The Cabinet Office has invited bids for a digital supplier to support the creation of a new online platform through which scores of agencies across government will recruit civil servants

The replacement for the Civil Service Jobs website will cut down on the time it takes to hire new recruits and “remove painful processes”, the Cabinet Office has said.

The department has opened the bidding process on a contract worth an estimated £20m to work on the replacement for the job-search programme, which delivers 70% of all civil service recruitment. All central government posts are advertised through the existing Civil Service Jobs site, which is used by 211 departments, agencies and non-departmental public bodies – either via the central Government Recruitment Service, or through a direct subscription.

Its replacement will be easier to use and help deliver the government’s recruitment goals, the Cabinet Office said. The new platform will “align with and deliver” strategies including the Declaration on Government Reform and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy 22-25, it said.

The Cabinet Office did not expand on which specific parts of these strategies the new platform would propel forward. However, the people-focused aims of the 2021 Declaration on Government Reform included establishing “new, appropriately and consistently managed entry routes for professionals from outside government”; and encouraging “entrants with specific, high demand skills, particularly scientists and engineers” to take up jobs in government.

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The D&I strategy, which was published in February 2022, is intended to enable a civil service that “understands and draws from the communities it serves, meaning that it draws talent from a range of communities and locations”; is “visible to everyone” – engaging communities to showcase what the civil service offers; is flexible to support “innovation, performance and engagement”; and “welcomes talent from wherever it comes – attracting the best talent from all backgrounds”.

A Cabinet Office spokesperson told PublicTechnology sister publication Civil Service World that the new job-search platform will “help deliver significant improvements” to recruitment. “It will reduce the time it takes to hire new recruits into the civil service, remove painful processes, and increase ease of use,” they added.

“Our vision is to deliver an effective, and efficient recruitment service, which attracts the best talent from all backgrounds,” the spokesperson said. “The new platform will allow us to welcome the best candidates, no matter where they come from. By having the best people working in government, we can deliver better public services for British taxpayers.”

The department revealed plans to overhaul the job-hunting platform last month, when it invited suppliers to a virtual event where it presented “a high-level overview of our requirements and our plans for the procurement”.

“We want the next generation of Civil Service Jobs to resolve some of our biggest recruitment challenges: improving time to hire, standardising much of our recruitment processes, and giving our users a more intuitive user experience. This is a great opportunity for innovative companies to bid for a chance to work with us to help achieve these objectives,” it said.

The contract is valued at £20m, but this could change according to the services being delivered – including how much it is used by government bodies, the recent procurement notice says.

The successful bidder will secure a five-year contract, with the option of a further two-year extension.

Bids are open until at 5pm on 13 October.