Civil Service Careers website: the first 6 months

11 Mar 2019 03:32 PM

Blog posted by: Andrew Cullinane, 11 March 2019 – Categories: A Brilliant Civil Service, A great place to work.

The managers of the Civil Service Careers website, two men and a women

The Civil Service Careers website team, left to right: Brian Stanislas, Andrew Cullinane, Grace Brennan

I am the Communications and Stakeholder Engagement lead for the Civil Service Careers website, supported by Grace Brennan, who leads on content, and Brian Stanislas, as Product Manager.

The website launched formally on 31 July 2018. Since then, we have added new departments and agencies and are looking to expand the functionality further to provide the best possible user experience we can. This has been a truly collaborative effort involving the Civil Service HR Digital and Communications teams working in tandem with communications and HR colleagues from departments and professions across the Civil Service.

Last week, we reached 170,000 users. This is a big step for the Civil Service and a real achievement. As our work continues we will increase our reach, particularly to groups less well represented within the Civil Service.

As that work goes on, it is important to take stock of our journey so far and reflect on the achievements in that first half year. At the point of launch, the website represented 14 of the larger ministerial departments and 7 Civil Service professions. It now features all of the 18 larger ministerial departments and a number of non-ministerial departments and agencies. In addition, the number of professions represented has increased to 11. This allows us better to demonstrate the sheer breadth of opportunity the Civil Service offers, together with insight into who we are and how it feels to work here.

It is particularly positive to see that around half of those website users feel encouraged and inspired to follow the link through to Civil Service Jobs, where they can embark upon the application journey.

This is only the beginning. The website will evolve to meet the ever-changing expectations of our users.

Our ambition over the next few months is to better support potential candidates through the development of a ‘How to apply’ page. We are also eager to reach out to those who are interested in a Civil Service career but are not necessarily applying. This may be because they are unaware that opportunities are available in their particular area. A focus on location mapping will help to change that and show that our doors are open to everyone.

When I speak about the website, I always draw upon my own experience and how I would have found something like it so valuable when I was first thinking about joining the Civil Service and planning my career path. In fact, as a civil servant now, the website is equally helpful, as it serves that same initial purpose to inform, engage and inspire.

Do take a look at the site. We would love to know what you think, using the feedback link on the homepage. Please, also, share the site with friends and family so they too can learn about the Civil Service.