2010 will be both exciting and demanding for the public sector...times are a changing, hold on tight, but let's be nice

As part of the Pre Budget Report, Government published a number of reports to support the Pre Budget Report. One of the reports was an update on benchmarking on back office functions and in summary it said that:

• HR must move to 1 HR person to 77 FTE from a median of 1:44
• Finance to reduce its cost to 1% of operating cost from a median of 1.4%
• Marketing and communications to reduce their costs by 25%
• ICT had to reduce its cost by reusing its systems
• Consultancy costs should be reduce by 50%
• We should reduce occupancy to 10 square metres per FTE
• Reduce the cost of the senior civil service by 20%

You can open many papers on any day and you will see references to public sector cuts, downsizing, reform... And they are right. Whether we wanted a burning platform or not, we have one, and I guess we change or burn. No news there, many companies have gone through it or are going through it. I have gone through this in a past life, when we had to transform a business due to poor financial performance, or basically close down. At times it isn't nice, or pleasant, or something you take daily joy from, but on occasions it does need to happen.

But behind the headlines, comments and thoughts, which are often written with a zeal, are people. People like your family and friends. People you care about, people you want to see succeed and be happy.

Change is a funny old thing, it's dead easy when you do it to others; we must change the process; we must restructure; we must change the ...; in reality this is all code for you must change, but I'm all right. Well not anymore.

Comments

[question and answers]

Don't know what is wrong what is rite but i know that every one has there own point of view and same goes to this one..

[Jeremy Gould]

Its certainly going to be a tough time for anyone working in a corporate support area John. Those figures look very daunting. You could argue that the professionalism of those areas has made a lot of positive impact, you could argue the opposite. But those kinds of cutbacks are going to hurt.