Private Sector Recruitment Strategies the Public Sector Should Adopt Today

“Since 2013, the public sector has seen an 8% drop in applicants…When coupled with a 29% increase in the number of job openings, a 37% gap between needed and available talent emerges.”
— NEOGOV 2020 Time to Hire Report

by Cristin Kumar

From preparing a job description to onboarding talent, the talent acquisition process continues to evolve alongside modern advances in technology. However, while the private sector continues to generate new and effective methods for recruiting talent, the public sector continues to use outdated, inefficient recruitment tools and processes, contributing to harmful staff shortages.

A Public Sector Problem

Set off by the COVID pandemic, the “Great Resignation” resulted in a shortage of candidates available for open public and private sector positions, including candidates for high-in-demand positions like those in cybersecurity. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimated that over 47 million people voluntarily left the workforce in 2021.[1] The resulting reduction in candidate pools disproportionately impacted a public sector already plagued by the retirement of Baby Boomers en masse who have long made up a large chunk of the public sector workforce. In fact, “only 8.1% of the federal workforce is under the age of 30, compared to 23% in the private sector.”[2] Specifically, from January 2020-January 2022 the “government lost more than 600,000 workers—more than manufacturing, wholesale trade, and construction combined.”[3]

In 2021, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released its biennial human capital management assessment, finding that “skills gaps caused by an insufficient number of staff, inadequate workforce planning, and a lack of training in critical skills” posed a high risk to the federal government. Specifically, the GAO found that the federal government is incapable of “…hir[ing] and retain[ing] individuals in critical fields, including cybersecurity, enforcement of tax laws, and management of IT acquisitions.”[4] Overall, the GAO recommended that the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) “examin[e] ways to make the general schedule system’s design and implementation more consistent with the attributes of a modern, effective classification system.”[5]

Furthermore, the public sector’s hiring process is stymied by bottlenecks. In its 2020 “Time to Hire Report”, NEOGOV found that in 2019, “the average public sector time-to-hire was 119 days–more than three times the average in the private sector” of 36 days.[6] In a subsequent NEOGOV survey of 609 job applicants covering the 2019 to 2022 fiscal years, respondents cited “slow hiring, limited communication with government representatives during the process and complex applications” as the reason some chose to go into the private sector instead.[7] These factors led many of those surveyed to accept job offers in the private sector, which offered them positions much quicker and more efficiently.

Ultimately, the private sector’s talent acquisition operations tend to be more of a fine-tuned machine. That’s why we’ve rounded up five of the private sector’s talent acquisition best practices from companies like Google and Nike that the public sector might consider adopting to bolster its recruitment for years to come.

Private Sector Best Practices

Strengthen Sourcing & Referral Practices

Sourcing is a practice by which recruiters proactively find, engage, and ultimately hire candidates who would best fit the organization and/or role. Professional network, LinkedIn, calculated that most candidates (approximately 60-70%) are passive candidates, that is they are not actively seeking jobs but are open to new opportunities.[8]

Private sector organizations (like Google) understand sourcing’s value and have adopted its use through various methods, including aided recall, sourcing “jams,” and employee referral incentives. Pertaining to aided recall, Google increased the volume of employee referrals by more than one-third, jogging current employees’ memories by asking who they would recommend for specific roles (e.g., ‘Who is the best finance person you ever worked with?’). With sourcing jams, groups of twenty or thirty employees will come together and go through their contacts from various social media platforms, identifying anyone they believe would be an excellent referral. After identifying candidates, the company’s recruiters will then reach out to them to start a conversation.[9]

One successful employee referral program arose out of the Nike/NFL partnership. When Nike won the NFL apparel licensing agreement from Reebok, they had to fill hundreds of new jobs right away. So, they built an internal NFL/Nike employee referral portal that listed all the co-branded jobs and then they heavily promoted the site to employees. The site was up and live within six weeks and all jobs were filled within six months, most of them from referrals and internal transfers.

On the incentives front, the United States Marine Corps instituted a service member referral program that incentivizes Marines to participate in the program through meritorious promotion, bonus points toward promotions, fitness report comments, leave extensions, personal awards, etc.[10] The program’s referrals provide a large percentage of high-quality applicants who eventually enlist in the Marines. Other branches of the military are instituting similar programs.

Support a Seamless Candidate Experience

The candidate experience is an important measure of success for an organization’s recruiting practices. The candidate should leave the recruitment process with a positive perception of the hiring organization (whether they take the position there or not), inducing them to refer others to the organization. In the private sector, DocuSign, for example, standardized the use of a recruiter effectiveness survey to prospective employees. Other companies, like Airbnb, storyboard the candidate’s experience to get a better understanding of each step of the recruitment process and identify areas for improvement, such as how to graciously pass on a candidate, set expectations about the hiring process’s timing, and celebrate the company’s culture. Finally, some private organizations incorporate “champions” programs, wherein prospects opt into pairing with current employees for informal guidance during the recruitment lifecycle.

Promote a Positive Workplace Culture

Private sector organizations market the positive experiences of existing employees to attract prospective candidates to the organization. For example, Google encourages candidates to invite current employees to their Google+ “circles” to get a more holistic understanding (via photos, skill profiles, previous posts, and other personal content) of who they are, what they do best, and what they’re most passionate about. Applicants can chat directly with employees over Google Video and ask questions about the company culture, the role, and the team.[9]

Leverage Social Media

Private companies partner with social media influencers to market the company’s products or services and promote its brand to their large social networks. The practice is so successful that U.S. companies invested $4.99 billion into influencer marketing in 2022.[11] Even some parts of the federal government—particularly military branches—already leverage social media influencers who are active military and can provide a peek into the daily life of a service member.

Leveraging social media can also entail engaging with key content like television shows and movies. A 2020 case study of the FBI’s #FBIJobs e-recruiting effort on Twitter found that “crime dramas related to the FBI” enjoyed more engagement with people than did the “official FBI e-recruiting efforts.” This finding suggested that social media content creators should “co-mention content and users that share engaging content (e.g., FBI crime dramas)” to transfer the popularity of these shows to e-recruiting efforts.[12]

Leverage Modern Technology

Virtual reality can offer a glimpse into the day-to-day work environment and workplace culture for a candidate. Private companies like McKinsey use virtual reality (VR) for simulations to determine if applicants have the right skills for a position. And online shopping platform, Jet.com, uses VR to provide candidates who are applying remotely a full tour experience. And while it is an emerging technology and should be approached with caution, artificial intelligence (AI) talent acquisition platforms (like Wade & Wendy, Manatal, Fetcher, SeekOut, and others) support a more efficient sourcing and recruiting process. These platforms provide such services as helping applicants find opportunities and assisting hiring managers in identifying and matching candidates to open positions, saving companies time and money typically dedicated to recruiting.

Other common practices within the private sector include the use of data analytics to estimate a candidate’s post-onboarding performance and more effectively training recruiters and sourcers on the use of both internal and external systems. However, these will require the federal government to establish a solid talent acquisition infrastructure prior to their adoption.

Leveraging Public Sector Strengths

Connect Candidates to the Organization’s Employee Value Proposition (EVP)

To attract candidates, employers must effectively use marketing, advertising, and strategic communications to communicate a strong employee value proposition (EVP). Millennial and Gen Z members of the workforce tend to be motivated by being a part of a mission. Since public sector careers focus on supporting the community, public sector employers must shift the traditional mindset of filling a role to fulfilling a purpose, starting with its job descriptions. When developing a job description, public sector organizations should communicate how the candidate’s position will align to the organization’s mission or purpose and the candidate’s career goals.

Clearly Communicate the Advantages of Public Sector Employment

The public sector should boast the unique benefits that are not as prevalent in the private sector to make the comparison clear to candidates. Perhaps most unique of these is the public sector employee’s ability to make a meaningful impact on our nation while progressing through multiple careers with one employer. In addition, the government also provides job flexibility, generous vacation and family leave, and retirement benefits. For example, on average, federal employees get 23 to 36 days of paid vacation (not including sick leave) compared to 17 to 27 days for private sector employees.[13] And with respect to flexibility, 36% of government workers were given the option to telecommute compared to 25% of private sector employees during the pandemic. Finally, the public sector tends to offer greater job security. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, corporate workers are three times more likely to lose their jobs than federal employees. 

Conclusion

Governmental entities offer a range of benefits that private entities do not. Careers in the federal government tend to be relatively stable compared to those in industry and many public entities offer greater job flexibility, like four-day workweeks and telework options. Perhaps most significant to those seeking purpose-driven careers, public sector jobs directly impact our nation’s well-being. By clearly communicating its benefits to prospective employees and modernizing its talent acquisition and recruitment processes, the public sector can better equip itself to fill critical positions and recruit the next generation of talent.

Human Capital, Best PracticesCristin KumarRecruiting, talent acquisitionComment