Home Office and Government Digital and Data Function joint winners of Commissioners’ Mark of Excellence for innovation in external recruitment

30 January 2025

The Home Office and Government Digital and Data Function have been jointly awarded the 2024 Commissioners’ Mark of Excellence for their innovation and commitment in recruiting external candidates who may not have previously considered a role in the Civil Service.

Home Office won for their strategic approach to recruiting more women into frontline roles and outstanding work to support external candidates at different stages of the recruitment process.

The Government Digital and Data Function won for their innovative regional tech partnerships to secure senior digital talent on secondment to contribute to the work of Government.

First Civil Service Commissioner, Baroness Gisela Stuart, said:

"The purpose of the Mark of Excellence is to showcase some of the exemplary work occurring across government, highlighting innovative and thoughtful initiatives that attract strong and diverse fields of candidates for Civil Service jobs.

"Both the Home Office and Digital and Data Function team demonstrated exceptional commitment to attracting, encouraging and retaining applicants who may never have considered working in the Civil Service before. They have tried new and different approaches within the Commission’s Recruitment Principles, which ensure appointment on merit after fair and open competition.

“Home Office’s work to provide tailored support for external candidates in bulk campaigns using information events, chat bots, call centres and videos, providing advice and insight to candidates, demonstrated real impact - delivering 22,000 applications for these campaigns alone in 2024 with a high proportion from female and ethnic minority candidates.

“The Digital and Data Function entry impressed the panel with its professional collaborations across the sector to bring in senior tech specialists on secondment. Digital is an area in which the Civil Service can struggle to recruit; their cross-government secondment programme develops the Civil Service’s capability in an ever-evolving digital landscape and builds greater understanding of government work.

"Being joint winners is a testament to their consistent and innovative work, illustrating what can be done within the Recruitment Principles to attract and recruit new skills and talent.

"One of the Commission’s strategic priorities is to support departments to comply with the legal requirement to recruit on merit, after a fair and open competition. As well as highlighting best practice through the Mark of Excellence, we do this through our revised audit approach and outreach work with departments. These monthly sessions have attracted over 200 attendees per session. We will continue these this year and provide more bespoke support to individual departments where their audit results indicate that this is required.”

The 2024 Mark of Excellence judging panel included Baroness Gisela Stuart, First Civil Service Commissioner, Tony Poulter, Civil Service Commissioner, who was a PWC Partner for over 25 years and Liz Walmsley, Civil Service Commissioner, who held senior roles in ICI and a private equity firm.

There were 27 applications from departments and agencies for the Commissioners’ Mark of Excellence, now in its third year.

Winning organisations are entitled to display the Mark of Excellence logo on all their recruitment advertisements for one year.

Website http://civilservicecommission.independent.gov.uk

Notes to Editors

  1. More information about the work of the Commission is available on its website: https://civilservicecommission.independent.gov.uk/ 
  2. Media enquiries about the work of the Commission should go to Maggie O’Boyle on 07880 740 627.
  3. The Civil Service Commission was established as a statutory body in November 2010 under the provisions of the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010. The Commission is independent of Ministers and the Civil Service. It is responsible for upholding the requirement that recruitment to the Civil Service is based on merit through fair and open competition. The Commission comprises senior figures from the private, public, and third sectors who oversee recruitment into the Civil Service. Commissioners are appointed by the Crown for five-year non-renewable terms of office.
  4. You can also follow the Commission on LinkedIn and X @CivServComm. 
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