Campbell Newman’s freeze on government is definitely a hot topic and working in Recruitment we are certainly seeing its effects. Applications to advertisements are increasingly consisting of government employees and candidates are calling from their current government position with fears of unemployment. Family and friends of those working in the public sector are seeing its direct effects.

The government has put a freeze on temporary and contract employees and no new recruitment is to take place unless it is business critical or front line workers (doctors, nurses and teachers etc.). As well as this temporary employee contracts will not be renewed. I can’t help but get caught up in what this heavy hitting approach is doing to such a large part of our workforce. With continuous publicity on the need to create more jobs, why has Campbell Newman used this drastic approach in the only workforce that he can directly affect?

There was a need to look at the temporary contract positions in the public sector and analyse positions and their necessity. Perhaps even hire analysts to look into position efficiencies and employee contributions. It would have meant a short term expense for a long term gain. The large volume of temporary employees continuously flowing through the public sector has been an enormous knowledge loss and would have greatly affected the ability for all employees to really understand the need to work as a business and enable growth. However, this has not been given the attention it deserves and is a quick fix. The instant approach to cost saving does not seem to take into consideration much other than cost reductions. Hiring managers and leaders that were going through the recruitment process coming up to the freeze had the positions cancelled and have still been left in the lurch. This is a one size fits all approach. Is it really ok to go out and suggest if we don’t need one temp employee we don’t need them all?

This drastic approach will create inefficiencies in some departments where the temporary employees are generally needed. A back log of work will be created and require a surge in the recruitment post the freeze or simply create highly stressed environment for the permanent employees.

Cara Stagg – Consultant

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