruitment is delivered across the civil service to assess the efficiency of different approaches, including services delivered by the Government Recruitment Service. This should include benchmarking performance both within the civil service and against external comparators, and identifying the full costs and benefits of different delivery options.
Cabinet Office
Rec 3
Accepted
Work in Progress
The Cabinet Office should report on civil service pay differentials across departments, starting from 2024-25, and work with departments to address pay differentials where this would be beneficial (for example, to minimise the undesirable effects of departmental pay competition for the same staff).
Cabinet Office
Rec 4
Accepted
Implemented
The Cabinet Office should work with departments to help them assess the effectiveness of their own performance management systems, including line manager/employee ratios and approaches to performance-related pay. These assessments should consider the requirements of the civil service performance management framework, as well as data on performance outcomes for staff and employee feedback (such as Civil Service People Survey scores).
Cabinet Office
Rec 5
Accepted
Implemented
Each department?s HR director should report regularly to the department?s executive committee on the number and grade breakdown of staff identified as underperforming. This should include reporting on what happens after staff have been identified as underperforming, to help departments understand the effectiveness of their systems for managing underperforming staff.
Parliamentary Committee Follow-Up
The Public Accounts Committee examined this NAO report and published its own recommendations. The government responds to PAC recommendations via Treasury Minutes.
Twenty-Third Report - Civil service workforce: Recruitment, pay and performance management
Public Accounts Committee
· 22 March 2024
· 11 recommendations