Group

22 Some occupation groups in the Public Service workforce that are not numerically large consistently feature in the surveys as having skill shortages, for example policy analysts (who make up 2 - 4% of the Public Service workforce)¹¹ and social workers.

23 Departments were also surveyed about general recruitment difficulties and the issues reported included:

• the emergence of certain types of specialist scientists as a new area of recruitment difficulty;
• the influence of remuneration levels and policies, with many departments indicating that their inability to pay market rates for some positions, or the constraints of their remuneration policies, caused them recruitment difficulties. For example, several departments reported applicants declining employment offers, or withdrawing their application, once the salary range was revealed;
• recruiting to professional/technical, senior or specialist positions (for example, social workers, field centre supervisors, and psychologists) in geographically isolated locations and smaller provincial centres remained a difficulty for some larger departments;
• strong competition for information technology staff particularly at the mid to senior level. Some departments reported implementing specifically targeted policies in order to retain experienced staff. Several departments remarked that the cost of recruiting in this field is increasing as specialist recruitment agencies are more frequently being engaged to find high calibre applicants;
• continuing difficulties recruiting or attracting people with senior finance, internal audit, risk management and IT audit backgrounds. The rapid expansion of the call centre industry in NZ (in both public and private sectors) is also increasing demand for experienced call centre staff, which affects larger operational departments who have to compete for these skills; and
• the effect of departmental or Public Service reputation and image on recruitment - one department specifically cited recent adverse publicity as a contributing factor in problems they had experienced attracting applicants for legal positions.

¹¹ A range is given for the proportion of policy analysts as this is an estimate based on several sources, including unpublished 1996 Census of Population and Dwellings data on occupations within the 'Central Government Administration' and 'Justice' industries.