Issue - meetings

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 fare 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  ...  view the full minutes text for item 18