Agenda item

The Committee will consider a report updating on the deliverables in the Buckinghamshire Council People Plan which supports employee experience and workforce ambition.

Contributors:

Councillor John Chilver, Cabinet Member for Accessible Housing & Resources

Councillor Tim Butcher, Deputy Cabinet Member for Resources

Sarah Murphy-Brookman, Corporate Director for Resources

Sarah Keyes, Service Director for HR & OD

Papers:

Buckinghamshire Council Employee Experience and Workforce Ambition report

Buckinghamshire Council People Plan appendix

The Chairman invited the Cabinet Member for Accessible Housing and Resources, Councillor J Chilver, to introduce the report. The Cabinet Member highlighted the following points in the report:

·       The report set out the five-year Buckinghamshire Council People Plan and highlighted the achievements made over the first two years since the creation of the Unitary Authority, and the Council’s priorities for the remaining three-year period. Targets had been met for five indicators, but fallen short in seven.

·       The report also assessed the positive factors supporting recruitment and retention in staff, such as flexible working arrangements and good working relationships. Areas of concern were staff turnover, limited career progression and opportunities for personal growth, which had been noted and addressed in the new key deliverables over the next three years.

·       The team had faced some challenges in light of the pandemic and the national context of job availability. The resilience of staff had been identified as a key component for the Council’s People Strategy, and also for delivering high-quality services to residents.

·       The Coaching for Performance process and the Buckinghamshire Staff Awards had been identified as crucial for providing recognition and reward to maintain employees. The Buckinghamshire Manager and Leader Programme had been successful in providing leaders with the skills needed to manage their workforce development and growth. Social work academies, apprenticeship programmes and the Kickstart programme had also been successful.

The following points were noted during the Committee’s discussion:

·       In the last 12 months, 86 staff had left the Council in their first year of employment: 35 (41%) of were on fixed-term contracts. 15 employees worked in the Communities Directorate and 12 in Children’s Services. The Cabinet Member advised that discussions were taking place with Children’s Services to understand issues around staff retention in more detail. Further analysis would also be undertaken to understand if there were any patterns in leavers, for example in terms of age groups. Furthermore, the ‘Kickstart’ programme provided temporary work experiences, with only some of the employees becoming permanent. A Member questioned whether it was reasonable to include fixed-term workers in the ‘leavers’ statistic, as this may not be a fair reflection on retention and recommended this be reviewed. It was confirmed that the Council used recruitment organisations for temporary contracts, and a ‘clawback period’ would be invoked if appropriate.

·       It was noted that the Council had several mechanisms in place to retain good staff members and manage organisational changes. Coaching for Performance served as a way for staff and managers to establish a dialogue. Particular attention is paid to equip managers with the skills necessary to manage change through a series of workshops. The staff survey also included employee feedback from all staff below the Chief Executive level to ensure satisfaction. A change charter had also been implemented to inform staff of how change would be managed. Furthermore, the staff award ceremony would be taking place in 2022 to recognise staff for their contributions. The 2% pay increase and 1% one-off award had gone some way to retain staff however pay was identified as not being the only factor contributing towards retention; factors such as holiday, sick pay, pension and wellbeing were important for maintaining staff satisfaction.

·       In response to a Member’s concerns around staff leaving due to workspace rationalisation, it was noted that feedback was regularly sought from employees through the Work Smart Programme. It was also highlighted that full-time staff were expected to work from the office for a minimum of two days a week and this expectation was also outlined to candidates. Staff would use the time in the office primarily for meetings and other collaborative tasks, and productivity remained constant throughout. Issues that had arisen in terms of call response time were not linked to flexible working, but rather the increased demand on services throughout annual cycles (e.g. home to school transport).

·       There was a difference in sickness levels between frontline and back-office staff so it would not be suitable to lower the KPI for sickness further. Whilst the overall sickness rate was at 9.7 days per FTE, this decreased to 8.18 when excluding covid related absences. Furthermore, the Resources and Deputy Chief Executives Directorates reported sickness levels well below this point. Sickness rates were benchmarked against other local authorities, with Buckinghamshire Council being in the mid-range. Members requested that this benchmarking be circulated to the Committee

ACTION: S Keyes

Staff were also offered physiotherapy and mental health support to enable a smoother return to work.

·       A Member’s feedback about providing a clearer sense of the organisations’ direction through communicating the Council’s values and building the Council’s culture through social media channels, such as Facebook and LinkedIn, was welcomed. It was also noted that more information from staff was needed to establish where the Council’s sense of direction was clear.

·       It was highlighted that the Council’s HR and OD activities and strategies were necessary to remain competitive as an employer. Different detailed work plans were in place to ensure that future developments could successfully be implemented and were relatively low cost in terms of resources.

·       Agency social work numbers were reviewed by the Corporate Management Team on a monthly basis. The costs for these employees were also monitored against what a permanent staff member would receive. Although the use of agency workers had not been decreased as much as had been hoped for due to increased demand, the cost had reduced significantly due to a new rate with the agency being negotiated. There had also been an increase of social workers being trained in-house.

·       Training for managers was targeted based on organisational needs so courses such as managing discipline and grievance had not been held to date. Whilst such content would still be delivered, a needs assessment had identified that areas such as managing change were a priority for both staff and managers.

·       The Council planned to target the older labour market that may be looking to return to work having retired early.

The Chairman thanked the Cabinet Member for the report.