Civil service pressures News and analysis
a parliament pressure cooker?
yet unclear Brexit plan. ALEX ROBERTS hears about the stress this is creating, and what is being done to mitigate it
action is being taken to plug gaps
in resource.
“Within the past two months
we’ve been able to move 1,500
people between government
departments so that everyone is in
the best place to meet the challenges
we face,” he says. “In addition to this,
the civil service is set up to serve the
government of the day so it’s always
had to be adaptable.”
Addressing the sometimes
fractious relationships between
ministers and their private personal
secretaries, McNeil (whose previous
roles include at Lloyds Banking
Group and Aviva) says that these can
be more functional than analogous
ones in the private sector.
“The relationship that it most
closely mirrors in the corporate
world is that between a chairman
and a chief executive,” he says. “And
the private personal secretary I
believe has more autonomy than the
chief executive, partly because of the
high level of expertise in this
position. At the civil service we talk a
lot about speaking truth to power,
and one of the key things we say is
you should be more afraid of your
code of ethics than of your
profession. We work on the
basis of instilling a culture that is
about second chances, empathy
and respect.”
Longer term there is apparently
ongoing work to ensure Brexit
pressure is mitigated by good
leadership. Simon Ancona is the
chief executive of the Whitehall &
Industry Group (WIG), a non-profit
membership body that fosters
collaboration between government,
industry and the not-for-profit
sector. He says “there is a huge
amount of support” from WIG’s
cross-sector membership for those
in government bearing the brunt
of Brexit.
Ancona believes that, whether in
the private or public sector, leaders
who understand the pressures
they’re facing can make a huge
difference to both their own
wellbeing and that of their teams.
“In any good leadership
programme the two things that will
be at the fore are having a sense of a
broader perspective and an element
of ‘knowing thyself ’,” he says.
“In a situation like Brexit, we
know that the leaders who must put
systems in place to improve the
resilience of the workforce are often
the people under the most pressure.
No-one can be expected to detect
signs of severe stress elsewhere
unless they recognise it
in themselves.”
He adds: “Leadership
programmes that utilise knowledge
from all sectors are very
important… We see every day the
results that we can achieve when
leaders get together and share their
experiences with others”.
But it’s clear there is plenty left
to do to get Brexit over the line,
and the civil service will be doing
most of the heavy lifting. The hope
is that with optimised working
practices, strong leadership and
support from sister sectors, the final
toll will be lower than many
currently fear. HR
There have been
damning reports
of bullying
and harassment
where everybody’s tense, it can
definitely lead to a bullying culture.”
The main source of frustration is
a long-term lack of progress, both
on Brexit itself but also on the
numerous projects that have been
shelved to free up resource.
“I go to meetings in government
and it’s incredibly sad; nothing’s
getting done,” Cooper reports.
“Imagine you’re working in the
Department of Health and Social
Care and you want to do your best.
Suddenly you get this additional
work dumped on you. It means
you can’t do your other work
properly, you’re working double
shifts, you’re overloaded.
“And a lot of it, like no-deal
planning, might well be wasted
work. I’m not saying people are
necessarily having breakdowns, but
job satisfaction is very low.”
But there is another side to the
story – one that government chief
people officer Rupert McNeil, who
is responsible for the civil service
and the wider HR function across
government, is keen to present. He
maintains that the “incredible
agility” of the civil service means it
is well placed to take the blows and
remain functioning. He adds that
I’m not saying
people are
necessarily
having
breakdowns,
but job
satisfaction is
very low
All Photographies: AdobeStock
hrmagazine.co.uk June 2019 HR 15
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