Civil Service World's inaugural Summer Reception brought together government officials united by the shared ambition of improving how the civil service attracts, supports and retains its people. Held in central London in collaboration with hiring and matching platform Indeed, the event was a chance for those driving change in government to connect and share support and good practice.
Suzannah Brecknell and Jess Bowie, co-editors of CSW, reminded guests in their opening remarks that communities of support are vital given the urgency of challenges facing the civil service – from budgetary pressure, rapid technological change and the need to build a workforce that is diverse, inclusive and fit for the future. Change will be delivered by networks of HR professionals, hiring managers, digital leads and policymakers working to a common purpose of creating an agile, productive and mission-focused civil service.
Reforming recruitment with purpose
Gerri Clement, deputy director of recruitment at the Cabinet Office – and SRO for the recruitment transformation programme – explained the team's objective. “We want departments to be able to secure the right talent in a timely manner,” she said, adding that recruitment transformation is a key part to achieving it.
L-R: Eric Ryan from Indeed, Jack Richardson and Gerri Clement from Cabinet Office
For Clement, the ultimate goal is a civil service that is more agile, productive and mission driven. That starts by getting the right people into the right roles – fast. It means defining what skills are actually needed, then designing better, smarter ways of testing for them. From developing common recruitment metrics to piloting innovative selection models – including providing interview questions in advance and running ‘recruit in a day’ campaigns – Clement explained that her team is testing, learning and scaling what works.
Perhaps one of the most striking initiatives she mentioned is the creation of new secondment programmes which will be piloted in Place for Growth Thematic Campuses in Darlington (growth), Sheffield (opportunity), Leeds (health) and Manchester, starting in the autumn.
These sites are intended as local innovation hubs, where central and local government can work side-by-side to co-design and trial practical solutions to some of the most pressing community challenges – and represent a shift towards a more locally grounded, policymaking with a stronger, more collaborative model of service delivery.
The secondment programme will connect expertise across sectors to support this place-based innovation. Clement explained: “We want to support policy and delivery, as well as having the skills and the capability development mix so that we don't become a navel gazing/echo chamber.”
A big part of that transformation is data. For the first time, the civil service has introduced common recruitment metrics across departments, with benchmarks being set on ‘time to hire’ and ‘time to fill’ rates. These indicators are intended not only to track performance but also to highlight and scale best practices.
Clement explained: “Once we can do that comparison, we can see where the best practice is [and] where some tweaks are needed. Departments, professions and Cabinet Office will use this data to monitor performance and then the ability to see the whole picture will enable the whole HR system to make vital decisions about how we do recruitment policy.”
Building smarter systems with users in mind
While Clement focused on policy and service outcomes, Jack Richardson, deputy director at Cabinet Office Digital, shone a light on the platforms that make it all possible – and how digital innovation is helping to reduce friction in the hiring process.
From automated identity verification tools to robotic process automation (RPA), bots have carried out over 150,000 manual tasks, making steady gains in speed and accuracy. These bots, Richardson said, process tasks “84% faster than humans, and at an impressive accuracy rate of 99.9%.”
But beyond back-end efficiencies, the focus is on enhancing the user experience. “One of the great things about digital is that every part of the service is designed around the user,” said Richardson. This approach, he added, stops well-meaning teams from creating clunky, inaccessible solutions.
The event provided a unique opportunity for those driving change in government to connect and share support and good practice
The use of data to enhance recruitment outcomes is perhaps one of the most exciting developments. The Government Research and Insight Database (GRID), built from years of data on applications and hiring – which updates in real time – is helping departments make better evidence-based decisions and provides the opportunity for a greater understanding of data themes at a departmental level and across the civil service.
The civil service's relationship with AI was another talking point of the evening. From guiding candidate use of AI in applications to experimenting with potential future technologies, Clement and Richardson were clear-eyed about both the promise and limits of emerging technologies. Key initiatives include a recently published AI guide for candidates, which offers clear recommendations for the proper use of AI in applications. Clement emphasised that collaboration is essential, and AI should be regarded as a supportive tool rather than a substitute for human judgment.
Purpose at the heart of reform
Amid the talk of pilots, bots, metrics and machine learning, Eric Ryan, senior sales director at Indeed, brought the conversation back to its human dimension. In a moving speech, he reminded guests that behind every system and service are real people trying to do meaningful work.
Drawing on his father's 44-year career in the Irish civil service – including work alongside UK officials on post-Good Friday Agreement reforms – Ryan spoke with emotion and pride about the public sector's power to shape lives. “Your job is your purpose,” he said. “It's what gets you out of bed in the morning. It's the thing that facilitates all the most wonderful things in life.” That sense of purpose, he argued, is why recruitment reform matters, because fair, fast and inclusive hiring is not just about filling roles but also about enabling people to serve, thrive and make a difference.
Ryan explained that Indeed’s focus on skills-based hiring aligns closely with the civil service’s transformation agenda. Diversity, Ryan noted, isn’t just right but it makes organisations better. “Diverse teams deliver better outcomes,” he said. “And have happier people, with lower attrition. It’s a no-brainer.”
Through initiatives like secondments, the adoption of digital tools, new performance metrics, and a focus on inclusive hiring, civil service recruitment is changing to meet the needs of a changing workforce.
As Clement put it in closing: “We know it's not perfect. We are working with departments to make it better [and] the plans that we've got for the near future are all moving in the right direction.” That direction is being shaped not by systems alone but by a shared belief that when recruitment works, lives change – and so does the state.