Report of the Director of Human Resources and Organisational Development 

This report provides an overview on HROD activity with a focus on employee experience. It covers updates on Our Ways of Working, Service Design, the Performance Management framework and approach, recruitment and an update on casework with a focus on the organisations handling of suspensions.

The Committee considered a report of the Director of Human Resources and Organisational Development (HROD), which provided an overview on HROD activity within the Council.

Key point and themes of the report included:-

·                Updates on Our Ways of Working, Service Design and the Performance Management framework and approach;

·                An overview of the Workforce Equality Strategy and its aims;

·                An update on recruitment, including a proposed refresh of the Recruitment and Selection policy; and

·                An update on casework with a focus on the organisations handling of suspensions.

Some of the key points that arose from the Committee’s discussions were: -

·                What the acronym EDI referred to in the report meant;

·                No reference to the Talent and Diversity team working with care leavers to strengthen employment pathways to the Council;

·                How difficult it was for the Work and Skills team to engage with young people NEET through the pilot programme to subsidise and support young people's participation in training direct and whether this work was undertaken on a ward-to-ward basis;

·                The frequency of Equality Employee Network meetings and how we can ensure these meetings are meaningful;

·                How are challenges within the Equality Employee Network resolved and evidenced;

·                The inclusion of transgender employees within the Equality Employee Network and Workforce Equality Strategy;

·                Potential solutions to the lack of system in place for recording and monitoring About You performance development meetings;

·                Satisfaction at the decrease in number of safeguarding-related conduct cases;

·                What the Council was doing to continue improving safeguarding and to prevent the abuse of power within Children and Adult Services; and

·                The length of time taken to recruit staff and what was being done to improve this.

The Director of Human Resources and Organisational Development advised that EDI was short for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion and that this would be referenced in full in future reports.

The Talent and Diversity Lead provided assurances that the work of his team focused on strengthening employment pathways for all residents and that this encompassed care leavers. It was also explained that the Work and Skills and Education teams were responsible for identifying new cohorts for the pilot programme to engage with young people NEET and that the Talent and Diversity team were involved in connecting young people to opportunities within the Council.

Members were advised that the Employee Equality Networks met monthly with Network members involved in work between meetings in areas such as OD and performance. The Networks also have a governance structure – the Corporate Equalities, Diversity, Inclusion Leadership Group - in place, chaired by the Strategic Lead Member for Race and made up of directorate members and Chairs of the Networks, which meets bi-monthly.

Disputes within the Networks would initially be approached within the monthly meetings or escalated to the Strategic Lead for Race or the Corporate Equalities, Diversity, Inclusion Leadership Group.

The Talent and Diversity Lead also provided assurances that both the LGBT group and transgender employees were engaged throughout the development of the Workforce Equality Strategy and the ‘Tell Us Once’ programme was cited as an example of this collaborative work.

The Head of Workforce Strategy acknowledged issues around being unable to document and monitor ‘About You’ sessions and explained that a corporate system with oversight of performance reviews was proposed and that staff would be consulted on this for ideas.

It was also clarified by the Director of Human Resources and Organisational Development that HROD were responsible for the outcome of a safeguarding inquiry and advised that the length of suspensions within Children’s and Adults Services had recently been reduced by not awaiting the outcome of a police inquiry.

In response to queries regarding the time taken to recruit, the Director of Human Resources and Organisational Development highlighted that the Recruitment team had evaluated the process, consulted with candidates and recruiting managers and redesigned the process to improve the time taken to recruit and appoint. A new recruitment system had been procured to further improve this.

A commitment was also provided to include feedback from staff about their experiences of working at the Council in a future HROD update report. 

Decision

The Committee:-

(1)      notes the report and

(2)      requests that feedback from staff about their experiences of working at the Council be included in a future HROD update report.