Spending revealed for Publicjobs rebrand to entice private sector workers
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THE state agency responsible for hiring people to the public service spent more than €170,000 on a rebrand to try to make state jobs seem less boring and lacking in ambition.
Publicjobs, which had been known as the Public Appointments Service, said more than half of people surveyed had either a negative or neutral view of working in the public sector.
It said their “bullseye target” for new hires needed to be private sector job seekers with “future focused skills.” However, as part of the rebranding process, they needed to overcome concerns that the public sector was a “closed shop”, that it was somewhere to go when a career was in “wind down,” that it lacked diversity, and could be “slow and boring”.
Figures detail how €171,000 was spent on modernising their identity, which included the name change to publicjobs and was officially introduced in June.
Around €65,000 was spent on creative development while €49,000 was paid to reconfigure “recruitment touchpoints” which included their main websites.
A further €43,000 was spent at their HQ in Dublin on painting along with the purchase of items like branded pens and mugs, t-shirts, and €265 on donuts as part of a “brand energiser” event for staff.
A sum of €14,000 was also paid for “other medium priority items”, according to figures released in response to a Freedom of Information request.
A briefing on the rebrand project said it was likely to pay dividends as research showed that organisations with a “stronger employer brand” had to spend 43% less on recruitment.
It added: “Companies with [a] strong employer brand see 50 percent more qualified applications and time to hire [is] one to two times faster.” Research showed numerous challenges including that 72% believed a public service job was “not for people like me” and that while current state employees tended to be more satisfied with their job, they were slow in endorsing their employer.
The research also showed that 60% of people were unsure of where to find information on public sector jobs and that awareness of existing websites was extremely low.
Some of those interviewed were asked to give their views with one saying: “When you move, you feel a judgement from people in [the] private [sector], they don’t think you’re ambitious and you just want to settle.”
A presentation on the rebrand said competition for talent was at its highest in twenty years and that employers across the board were struggling to attract and keep staff.
It said: “We are having to work harder and smarter to attract the required numbers and quality to our competitions and to maintain people’s interests in the recruitment process.”
The slideshow said a new brand positioning was needed that would show the breadth of public service, from teachers to gardaí, and from diplomats to wildlife rangers.
It said work needed to be done to “demystify” and address “misunderstandings” with a new braid logo intended to suggest a “rich variety of perspectives and career pathways on offer”.
The presentation said that behind the entire project was the statement: “No matter who you are, or where your interest lies, there’s a public job that applies.”
It also described a new tone of voice for the appointments service that was “open, bright, unexpected, interested, [and] ambitious.” Asked about the project, a spokesperson for publicjobs said: “It aims to deliver a clear, consistent, modern, and accessible visual identity for our organisation, with a view to increasing awareness about the services we provide and driving our recruitment activity for clients across the civil and public service.
“To date, the refreshed identity has been implemented across all touchpoints of our services, including our website.”