Search.co.uk applauds initiative to improve approach to local government recruitment in Scotland

Search.co.uk has praised local authorities in Scotland for harnessing the benefits of online recruitment through their adoption of a new jobs portal and a partnership trial with commercial job boards in Scotland.

Search.co.uk has welcomed continued moves by UK government bodies to step into the 21st century with the adoption of online recruitment procedures.

Recent months have seen several government agencies switch from traditional newspaper advertising to listing available scottish jobs online, with the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA) being at the forefront following the creation of the ‘myjobscotland‘ portal and trial advertising agreements with leading Scottish recruitment websites, including Search.co.uk/Jobs . Praising the Convention for responding to a fundamental shift in recruitment practices, Scotland’s leading jobs site believes that the move will deliver a number of key advantages.

“Recruitment is not a science, it’s an objective and logical process when done properly and is all about matching jobseekers with the right skills to the right jobs. Entering into the digital age can, however, make the process smoother and easier, attracting a wider selection of jobseekers and improving candidate selection processes and timescales,” said Peter Gillespie, Managing Director of Search.co.uk.

“It’s not simply about making savings on advertising budgets. There are greater benefits to be gained; notably changes to working practices which will free up staff and allow them to focus on more value adding work whilst also enabling local government to compete with the private sector for quality staff, particularly in sectors where there are skills shortages.”

The progress made by COSLA’s launch of the myjobscotland portal and the trial deal to post all Cosla member vacancies across 6 leading Scottish job sites, including Search.co.uk/Jobs, means that local governments can measure and implement a more effective use of their resources to deliver improved performance, by reducing advertising costs and competing more effectively for the right candidates. The all-council recruitment website, seeks to maximise the benefits of both online advertising and technology to improve the quality of responsesreceived by the 32 councils offering jobs in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Inverness and the rest of Scotland.

Improved efficiency is one of the driving forces behind the newly created application and online advertising trial. Cosla’s new online recruitment function will reduce the costly, long-winded process of advertising in print outlets, harnessing the latest innovative online technologies to make it a more painless, speedy and cost efficient exercise.

Jobs in Scotland – Banking on the Public Sector

Scotland’s Chief Statistician recently published an update on Public Sector Employment in Scotland and a quick review of the main points certainly makes interesting reading. The period of the research covers up to the end of ‘Q1 2009’.

Did you know that the public sector in Scotland accounts for 24.9% of all jobs in Scotland! An increase from 22.6% from as recently as Q1 2008. That’s a staggering 623,300 Scots working in the public sector.

Of this total, 81.7% of them work for public bodies which are under the control of the Scottish Government (the rest are under the control of the UK government). So, there’s no doubt who Scotland’s biggest employer is.

A key difference that’s played a part in this recent increase, relates to the massive upheaval in Scotland’s banking and financial sector. In effect, all those people working for RBS and LloydsTSB in Scotland now work for ‘public corporations’ – as we are their biggest shareholder. Hence, those same people now work in the ‘public sector’, according to government statistics. That’s around 44,000 new ‘public sector’ bankers, to you and me.

This continuing dominance of the public sector in Scotland’s economy also illustrates just how important the current decisions being made about investment in the public sector and future predictions of doom regarding job cuts across national and local government, really are.

However, if you’re looking for a job in Scotland in the current market – whether you’re in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen or Wick – with the current state of the ‘private sector’, the pull of the public sector is now stronger than ever.

Of course, you can view all local government jobs by simply clicking onto ‘search.co.uk/jobs’.

Public Sector Jobs in Scotland – Now on Search.co.uk!

Search.co.uk/jobs is now carrying a record number of client vacancies across the UK – surely good news for every active job seeker!

Part of this vacancy growth has come from our recent deal involving local government jobs portal site, ‘Myjobscotland’, allowing Search.co.uk to carry every local government job in Scotland. As a result, you will now find over 500 local council job vacancies with Scottish local authorities, from the Shetland Isles and Orkney to the Borders and Dumfries & Galloway – plus job vacancies with some local authority funded bodies including Strathclyde Fire & Rescue.

So, if you are looking for a new job in Scotland, Search.co.uk/Jobs now offers you more vacancy choice than ever before. To start your job search now just click here.

Happy job hunting!