Title

HUMAN RESOURCES

Councils' USP is their focus on employees as people

Sue Atkinson, Anne Sullivan and Sonia Tanda at Penna say it's time to talk about your council's diversity and inclusion strategy, physical and mental health initiatives and your organisational culture.

The pandemic changed the overall landscape of the public sector, which like others, is struggling to recruit and retain. Prior to COVID, local government's recruitment unique selling proposition (USP) traded on a strong flexible work offer; condensed hours, term-time contracts and working from home.

Now this has been embraced by most employers a competitive edge has been lost. Relying on old brand pillars, values and visions is likely to appear outdated, especially against those who have evolved. So how do you sell the benefits of the sector? By developing a robust employer value pro-position (EVP) to attract and retain talent at all levels. The stats don't lie. Employers with an EVP pay on average 11% less salary. And 59% of employers felt their EVP had enhanced engagement by at least 10%.

EVP is why an employee would prefer working at your organisation over another. It answers the questions ‘why should I work for you?' and ‘why should I stay?' in a consistent, original, true and relevant way for target audiences like social workers, middle managers, or directors. Your EVP must be embedded everywhere – job ads, candidate experience, screening tools, websites and more.

We know that technical skillsets are hard to recruit currently and local authority pay is not comparable to the private sector. So, the emphasis of your EVP needs to be on training up and teaching employees.

Most councils have an incredible narrative. It's time to talk about your diversity and inclusion strategy, physical and mental health initiatives, and your organisational culture – and the public sector's USP, its focus on employees as people, your care for their lives outside the 9-to-five.

Sue Atkinson, Anne Sullivan and Sonia Tanda are EVP experts at Penna

sue.atkinson@penna.com

HUMAN RESOURCES

Let outcomes not just effort be the measure of your council's legacy

By Tony Munton | 20 October 2025

As the sector awaits the finalisation of the Local Government Outcomes Framework, Tony Munton looks at how to steer local government toward measuring communi...

HUMAN RESOURCES

Cohesion rallying call as hate crime reaches record levels

By By Dan Peters | 16 October 2025

Cohesion is ‘core to what we do in local government’, the president of senior officers’ group Solace, Robin Tuddenham, has stressed as religious hate crime r...

HUMAN RESOURCES

Shining a light on mental health

By Jessica Mullinger | 16 October 2025

Wellbeing is not a luxury, it is core to a healthy organisation. Jessica Mullinger looks at some of the ways to protect mental health and wellbeing in the wo...

HUMAN RESOURCES

How productive is local government – and are there any savings left?

By Jeremy Cooper | 15 October 2025

As the sector awaits the launch of the Local Government Outcomes Framework, how ready is local government to understand and drive productivity? There is good...

Popular articles by Sue Atkinson