Part 2: Disrupt and Innovate

By Beth Schaefer

IPD Director

In the previous article, I presented 6 steps you can take to give your public sector organization a recruiting edge.

This article moves from the concrete to the abstract.  It is the hope of a 7^th action step that is yet to be defined.

Be disruptive and innovative

While I hope the 6 action steps can assist your organization with recruitment, nothing in that list is innovative.  As someone who has spent her entire career in the public sector, I find it sad that the organizations that grow and maintain our democracy are in a talent crisis.  I also find it ironic that so many of our roles focus on helping people with their career pathways, yet our own public sector pathway is hidden.

I stumbled into my public sector career- perhaps like many of you.  I started as a public-school teacher – which I did not even associate with being a public sector role.  When I was ready to move into leadership, I kept finding that the jobs I found appealing required a Master’s degree in Public Administration.  I had never even heard of that degree, but I enrolled in a program, earned the degree, and continued my public sector career in higher education.

I am fortunate that my heart for service could be supported with resources for the convoluted career pathway I took; not everyone has the same resources that I had.  Once they stumble onto the public sector pathway, they may not have the resources to make that change.

This hidden pathway leads me to ask some larger questions:

• Could we be doing more to promote this career pathway?
• Are there actions we could take as a collective to promote public sector careers?
• Could we start the recruiting process in middle school or high school rather than waiting for people to stumble into a public sector career?

Let’s be a choice, not a default.

To me, the younger generation is much more focused on community and service than my 80’s generation ever was.  Let’s leverage those values and show those at the start of their careers that almost every profession and almost any interest can be found in the wide array of public sector roles.

If you want to be disruptive and innovative, here are some links to organizations and events that start their industry recruiting early; maybe they will ignite a spark for the Minnesota Public Sector to collectively promote ourselves as a great career option.

MN Technology Association

Statewide Tour of Manufacturing

4 Ways to Sell Your Program at Parent-Teacher Conferences

Conferences, Job Fair coming April 25^th

Southwest Minnesota Career Expo

Perhaps there is a way for us to join forces and collaboratively build the talent pool rather than compete against each other for qualified candidates.