Accenture-CHRO-in-Public-Service-V20.pdf

From insights to action, the path to extraordinary value starts here.
Talent leaders,
agents of public
service change
Three ways talent leaders can
reinvent public service for
greater mission impact

Talent leaders, agents of public service change
Contents
Introduction
Access, create and engage talent in innovative ways
Connect new dimensions of data, technology and
ways of working to unlock potential
Lead talent reinvention beyond the HR function
Conclusion
03
07
15
22
26

Reinventing public service
delivery amid disruption
Public sector employees continue to do extraordinary work
in challenging circumstances. From the pandemic to supply
chain shortages and soaring inflation, the public sector has
been severely tested in recent years. In fact, Accenture’s Total
Enterprise Reinvention Report finds disruption – driven in part
by economic and geopolitical instability, climate change and
emerging technology – has grown by 200% since 2017.
This turbulence may be here to stay. The World Economic
Forum warns we may be entering a period of “polycrisis”
with significant potential for ongoing socioeconomic and
environmental disruption.1
Organizations of all kinds will
need to embrace continuous change and reinvention.
Their approach to talent will play a key role.
In this report we’ll explore what the findings of the
CHRO as a growth executive research mean for public
service organizations. And highlight how three key
behaviors of high-performing CHROs could help
enable reinvention.
Talent leaders, agents of public service change 3

Talent challenges in the
public sector
To continue delivering their critical missions, public sector
organizations will need to go beyond simply architecting the
right programs and services. They’ll also need people who
are motivated and have the right skills to act on the changes
to come. Accenture’s recent report on generative artificial
intelligence (AI) explores this shift, but the demand extends to
technologies of all kinds.
However, the post-pandemic shake-up of the labor market
has made attracting, developing and retaining this talent more
difficult for all organizations. For public sector leaders, this
has only added to existing talent shortages – particularly in
technology and data – and demographic challenges.
In the United States, the public sector payroll still counts
376,000 fewer jobs than pre-COVID-19 levels.2
Job vacancies
in the Australian public sector have almost doubled, reaching
47,400 in November 2022.3
And in the United Kingdom,
vacancies in public administration and defense increased
from 22,000 in February 2020 to 40,000 in February 2023.4
Added to this is the challenge of replacing critical expertise
as experienced public sector employees retire. In the US, for
example, over half of retirement-eligible individuals chose to
accelerate retirement between 2021 and 2022, the highest
annual level on record.5
And there is the potential for this to
have an even greater impact elsewhere. In 2020, more than
one in four central government workers across OECD (The
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development)
countries were aged 55 or over and this was significantly higher
in countries like Spain (46%) and Italy (48%).6

Becoming high-performing talent leaders
Public sector leaders can’t afford to ignore this convergence
of socio-economic and labor market disruption. Now is the
time to embrace reinvention for the future.
This applies to anyone with a responsibility for talent
management, whether they’re agency directors, functional
leaders, or CHROs. This group, who we refer to as ‘talent
leaders,’ should look to expand their horizons and set a new
performance frontier for their people.
The greatest impact can be achieved when organizations
empower talent leaders. Accenture’s recent CHRO as a
Growth Executive report found that a small group of high-
performing organizations enjoyed an 11% productivity
boost from leveraging the full potential of data, technology
and people. But this productivity uplift fell to just 4% for
companies focusing on data and technology alone.
What sets high-performing talent leaders apart?
Accenture’s CHRO as a Growth Executive research found that
high-performing CHROs share two key attributes. First, they’re
more proficient than their peers in cultivating next-generation
capabilities that go beyond traditional ‘people skills.’ Examples
include systems thinking and financial acumen, as well as
technology and data know-how.
Second, they’re more connection-focused and are able to
nurture strong and effective relationships with leadership
peers. They also look to build networks externally to influence
broader change beyond their organizations.
The research found that, while 86% of cross-industry
respondents said they’re using next-generation skills and
capabilities to meet objectives, only 67% of public service
respondents said the same.

Our research suggests there are
three key areas of focus:
Lessons from the high performers
Public sector productivity will be key to delivering mission
impact amid disruption. However, the same Accenture
research found that just 41% of public sector respondents say
their CHROs are performing above expectations in unlocking
the potential of their organization’s people compared to an
average of 61% across all industries.
To bridge this gap, public service talent leaders should
explore how their high-performing peers from within the
sector and beyond are behaving.
Access, create and engage
talent in innovative ways
Connect new dimensions of
data, technology and ways of
working to unlock potential
Lead talent reinvention
beyond the HR function
1
2
3

Access, create and engage
talent in innovative ways
01
7

Recruit Reskill Retain
Acquiring and keeping the right skills is already
challenging, particularly for in-demand digital talent. For
public sector talent leaders, the regulatory environment
that governs labor relationships can make it even trickier.
Exploring new, innovative strategies across the full
breadth of the talent lifecycle – recruit, reskill, and retain –
could be the solution.

Recruit
attract the right skills
The way an organization attracts talent sets the tone for ongoing employee
experiences. It’s essential that candidates feel a connection and sense of
belonging from the first point of contact.
Employer brand, and the employee value proposition (EVP) that
shapes it, are essential in building this relationship. However, research from
recruitment agency, Randstad, suggests that public services rank lowest
among all sectors when it comes to projecting a positive employer brand.7
A strong EVP is built around the organization’s mission, values, careers and
benefits offered to employees then communicated effectively to them.
It looks beyond financial rewards to incorporate a deep understanding of
candidates’ motivations and affinities for the organization’s mission. And it
should put a particular emphasis on creating compelling career pathways
based on organizational job catalogs and role descriptions.
As part of this process, talent leaders should also evaluate
how to “filter in” rather than “filter out” potential talent.
This powerful strategy for broadening talent pools beyond
traditional candidates is outlined in Accenture’s Hidden
Workers research. It calls on organizations to reevaluate
candidate profiles and be clear about the specific skills –
not just credentials – they need now and in the future.
Some organizations have already been exploring these
approaches. In Australia, the State of Victoria has piloted a
range of measures to improve inclusivity in recruitment.8
And
in the US State of Pennsylvania, Governor Josh Shapiro
recently eliminated the college degree requirement for 92%
of jobs in state government to open up about 65,000 jobs to
non-college graduates.9

Why employer brand matters
Employer brand defines an organization’s reputation among potential and
existing employees. It encompasses everything from the organization’s
culture and vision to the candidate experience as people apply for a role.
In an increasingly competitive labor market, employer brand is the currency
for attracting and retaining top talent. Research by LinkedIn found that
companies with strong employer brands attract 50% more qualified
applicants.10
It also found that ‘not knowing what it’s like to work at an
organization’ was the number one obstacle cited by job searchers.

The skills investment gap
Proportion of respondents who are planning to increase investment
in skills development to a large extent in the next three years
Source: CHRO as Growth Executive research
Average Public Service
Reskill
develop existing talent
Public sector skills shortages are unlikely to be solved by recruitment alone.
In most cases, complementary upskilling and reskilling programs will also
be needed. These should look to augment people’s existing institutional
knowledge with the technology skills to embrace the change to come.
However, the CHRO as a Growth Executive research found that only 59%
of public sector respondents are planning to increase investment in skills
development and training to a large extent over the next three years,
compared to 71% of cross-industry respondents. It’s essential that talent
leaders in the public sector take the right steps to close this gap.
First, talent leaders should build on the skills-focused approach to
recruitment and align training programs with present and future skills gaps,
preferably in collaboration with private-sector partners. This should then be
used to develop customized role-based curriculums that balance on-the-
job learning with training for the skill needs of tomorrow.
71% 59%

Technology can play a key role. For example, San Diego
County used Accenture’s Virtual Experience Solution
(AVEnueS) to train its social security caseworkers.11
This
tool allows new caseworkers to practice eligibility interviews
in a realistic metaverse environment, allowing them to learn
new skills, make mistakes in a safe environment and then
review actions objectively with a trainer.
Public sector agencies of all kinds could make use of
this technology. And, in combination with AI-powered
forecasting tools, it could help them to prepare for new
operational scenarios and future talent needs at scale.
This could then feedback into a digital learning platform
that combines training with job matching to help meet
organizational needs and give people the insight and
confidence to advance their careers.

Retain
keep the highest performers
Enhanced recruitment and upskilling count for little if an organization
can’t hold on to its best people. Talent leaders should therefore focus on
creating a culture of retention that extends beyond financial reward and
meets the whole spectrum of people’s needs.
Maintaining employee trust, motivation and a sense of belonging isn’t easy.
One Accenture study found that a third of government workers don’t feel
they belong in their workplaces, so more must be done to make people
feel supported and purposeful.
Specific strategies will vary depending on the workforce in question. But
all talent leaders across the public sector should start by viewing retention
as part of their core remit. That then needs to be complemented with the
right mix of organizational culture, processes and technology to empower
them to support their team members.

This applies not only to key career moments, like internal
transfers and pay rises, but also to everyday experiences, like
sharing information with empathy and giving people the right
tools to do their job.
The British Royal Navy undertook exactly this sort of
project with the launch of its MyNavy App.12
The goal was
to make personnel data directly usable to the individuals
themselves through a new user-friendly application. This has
empowered sailors with greater insight into and control over
their own career trajectories and created a clearer line of
communication that strengthened the relationship between
uniformed personnel and the Navy.
What is culture?
Creating the ‘right’ culture is something every organization aspires
to. But what that means in practice can vary greatly. Culture is
made up of many complimentary elements, broadly falling within
three categories:
• Agility – for example responding quickly to changes or rapidly
testing ideas
• Leadership – for example giving leaders autonomy or being
transparent about strategic priorities
• People – for example encouraging collaboration or treating
people equally
The way an organization prioritizes these different elements
defines the type of culture it creates. But there is no single correct
approach. A focus on agility can create an entrepreneurial culture.
Whereas emphasizing people can support a more collaborative
approach. It’s about finding the right mix for each individual
organization.

Connect new dimensions of
data, technology and ways of
working to unlock potential
02
15

Continuous reinvention is a critical capability in a modern organization.
Public service leaders have an opportunity to rewire the organization
to transform how work gets done and how people are empowered to
make an impact for citizens.
Data Technology Ways of working

Data
the foundation for transformation
Our CHRO as a Growth Executive findings suggest that high-performing
CHROs are more proficient at using data to meet their goals. In fact, this
emphasis on data extends even beyond the highest performers. Over two-
thirds of all respondents (71%) said their organization planned to make a
large investment in data solutions over the next three years. However, this
dropped to less than half (49%) for public sector respondents.
Addressing this gap should be a priority for public sector talent leaders. A
strong data foundation creates a platform for all future technology-driven
modernization efforts. Not only does it provide the insight to make better
strategic decisions, but it could also be used to empower employees to
take greater control of their careers.
The data divide
Proportion of respondents who are planning to make large
increases in data solutions in the next three years
Source: CHRO as Growth Executive research
49%
71%

The Government of South Korea’s e-Saram system is a prominent
example.13
Introduced in 2000, it has digitized the entire employee lifecycle
for individuals and departments.
More recently, the City and County of Denver, worked with Accenture to
transform workforce management with a new data and platform strategy.14
This allowed the city to automate routine HR processes, empower
recruiters with insights into their candidate pools, and give leaders a more
holistic view of workforce needs. It also offered workers themselves faster
and easier access to HR data and services.

Technology
enabling people to reinvent
Technology is reinventing the way work gets done. It’s vital that people
recognize how technology can help them accomplish their goals and feel
empowered to maximize its impact.
This is especially important in public service organizations, where data
from the latest Accenture Future of Work 2022 survey suggests employees
tend to be less confident in their technology skills (Figure 1). The good
news is Accenture’s Public Service Experience Through a New Lens study
found that a large majority (74%) of public sector workers are positive about
the impact of new technologies and are eager to learn. This creates a big
opportunity to support people as they develop the skills they need.
One way to get started is to review core business processes,
breaking them into individual tasks to better reveal where
technology can automate and/or augment work at scale. The
UK Department of Work and Pensions scaled automation in
this way to allow it to handle a projected 210 million additional
transactions.15
Its people were then given data insights to help
them perform complex and rewarding tasks more effectively.

Lacking the confidence to embrace reinvention
I am known for my skills in...
Percentage who agreed or strongly agreed
Extended/
Virtual Reality
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%
Cybersecurity
Applied
Intelligence
Digital
collaboration
tools
Figure 1: Future of Work 2022 survey

Ways of working
creating a culture of innovation
As organizations embark on these changes, it’s essential that ways of
working enable people to make the most of the new opportunities and
encourage innovation. For example, the rapid emergence of generative AI
is already transforming knowledge-based work.
However, data from Accenture’s Future of Work 2022 study suggests this
might be particularly challenging in public sector organizations. It found
that public sector employees are significantly less likely than cross-industry
averages to agree they’re rewarded for thinking outside the box (44% vs
72%) or their organization values innovation and change (54% vs 79%).
Accenture’s Total Enterprise Reinvention report found that organizations
that were successful in reinvention were significantly more likely to
dedicate the right amount of time and effort to change management as
well as empowering, recognizing and rewarding new ways of working. So,
giving talent leaders the right tools to drive change could be essential to
nurturing innovation.
Singapore is already applying this approach. In 2016, the Public
Service Division (PSD), a central government agency that was
established to drive a first-class public service, launched the PSD
Innovation Lab.16
The lab is intended to spearhead innovation
practices amongst over 145,000 public service officers across the
government and enable them to collaborate and address challenges
more effectively.

Lead talent reinvention
beyond the HR function
03
22

Accenture’s CHRO as a Growth Executive
research suggests high-performing CHROs make
connections across the organization and beyond.
However, public service organizations appear to
be particularly siloed.
Just 69% of public services respondents say they
believe their CHRO is effective in collaborating
with the rest of the leadership group, significantly
below the 87% cross-industry average.
Break siloes Build networks

Public sector talent leaders should be proactive about
extending their influence and impact across the
organization and with external partners. This can be
particularly effective in catalyzing broader organizational
change and finding new responses to systemic challenges
like sustainability and climate change.
One way to get started could be for leaders to collaborate
to define career pathways across the entire organization.
This process can help identify siloes and develop new
operational models that enable teams to share skills more
effectively between areas.
The Australian Public Service’s Workforce Strategy
2025 and the Centre of Excellence established to deliver
it, are a good example of this type of exercise.17
Based on
survey data and built in collaboration with departmental
leaders, this is a four-year plan to break down inter-
departmental siloes. The goal is to create a more agile
organization that is able to attract and retain the right
skills and respond to changing needs.
Breaking down siloes

Building inter-organizational
networks
Similarly, talent leaders could build deeper relationships with peers
in other public sector organizations, education, non-profits and the
private sector. By collaborating to create new talent pipelines and
exchange programs, talent leaders could improve retention and
close skills gaps, particularly around digital.
Consider, for example, the work being done to boost semi-
conductor production in the United States. As part of a national
initiative, the State of Ohio is working with Intel, workforce boards
and the Ohio Association of Community Colleges to train people to
meet demand for workers at a new fabrication plant.18
This holistic
training is tailored to the skills requirements of the jobs being
created, while also establishing new career pathways for under-
served communities.
In this way, the program meets the needs of individual job seekers
and employers while aligning with wider state and national priorities.
This kind of collaboration model could be extended to other public
service priorities, such as meeting inclusion and diversity goals
or developing the new green skills that will be critical for tackling
climate change.

Talent leaders across the public sector have a critical role
in catalyzing change. Applying the three behaviors of
high-performing CHROs outlined in this report could help
them take on this responsibility. Whether it’s recruiting and
retaining the best people in a competitive job market or
augmenting people’s skills with data and AI, these leaders
now have an opportunity to proactively expand their roles
and reinvent their organizations.
Now is the time to embrace that opportunity and empower
talent leaders to become agents of public service change.
The first steps
towards reinvention

1. World Economic Forum, ‘Global Risks Report 2023’ https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Global_
Risks_Report_2023.pdf
2. United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, ‘The Employment Situation – March 2023’ https://www.bls.
gov/news.release/pdf/empsit.pdf
3. Australian Bureau of Statistics, ‘Media Release: Job vacancies fall but remain high at end of 2022’
https://www.abs.gov.au/media-centre/media-releases/job-vacancies-fall-remain-high-end-2022
4. Data taken from the ‘VACS02: Vacancies by industry’ report released in March 2023 by the United
Kingdom Office of National Statistics https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/
peoplenotinwork/unemployment/datasets/vacanciesbyindustryvacs02/current
5. Mission Square Research Institute, ‘Survey Findings State and Local Workforce 2022’ https://slge.org/
wp-content/uploads/2022/06/2022workforce.pdf
6. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, ‘Government at a Glance 2021’ https://
www.oecd-ilibrary.org/sites/1c258f55-en/1/3/3/3/index.html?itemId=/content/publication/1c258f55-
en&_p_=10e9de108c3f715b68f26e07d4821567&itemIGO=oecd&itemContentType=book
7. Randstad, ‘Employer Brand Research 2022’ (requires contact detail submission) https://
workforceinsights.randstad.com/randstad-employer-brand-research-global-report-2022
8. Observatory of Public Sector Innovation, ‘Recruit Smarter’ Case Study https://oecd-opsi.org/
innovations/recruit-smarter/
9. WPXI News, ‘Gov. Shapiro signs executive order, college degree no longer required for 92% of state
jobs’ https://www.wpxi.com/news/local/gov-shapiro-signs-executive-order-college-degree-no-
longer-required-92-state-jobs/4WU2MIDF25DAJJYYQTLO6PFC3I/
References
10. LinkedIn, ‘The Ultimate List of Employer Brand Statistics for Hiring Managers, HR Professionals, and
Recruiters’ https://business.linkedin.com/content/dam/business/talent-solutions/global/en_us/c/
pdfs/ultimate-list-of-employer-brand-stats.pdf
11. Accenture, ‘Caseworker training reimagined’ https://www.accenture.com/us-en/case-studies/public-
service/caseworker-training-reimagined
12. Accenture, Work That Matters Podcast, ‘Sailor-centric Design: How the Royal Navy
built an app that seamlessly meets the needs of personnel’ https://open.spotify.com/
episode/5itcT80fXVuTlvkDsnC4MD
13. Republic of Korea Ministry of Personnel Management, ‘Chapter 11: Electronic HRM System (e-Saram
System)’ https://www.mpm.go.kr/english/resources/ebook/hrm/chapter11/#book/
14. Accenture, Transforming the Mile High City with Workday cloud https://www.accenture.com/us-en/
case-studies/public-service/mile-high-city
15. Accenture, recording from AWS re:Invent 2022 ‘Department for Work and Pensions brings humanity
to Intelligent Automation’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Emw68Hgfy90&t=703s
16. Apolitical, ‘Singapore made innovation go viral in its public service’ https://apolitical.co/solution-
articles/en/singapore-made-innovation-go-viral-in-its-civil-service
17. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, ‘Public Employment and Management
2021 : The Future of the Public Service’ https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/sites/ae14fb51-en/index.
html?itemId=/content/component/ae14fb51-en#section-d1e6269
18. Brookings, ‘With high-tech manufacturing plants promising good jobs in Ohio, workforce developers
race to get ready’ https://www.brookings.edu/research/with-high-tech-manufacturing-plants-
promising-good-jobs-in-ohio-workforce-developers-race-to-get-ready/

Stephanie Gault
Managing Director,
Lead – Employment
and Services,
Accenture Singapore
Marni Poropat
Director – Consulting,
Public Service
Australia and
New Zealand
Molly Tierney
Managing Director,
Public Service,
Child Welfare,
North America
Ian Lithgow
Managing Director,
Health & Public Service,
UK & Ireland
Jenny Brodie
Senior Manager
Health & Public Service,
Research
Rainer Binder
Managing Director,
Workforce & Talent
Transformation Co-Lead
Natalie Sisto
Managing Director,
Workforce & Talent
Transformation Co-Lead
Meghan Yurchisin
Public Service Research
& Thought Leadership,
Global Lead
Authors
Contributors

This content is provided for general information purposes and is not intended to be used in place of consultation with our professional advisors.
Copyright © 2023 Accenture. All rights reserved.
Accenture and its logo are registered trademarks of Accenture.
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