Agenda item

To consider progress made against delivery of the Workforce Development Strategy.  

46.1          The report of the Head of Corporate Services, circulated at Pages No. 114-140, set out the progress on the actions contained in the Workforce Development Strategy which Members were asked to consider.

46.2          The Committee was reminded that the purpose of the Workforce Development Strategy was to identify how the Council would meet the current and future workforce needs to ensure it had skilled people to deliver high quality services. It set out the critical challenges, opportunities and threats regarding workforce requirements as well as a considered and flexible set of responses to meet them. The current Strategy had been approved by the Executive Committee on 3 April 2019 following consideration by the Overview and Scrutiny Committee and it was agreed that an annual update on the delivery of the Strategy would be presented at Overview and Scrutiny Committee. The Strategy had five key themes: releasing productivity; digital transformation; commercialisation; workforce resilience; and being a great place to work each of which were supported by high-level steps. The Strategy was attached to the report at Appendix 1. Appendix 2 provided an overview of the actions delivered and proposed actions moving forward and Appendix 3 set out the Key Performance Indicator metrics that were approved as part of the Strategy. Whilst the Strategy was led by the Human Resources team, it was an organisational strategy and had received full engagement from the Management Team.

46.3          The HR and OD Manager drew particular attention to key points from Appendix 3: candidate attraction was currently good with an average of 16 applications for every vacancy; there had been a drop in absence rates to 4.3 days per person – this would equate to 8.6 days across the year which was less than the 12.4 days per employee last year – mental health remained at the top of the reasons why people were having time off and the Council was continuing to put in support for that; the employee engagement opinion survey had not been done this year but had been replaced by a COVID specific survey and followed up by a ‘pulse check’ survey which had six multiple choice questions that would provide up to date and responsive data on how staff were doing – this would be run every quarter for the time being. In terms of the forward plan, Members were reminded that this was a five-year Strategy of which the Council was about to complete the first year. Already quite a lot had been covered and there was a lot in the plan for next year which was good. The plans were quite ambitious but if delivered the Council and its staff would be in a good place.

46.4          A Member noted that the Key Performance Indicators measured the cases of absence but he questioned whether there were detailed statistics available to enable the Council to hone in and focus on the biggest issues. In response, the HR and OD Manager explained that the figures came from the HR and payroll system and when people reported their sickness absence it was recorded into categories. This meant it was possible to run reports to show the number of days lost to stress, anxiety etc. and support was then tailored to the high areas of absence; this also included the services the absences were in so patterns could be identified. Historically, mental health training was run for all staff annually with additional training for managers but there was also a lot of day to day support and, during the COVID-19 pandemic, additional support was available such as a debriefing service for those that had difficult experiences on telephone calls etc. to enable them to work through what had happened. The Council also had in place a counselling service for all staff to access whereby they received eight sessions with a trained Counsellor. To date, this had been a well-used service with 44 sessions taken up in the last quarter. In addition, the Council had an Occupational Health Service which provided the opportunity to ‘jump on’ issues as quickly as possible and a mental health action plan that could be put into place, to try and avoid an Officer having to take sickness absence, by providing the support they required at an early stage. The Member also noted that while the voluntary turnover and retention values were shown as percentages, it would be more helpful to have them in number terms. The HR and OD Manager undertook to include those figures in reports going forward but for the current report this equated to three people for voluntary turnover – two of which had fixed-term contracts – and two in terms of retention. In addition, the Head of Corporate Services advised that the Strategy had been assessed externally against the Health and Wellbeing Charter across all categories and had been awarded excellence in five out of eight. One of those was around mental health so the Council had a good record in that regard. Another Member welcomed that news and questioned what percentage of staff were currently off with work-related stress. In response the HR and OD Manager undertook to identify that figure and circulate to Members following the meeting. Whilst staff were using the support services offered, currently, fewer people were making use of the Mental Health First Aiders across the Council and there was a plan to promote them with staff. There had been sessions provided on wellbeing and a series of six sessions had recently been commissioned which would focus on mindfulness. A Member suggested that Councillors should also be included in the mental health and mindfulness training which was offered and the HR and OD Manager undertook to discuss this with the Head of Democratic Services.

46.5          Accordingly, it was

                 RESOLVED           That the progress of the Workforce Development Strategy                                         Actions be NOTED.