If you are struggling to hire the talent you need for your Council, you are not alone. Councils like other public
and private sector organisations have faced significant recruitment challenges.

To develop a better understanding of the challenges and opportunities of attracting and retaining talent in our sector and region, WME (West Midlands Employers)commissioned Fruitful Analytics to deliver its first ‘state of the nation’ style report’ focusing on recruitment and retention local government workforce in our region in July 2023.

Bringing positive change

To test the approach and develop the project a product group was formed with council representatives, and between October 2023 to January 2024, qualitative and quantitative data were collected across the members using interviews, desktop reviews and surveys, and analysed to provide valuable insights and recommendations to the report.

Data collection was a significant challenge for the project, an issue faced by many councils, this was down to data quality, approaches and data being held across different systems. Data was extracted, formatted and aligned with common data points was the most difficult part of the project.

Helen Mansfield, Director of Fruitful Analytics, shared the report findings and recommendations at the ‘Recruitment and Workforce Insights Report’ launch event in March 2024.

The central recommendations to some out of the report drew emphasis on the need for councils in the West Midlands to consider steps toward establishing a strategic workforce planning process, in addition to improving data quality, so that regions data is accurate and can be used to develop meaningful insights.

Key findings included:

The report shines a light on issues such as:

• An ageing workforce
• Hard to fill roles
• Enhancing the local government’s reputation as a trusted employer

Moving forward together

To implement what we have learnt we will be focusing on how this information can benefit the region, and grow our distinctive and special partnership, emphasising the opportunity to collaborate on shared challenges and advance our vision with members.

The report has sparked a regional debate, leading to a consensus on focusing efforts and prioritising actions that will create the most value and impact for the region. These insights will inform policy and contribute to the next iteration of the Regional Workforce Strategy, support the region to identify, predict and prepare for the future workforce.

We have now established a robust baseline for the region, but this is just the beginning. Continuously monitoring and analysing trends will be crucial for attracting and retaining talent in the local government sector.

We would like to thank all members for their contribution and support. Creating the report and baseline of data to support meaningful insights was no small feat, but we did it!

The Recruitment and Insights Report can be viewed here

Estelle Dutton, Service Delivery Manager, West Midlands Employers