Council social work, IT and HR jobs 'hard to fill'

Redcar and Cleveland Council is considering changes to its "refer a friend" policy amid recruitment struggles

Social workers, environmental health officers, planning officers and engineers are among the most difficult posts to fill, a council has said.

Redcar and Cleveland Council said in a committee report that struggles with recruitment for some roles had become worse since the Covid pandemic.

Filling vacancies for vehicle fitters, human resources staff, accountants and specialist IT workers was also a challenge, it said.

The report said it was "vital that we have sufficient employees to ensure we can maintain our service provision and delivery".

The report also said it was "essential that we continue to support measures to tackle the current recruitment and retention difficulties".

It outlined the authority's "refer a friend" policy and a proposal to extend the probationary period the new staff member must complete before the existing employee who recommended them gets a £500 payment.

The scheme was first introduced in respect of social workers, but was later widened to other difficult to recruit roles.

Anyone who works for the council can refer a friend except the managing director, members of the executive management team, a manager in line to interview the candidate, or human resources employees whose job involves recruitment.

The new recruit currently has to successfully complete a probationary period of three months before the person who referred them is eligible for the reward but the proposal is to increase this to six.

The revision to the policy had been circulated to the relevant trade unions representing council staff with no comments being received, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

The nominated person must not have worked for the council before.