Under States chief executive Charlie Parker’s new model for the civil service, several directors general were appointed to lead new government departments.
Between September 2017 and last month, eight appointments were made, costing £142,203 in recruitment expenses, including external headhunters, recruitment agencies, consultants, advertising and interviewee costs.
A response to a freedom of information request shows that, in total, £76,950 was used on recruitment agencies and headhunters for five posts – the largest spend associated with the process.
The appointments of the three directors general for the Treasury, Customer and Local Services and Police, Performance and Population departments involved an internal States recruitment process and cost just £650 each, which was spent on candidate assessments. All three of the people appointed were already working within Jersey’s civil service.
By contrast, the process to appoint the then acting chief of the States police, Julian Blazeby, as director general of the Justice and Home Affairs Department went to open recruitment in and outside of Jersey and cost a total of £26,706.
The appointment of the only other person already working for the States to a director general post – John Rogers at Growth, Housing and Environment – cost £15,800.
The biggest spend on a single appointment, however, was on the process to recruit Health and Community Services director general Caroline Landon, which came to a total of £41,300.
Of that, more than £8,000 was spent on candidate assessments, almost £6,000 on advertising and £7,500 on candidate interviews and other expenses – a figure more than four times higher than for any other post.
The response to the freedom of information request says that, on average, the States spent around £17,500 for each role.
The response, however, fails to provide the equivalent information for the appointments of director and any other posts reporting directly to director generals, including interims, as requested.
Asked why some recruitments were so expensive when compared to others, a spokeswoman for the States said: ‘Four of the roles went to open recruitment, where specialist recruitment firms were used to source candidates and consequently charged for their work. Four of the roles did not go to open recruitment and only incurred costs for the assessment and interview process.’
The spokeswoman added that the role given to Mr Blazeby, for example, went to open recruitment both inside and outside of Jersey and 20 candidates were assessed.
Two specialist recruitment firms were used for the director general recruitments – Penna and Gatenby Sanderson – while the total costs were paid for using the States’ People Services budget.
Totals
- Recruitment and headhunting: £76,950
- Candidate assessments: £33,900
- Candidate interview and other expenses: £11,952
- Advertising: £19,490
