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PLAIN English campaigners have attacked a Yorkshire council whose job advert for a £119,000 "Director of Organisation Development" was littered with gobbledegook.
More: Council admits its publications are useless
Huddersfield-based Kirklees Council's job description mangled the language with phrases like "cross functional experience" and "people effective".
The council advertised the position as "a key leadership role that will help make a complex organisation increasingly confident, energetic and focused as it delivers the outcomes that the Kirklees communities require".
It said the successful candidate would be "a leader with presence, passion and panache" who would "play a key role in ensuring the effective integration of national, regional and local drivers".
Another impenetrable passage warns that the new director will face the challenge of making sure "that the diversity of Kirklees is understood by all in the organisation; is valued as a strength but a strength that challenges us to respond to its complex implications; and is reflected in the career structures within the organisation".
The successful applicant would also have to nurture "the relationships and values that make Kirklees people effective".
Plain English Campaign spokeswoman Marie Clair said: 'This is typical of the council waffle that leaves people stunned.
'It's not for the Plain English Campaign to say whether 'presence, passion and panache' are essential for this job as we can't make out what the job is about.'
She added: 'The advertisement contains many examples of typical government jargon that is perfect for confusing, hiding and misleading the reader.
"If this is a serious job at a senior level with a super salary, the least they could do is make sure that the details are absolutely clear.
"Waffle leaves room for excuses and misinterpretation. Let's have some clarity and honesty, particularly at senior levels."
Taxpayers' Alliance chief executive Matthew Elliott also attacked the wording of the advert - and the salary of up to 119,000 a year.
"This is a classic example of management gobbledegook," he said of the council, where the average salary is just 25,626 a year.
"It is bad enough that Kirklees is spending so much money in the middle of a recession, but at the very least the job description should make some sense.
"Unfortunately, Kirklees has joined the trend in local government for building up top-heavy organisations full of overpaid senior managers with apparently purposeless jobs."
But the council's human resources director, Cliff Stewart, justified the language used in the advert – which also said the council would "particularly welcome" applications from "certain groups" currently under-represented on its management team.
Mr Stewart said: "The terms used in the advert will mean a lot to the sort of people who are looking at this. We've received 40 expressions of interest in this job and 10 people have applied.
"We're hitting our target audience."
Mr Stewart, 61, said he and the council's Director of Corporate Services were both planning to retire soon and would be replaced by the new Director of Organisation Development.
He said: "Combining the two roles into one will save the council 180,000 a year when you take in salary, pension contributions, IT, national insurance and secretaries.
"The salary we are offering is at the middle of the range for this sort of job in councils of our size."
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Tuesday 07 February 2012
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