The island’s largest employer has taken on more than 500 staff already this year – with just 14 of them not passing their probation.
In response to questions from Deputy Rhona Humphreys, the Policy and Resources Committee has confirmed the situation around the States’ use of recruitment agencies.
One of her questions sought to find out how many agency staff recruited into government roles from outside the island have left their jobs of their own volition of having failed to pass probation, since 2020.
P&R’s response said that type of data isn’t recorded.
It also explained that temporary agency workers are subject to immediate termination
if their performance does not meet expectations aligned to the role.
By contrast, staff recruited into permanent roles, either directly or via a recruitment agency, are monitored during a probationary period. From January 2025 to date, 14 employees failed their probation and were therefore dismissed from employment, said P&R. “This accounts for approximately 2.5% of all new joiners for the same period,” it said.
This is similar to trends in the UK civil service, where around 3% of new hires don’t pass probation.
The States of Guernsey is the island’s largest employer with more than 6,500 people on the overall payroll. Most of those people work for the public sector, with the majority employed in health and social services.
Deputy Humphreys’ questions focused on the States’ use of recruitment agencies
when recruiting workers from outside of the island, and how much that costs the island.
P&R said that the agreed commission rates for temporary agency workers are between 10% and 12%.
“This rate might be higher on occasion depending on the specialist nature of the role being sourced and associated market forces,” P&R explained.
“Where a temporary agency worker converts to a permanent employee then the standard
terms set out a fixed ‘recruitment’ fee of £250 unless the individual has worked in a
temporary capacity for more than six months, in which case no fee is paid,” P&R added.
P&R also explained that agency workers are employed through their recruitment agency, meaning the agency has responsibility for interviewing and onboarding the employee.
“The profile of an agency worker will then be presented to the hiring manager at the States
of Guernsey who will decide whether the person is suitable for the agency assignment.
“This will include screening of the agency worker’s CV and an interview for those preferred
agency workers. Similar principles apply for those agencies promoting candidates for permanent positions in terms of the agency’s onboarding. This would then be followed by an interview with a States of Guernsey manager should the candidate be shortlisted.”