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MAIDSTONE BOROUGH COUNCIL
EMPLOYMENT COMMITTEE
Minutes of the meeting held on Thursday 6 July 2017
Present: |
Councillor Mrs Gooch (Chairman), and Councillors Barned, Mrs Blackmore, D Burton, Cox, English, Mrs Grigg, Joy, Perry and Mrs Stockell |
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8. Apologies for Absence
It was noted that apologies had been received from
Councillors D Mortimer, Mrs Ring and Mrs Wilson.
9. Notification of Substitute Members
The following Substitute Members were noted:-
Councillor Cox for Councillor D Mortimer
Councillor English for Councillor Mrs Wilson
10. Urgent Items
There were no urgent items.
11. Disclosures by Members and Officers
There were no disclosures by Members and Officers.
12. Disclosures of Lobbying
There were no disclosures of lobbying.
13. Exempt Items
RESOLVED: That the items be taken in public as proposed.
14. Minutes of the Meeting held on 1 February 2017
RESOLVED: That the minutes of the meeting held on 1 February 2017 be approved as a correct record and signed subject to the insertion of the following wording to Minute 28 – Report of the Head of Policy and Communications – Appointment to Sub-Committees as highlighted:-
·
The Group Leader of the Independents would be appointed to the
Sub-Committees where indicated for the remainder of the municipal year 2016/17;
and
·
The following year 2017/18 the Group Leader of UKIP would
be appointed.
15. Minutes of the Meeting held on 23 May 2017
RESOLVED: That the Minutes of the meeting
held on 23 May 2017 be approved as a correct record and signed.
16. Presentation of Petitions
There were no petitions.
17. Questions and answer session for members of the public
There were no questions or statements from members of the
public.
18. Report of the Head of HR Shared Services - Workforce Strategy Update
The Head of HR Shared Services presented a report on the Workforce Strategy Update.
The Committee noted that the Policy and Resources Committee
had approved the Workforce Strategy at its meeting on 29 June 2016 and had
requested that the Employment Committee received a progress update every six
months.
The Head of HR Shared Services advised that she was aware of a number of
questions raised about the Investors in People accreditation at the last
meeting of the Committee and she had tried to incorporate the answers to those
questions in the body of the report.
The Committee was asked to note areas in the action plan attached as Appendix I to the report where good progress had been made:-
·
Resilience Training – Two programmes had been developed,
one for recognising stress (aimed at Line Managers) and another for staff to
recognise and manage their stress and reduce the organisational causes of
stress. It was noted that good feedback had been received from staff as to the
usefulness of this programme.
·
Strive – The feedback on Strive was good from staff who
felt it was well embedded in the Council’s values. Overall staff felt the
organisation was well organised and well managed.
· Market Supplements – This initiative had worked well and was used in areas that were traditionally been hard to recruit to.
Members noted that the action plan would be revised to
reflect the feedback received from the IiP survey.
The Head of HR Shared Services also advised that the
following areas needed improvement:-
· Apprenticeships
· Encourage staff to feel their voice is heard
· The definition of a Manager and what the Council expects
· Succession Planning
· Leadership Programme
· Officer/Member Relationships
·
Rewards
In response to questions from Members, the Head of HR Shared Service advised that:-
·
Apprenticeships – The drop off was due to the
apprenticeship scheme being very competitive and the Council did not fair well
as it did not pay very well. Therefore a review of this would be taking
place.
·
Succession Planning – the development framework would be
the first step in ensuring that there is succession planning in teams.
·
Employee Handbook – this was updated regularly. New
starters were given a hard copy along with the depot staff who did not have
access to a computer.
·
Rewards Package – the Rewards Package was very competitive
but Managers need to be made aware of all the rewards that can be given to
staff. There was also a Health and Wellbeing Programme for staff to access.
·
The 360° Feedback Process - assessment was carefully
administered and if there were any areas where there were red flags, those were
brought to the Council’s attention by the consultants.
·
Investors in People - Staff time spent on meeting with the
IiP Assessor was not factored into the overall costings and would be difficult
to calculate. However, it could be estimated at no more than £3,000 meaning
that the total cost with the assessor’s time was less than £20,000.
The IiP Accreditation had just been renewed
but there would be another opportunity to assess what direction the Council
wanted to go in two years’ time.
The IiP Assessor’s report would be
circulated to the Committee for information.
·
Pay Award – The Council was not bound by the Government’s
1% cap on public sector pay. It was explained that a discussion was held with
the Leader in the first place and then discussions are held with the Unions in
September before the pay award is agreed by Policy and Resources Committee in
its budget setting.
RESOLVED: That the progress of the actions
set out in the Workforce Strategy be noted.
19. Duration of Meeting
11.30 a.m. to 1.05 p.m.