Public or private: moving between them can be a culture shock

We don’t often hear about people leaving the public service to take up jobs in the private sector and tales of people moving in the opposite direction are almost equally rare. This is possibly related to the cultural differences between the two.

“A lot of different factors come into play when transitioning from one to the other,” says Siobhan O’Shea, client services director with recruitment firm Cpl. “You probably need to look at the reasons for the move. In some cases, it can be lifestyle. People might want to move into the public sector for more regular hours, it’s very transparent in terms of pay scales, it tends to be more family friendly in terms of job-sharing opportunities and flexible working and so on.”

These things can be available in the private sector but tend not to be as structured. “Sometimes in the private sector it can be quite organic,” she says. “It can be a case of ‘come and join us and let’s see how it works out’. But there is a lot of change going on there at the moment. Private-sector organisations are having to change to attract talent.”

But there are trade-offs. “One thing I see is that the public sector can be a bit slow in terms of process. People coming from the private sector can find this a bit overwhelming and they have to be able to adapt to that culture. The public sector is very structured and organised. In many areas, you take your coffee breaks at certain times, you start and finish work at certain times. Private-sector workplaces tend to be much more flexible in these areas. Promotion also tends to be related to tenure.”

Michelle Noone, head of search with the Public Appointments Services, agrees. “Things move quite slowly in comparison to the private sector,” she says. “That can be a little bit frustrating, but things move slowly for a very good reason. The key thing about public service is that you are accountable to citizens for everything you do, and you have to ensure that everything is done properly. That’s a good thing. There are amazingly talented people in the public sector doing great work every day on things they genuinely care about doing.”

Another issue is the public-sector recruitment process, which often utilises a panel system where successful candidates are placed on a panel which is drawn down over a period of 18 months. “Candidates shouldn’t be afraid of the panel system,” says Noone. “You will get a job. Such is the level of recruitment that we are exhausting panels quite quickly. People shouldn’t be demoralised by not getting a job straightaway.”

‘Shock to the system’

Moving in the other direction also presents challenges, according to Siobhan O’Shea. “Coming out of public sector can be quite a shock to the system,” she says. “If you go to a multinational, they will be able to match public-sector benefits but SMEs may not be able to. You have to leave with eyes wide open.”

She believes the proposed national auto-enrolment pension scheme will make a real difference in terms of levelling the playing pitch in that area at least.

On the other hand, the public sector still enjoys advantages in terms of transparency in relation to pay and career paths. “Gender pay gap reporting will be really interesting,” says O’Shea. “Everything is disclosed in the public sector. It’s still quite secret in the private sector. In the private sector, there is more of a tendency to change jobs to progress careers. In the public sector, it is very transparent, and you can plan to achieve career goals over a certain period of time.

“What we tend to see is that a lot of people in public-sector roles tend to stay for a long time. They don’t tend to move. Traditionally, people in the public sector don’t move. This is probably because it fits their personality profile, they may not be risk-takers and tend to value stability. If you have worked in the public sector for a long time, you can struggle initially in adapting to the faster pace of the private sector. It really comes down to personality profile. The public sector has a lot more job security but can be quite hierarchical in structure. In contrast, the private sector can be flatter but is less transparent.”