Agenda item

[To receive the outcome of the internal audit review into the Council’s performance appraisal scheme]

The Committee discussed the report from an internal audit review of the Council’s new performance appraisal scheme. 

Cllr Phil Bateman commented that the Council’s employee personal development policy went hand in hand with the performance appraisal scheme and would be key to the Council moving forward.    Therefore managers must not lose sight of the personal development of employees when they undertake a performance appraisal. Peter Farrow confirmed that personal development was one part of the appraisal process along with work planning for the year ahead.

Mike Ager, Independent Member requested more detail on who held responsibility for performance appraisals within the Council and on the targets and deadlines for implementing the suggested/agreed actions to address the issues identified by the review.  He requested that the appropriate employee update the Committee on these two points. 

The Chair reported that the views of the Committee on the low take up of the Council’s performance appraisal scheme were well known.  He supported the proposal for the appropriate senior employee to attend the Audit (Monitoring of Audit Investigations) Sub Committee meeting on 21 July 2014 to discuss the review report and its recommendations further.

Referring to one of the suggested/agreed actions from the review, Cllr Christine Mills stated that managers should be ‘engaging’ with appraisals and the various training/policy opportunities available to them to perform appraisals rather than being ‘encouraged’ to do so.

In response to the Committee’s comments Keith Ireland, Strategic Director Delivery reported that ultimately he was responsible for this area.  He reported that he believed there was an element of underreporting of appraisal interview meetings but that the figures were disappointing.  He informed the Committee that the issue for him was the quality of the conversations taking place between managers and employees during an appraisal.  Following completion of the Equalities training for employees and councillors the next focus would be performance culture and appraisals.

Cllr Alan Bolshaw reported that through his conversations with Council employees some found the appraisals process overly bureaucratic and too tightly structured with a one size fits all approach. Also at a time when employees are leaving the Council some employees have said that they have more important things to think about than to plan their work for the next year and their personal development needs. 

In response to these points Keith Ireland reported that the Council was a corporate body with a single policy for all its employees. In the application of the policy there was flexibility as to how the appraisal is conducted.  In Service Facilities where some employees work small contracted hours, team goals are set and social workers have supervision instead of appraisal.  He also reported that the appraisals process had been slimmed down and was not overly bureaucratic. Moving forward the Council was making progress and there were some pockets of good practice within the organisation but in the main it was not good and the Council was nowhere near where it needed to be. Employees would need to be more performance orientated and this transformation would take two to three years. 

Peter Farrow also reported that Audit Services would undertake a follow up review of the appraisals process in six months’ time, the results of which would be reported back to the Committee.

Resolved:

            That the Cabinet Member for Performance and Governance and the Strategic Director for Delivery be requested to attend the meeting of the Audit (Monitoring of Audit Investigations) Sub-Committee to continue the discussion on the internal audit review report.