Agenda item

Charlotte Johns, Director of Strategy, and Laura Phillips, Deputy Director of People and Change, gave a joint presentation to update the panel on the Our People Strategy and the specific focus on the digital aspects and developments during the year.

The Director of Strategy gave an overview of the workforce data analysis. The Council employees c.4000 people. The Our People Strategy 2019 – 2024 has been co-produced with employees through extensive engagement sessions and surveys and built around the employee lifecycle. The strategy was approved in 2019.

The Director of Strategy listed the key questions and the linked issues detailed in the development of the strategy. The Director commented on the key points from the data collected during the process such as a reduction in sickness absence from 2019 and increased take up of the employee benefit scheme. The information was collated into a series of action plans aligned to the six areas of the employee lifecycle, for example, attracting the best people to the Council and creating a good first impression.

The Deputy Director of People and Change commented on the work being planned as part of a refresh of the strategy. The Deputy Director gave a more details about work being done to attract the best people to work for the Council. The process for recruiting managers has been improved and managers no longer have to log on multiple times and have access to applicant tracking data in real time, this is an example of a digital enhancement which has been introduced.

The Deputy Director commented on other changes aimed at attracting the best possible talent to help the Council to deliver its priorities and vision and also other changes introduced to support the continuation of recruitment and selection activities while working remotely using Microsoft Teams during the pandemic.

The Deputy Director commented on the work done to support and enhance the health and wellbeing of employees. There is a series of dedicated pages on the Council intranet website Our People Portal which highlight the support and resources available to employees. The changes were introduced in response to feedback from employees on changes they would like to see. The site also gives employees access to counselling and bereavement support. The work has been supported by regular communication with employees to raise awareness of the site and weekly video messages from the Chief Executive, highlighting key activities, and the importance of health and wellbeing.

In addition, work is being done to jointly develop with employees a series of pledges to health and wellbeing as part of the Council’s commitment to further improve support services available.

The Deputy Director commented on work done to better understand the diverse needs of the workforce through a series of the virtual engagement sessions. The sessions have been well attended and the feedback from employees has been positive and has led to a number of activities such as and yoga classes to encourage social interaction.

Kieran Simpson, EDI Advisor - LGBT Equality, gave a brief presentation to the panel on the work done to support a range of equalities initiatives across the Council.

The Deputy Director commented on the development of a new digital Learning Hub, which was launched in 2020 and is the one stop shop for all employees and Councillors to access information, learning and development activity and book courses. The service will be reviewed and improved in response to feedback.

The Director of Strategy commented on the plans for refreshing the Our People Strategy for 2021 and other linked developments. The panel were invited to comment on the presentation.

The Chair thanked the presenters for the excellent presentation. The panel queried the arrangements for staff appraisals as part of the employee lifecycle. The Director of Strategy confirmed that the appraisal process is a key part of that employee lifecycle in terms of people understanding how they're performing and contributing to delivering the Council's vision, aims and objectives.  The appraisal process was reviewed, and changes made in response to feedback from employees where there was support for the idea of wanting to have a two-way conversation in meetings between an employee and their manager.  These meetings are called ‘professional conversations’ and have replaced previous annual appraisal process.

The Director of Strategy gave further details about the frequency of the meetings and reassured the panel that there would be the opportunity to talk about all areas of work, including a specific discussion on health and wellbeing matters.

The panel thanked the presenters again for their presentation.

Resolved:

The panel agreed to note the presentation and progress made in the range of areas listed in the Our People Strategy 2019-2024.