The latest wave of labour market figures released by the Office for National Statistics painted a worrying picture of UK unemployment, revealing a decline of 45,000 jobs in the last quarter of 2010. Overall, 111,000 'general government' jobs were lost in 2010, 1.9% of the total. Perhaps even more concerning is that 66,000 of these were in local government.
Whilst the Cabinet Office has welcomed the figures as evidence of efficiencies being found across the public sector, their implications could be severe, both in the short and long term.
For local authorities, implementing large numbers of job losses runs the risk of decreasing morale and increasing stress among staff. While the nature of the cuts to the workforce isn’t unexpected given the austerity climate, the speed with which the level of local authority unemployment is rising is a potential concern. The knock-on effect on the morale of the remaining workforce is likely to be significant, as esteemed colleagues and friends leave and employees are concerned for their own job security.
Further, changes to the workload and even job descriptions – with staff called upon to handle extra or new tasks as the local authority strives to deliver more, with less – may result in staff who are stressed, or have lower job satisfaction. With a reduced workforce that is low in morale, productivity may drop and the delivery challenge will seem even greater.
It is not only the short term impact of workforce rationalisation that threatens a local authority’s ability to maintain service delivery; there are also potentially debilitating longer-term risks. If redundancies are implemented quickly and without a clear focus on future goals, they may result in a skills gap that could be costly or challenging to rectify further down the track. While it may be difficult to predict the future skills needs of any one local authority, it is not impossible, and could help mitigate the longer-term fall out of today’s cuts.
Ultimately, there is no escaping the cuts being made across the public sector – and redundancies are just one measure that can be taken to drive efficiencies. However, it is crucial that any cuts are implemented as selectively as possible and informed by a long-term approach. Action can be taken to prevent a skills gap, such as providing training for those workers who remain, but any workplace issues will need careful attention and a great deal of sensitivity. Whilst chief executives and senior management teams may be looking for immediate ways to make savings, they must exercise extreme caution to ensure those savings don’t jeopardize services and the long-term success of the authority as a whole.
Andrew Jepp is director of public services at Zurich Municipal.
