Recruiting for local government can be challenging, but even more so for regional areas. In a Recruitment Marketing Magazine exclusive, we spoke with Ros McVicar, Advisor – Human Resources for Gympie Regional Council who shared the unique challenges they face and their strategies to secure top talent.
Gympie is at the heart of a rapidly expanding region in Queensland that stretches from rural valleys in the west, to the Cooloola Coast gateway, to spectacular Fraser Island. The community enjoys rural delights of the picturesque Mary Valley, the history of Gympie and the broad western area, which is home to country festivals and a strong agricultural base. For candidates seeking a good quality of life, the region offers unique opportunities.
Gympie Regional Council is a local government serving the Gympie region. The organisation employs 516 staff who all share a commitment to continuously improving the services it provides to its 50,000 residents, in one of the most diverse locations in Queensland.
With more than fifteen years in the Council, Ros McVicar is currently one of their Advisors – Human Resources.
“I love working in local government; in particular, I enjoy the structure, procedures, policies, complexity and diversity that local government offers. I love the fact that we work with our community at the grassroots level; it’s a more personal level of government.”
Making the switch from the medical industry to local government more than 15 years ago, McVicar joined the Council as an entry-level administration officer, where the HR department was herself and the Manager. Since then, their HR team has grown to 14 strong, and includes Payroll, Workplace Health & Safety, and Organisational Development.
“I was offered an opportunity by Council to become a HR Officer, and Council supported me in undertaking a Bachelor of Business in HR, to further my career direction. I moved into a Recruitment Advisor role while I was studying, supporting our line managers with their recruitment needs across the whole of Council.”
McVicar completed her degree in 2016 and has since progressed to become the HR business partner for a number of departments including Planning and Development, and Council’s Water Business Unit.
“It has broadened my experience, because I’m not just managing recruitment, but the broader spectrum of HR functions, including performance management, industrial relations advice, the disciplinary process and more.”
Implementing best practice
McVicar has seen the Council’s recruitment processes evolve extensively. In the beginning, their processes required further transparency, so the team needed to implement best practice. They worked alongside their Work Health & Safety team to streamline pre-employment checks such as medical and health checks for candidates.
“That was a massive improvement. We’ve also worked with Organisational Development partners, aligning our training requirements with position requirements; and we’ve identified the qualifications and licenses we need in a more streamlined, efficient way.”
Because of the processes they have put in place, the Council can quickly identify the best people for their roles.
However, they still face a number of challenges. Gympie sits at the top end of the Sunshine Coast and the lower end of Fraser Coast, and from a recruitment perspective, candidates have the choice of lifestyle options across the regions.
“A percentage of our employees choose to live at the Sunshine Coast and commute. Often, it’s not a problem. But for some of our people, the commute can grow tiresome.”
The Council also struggles to compete, in terms of remuneration, against larger metro councils, private enterprises, and the mining industry.
“We can lose qualified and experienced staff to the mines, particularly positions that are difficult to recruit for, such as plant operators or project managers. Other fields that we have difficulty attracting include Planners, Engineers and senior business managers.”
As such, they have to advertise and promote their roles based on Gympie’s rural and coastal locations.
“The Gympie Region has so much to offer, including a welcoming and warm community. We try to recruit locally, but we also want the best candidate, and that can sometimes mean having to look and advertise outside the region.”
Skills-based recruitment
One of the things McVicar is proud of is their skills-based recruitment, which they adopted at the same time they restructured their recruitment process and partnered with Scout Talent, their Candidate Management System software provider.
“Skills-based recruitment, we find, is a better way of conducting interviews over standard panel interviews, which were not an effective way to recruit field positions in particular. Our skills-based model involves assessing candidates against practical tasks they would undertake in the role. We’ve applied skills-based recruitment across the board for almost every position. Our line managers have found it really effective because it shows us exactly what candidates can do. It’s been really successful.”
The right Candidate Management System (CMS)
The Council has been using their Candidate Management System for a number of years now, and this helps the HR team to work with hiring managers
“Previously, it was a completely manual process. We advertised positions in the newspaper and to our website, and received hard-copy applications at the front counter or via email. Not to mention, we acknowledged every application manually via email!
“Our CMS has revolutionised the way we recruit. We use automation so that when candidates apply online, they receive automatic acknowledgement. It also centralises our shortlisting process. It’s freed up more time for our HR officers and hiring managers to better spend elsewhere.”
McVicar and the team have done a lot of work behind the scenes to implement improved policies, procedures, guidelines and documentation. They will continue with this work, and are looking forward to refining their strategy to continue to improve attraction and retention.
“Having the right policies and procedures in place means we can offer flexibility to our current and future talent, and we hope this will improve attraction. We also look forward to working on and building our employer brand in the future.”
McVicar is very active in the community and her appreciation for the region extends outside of work. In addition to working for the Council fulltime, she is secretary for the local hockey club and her local hall committee, as well as a support member of the local fire brigade. She also learns guitar.
“I’m a musical person, I like playing the piano and guitar although can’t profess to being very talented at either! My family and I have a property south of Gympie where we raise beef cattle, which can be challenging to maintain during the drought season, but recent rains have helped.”
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