A fall in recruitment spend is a trend witnessed across several ministerial departmentsMinisterial departments in the UK failed to fill 72 percent of vacancies in 2014/15, according to Freedom of Information requests submitted by the leading cloud-based CRM provider, Bullhorn.
Bullhorn requested information on total recruitment spend in the financial year 2014/15 from all 24 government ministerial departments. It also requested information on the number of advertised vacancies in the last financial year, and the percentage filled.
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A fall in recruitment spend is a trend witnessed across several ministerial departments, with the Department for Education and the Department for Energy & Climate Change registering a 24 and 13 percent decrease respectively.
The results are as follows:
Recruitment spend in 2014/15 financial year
| Department | 2011/2012 | 2012/2013 | 2013/2014 | 2014/2015 | Percentage Change (from last available data set) |
| Department for Energy & Climate Change | £222,000 | £553,000 | £836,000 | £724,697 | -13.31% |
| Department for Education | £108,231 | £383,291 | £317,926 | £241,445 | -24.06% |
| Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs | Not available | Not available | Not available | £266,102 | NA |
| Department of Health | £198,135 | £132,605 | £188,326 | £172,208 | -8.56% |
| Foreign & Commonwealth Office | Not available | Not available | Not available | £467,939 | NA |
| Northern Ireland Office | Not available | Not available | Not available | £5,919 | NA |
| UK Export Finance | Not available | Not available | Not available | £263,206 | NA |
Number of positions advertised, number of positions filled and percentage of positions filled in 2014/15 financial year
| Departments | Total positions open in 2014/2015 | Total positions filled in 2014/2015 | Percentage of positions filled |
| Attorney General’s Office | 20 | 16 | 80% |
| Department for Communities & Local Government | 346 | 200 | 58% |
| Department for Energy & Climate Change | 617 | Not available | Not available |
| Department for Education | 787 | 470 | 60% |
| Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs | 58 | 53 | 91% |
| Department for Work & Pensions | 7,067 | 1,518 | 21% |
| Department of Health | 80 | 73 | 91% |
| Foreign & Commonwealth Office | 74 (excluding internships) | 3 | 4% |
| Northern Ireland Office | 18 | 18 | 100% |
| Scotland Office | 1 | 1 | 100% |
| UK Export Finance | 48 | 45 | 94% |
Commenting on the results, Bullhorn’s international MD Peter Linas says: “The results show very diverse recruitment patterns across each of the departments. The fact the Foreign & Commonwealth Office has a fill rate of just four percent and the Department for Work & Pensions 21 percent, is really quite shocking.
“There’s certainly room for improvement. According to our UK trends report this year, the top sources of qualified candidates in 2014 were existing candidates from recruitment CRMs and social media. So recruiters serving the public sector really need to make sure they are making the most of the technology available to them to find the most appropriate candidates for these roles.”
