Issue - meetings

The Human Resources Services Manager presented the Information Note entitled ‘HR Update’.

Audio recording: 7 minutes 28 seconds

The Human Resources Services Manager presented the Information Note entitled ‘HR Update’.

·        Recruitment key performance indicator shows number of vacancies filled first time and the comparison shows quarter two for year 2024/2025 vs quarter two for previous year.

·        During the second quarter this year, there had been 6 more vacancies compared to the same period last year and two more vacancies were not yet filled.

·        Various  roles had been recruited to this quarter including some posts in hard to fill areas such as Environmental Health and IT.

·        There were still some unfilled posts within this period.

·        Work was continuing with recruiting managers where a post had yet to be filled, to look at the role and to suggest amendments or changes within the job description or the advertising process to achieve more success with future recruitment.

·        A national recruitment campaign for local government was launched in November 2024. Councils were asked to support the campaign by using materials as a part of their recruitment adverts and an advert had been published in the December Outlook magazine. There were plans to continue to use the materials provided to enhance branding of the Council on social media and customer facing locations.

·        Turnover had remained below 9% since April.

·        National Pay Bargaining Outcome – pay award was agreed in October 2024. This had been backdated to April and paid to employees in November. The 2025 National Pay Bargaining had now started. There was a Regional Employees Briefing arranged for next month.

·        There were 12 apprentices now in posts who were completing various apprenticeships. Areas included business admin, ICT technician, digital marketing and a digital support technician. The levy provided varied apprenticeships that fitted within the varied service areas of the Council.

·        Graduates from the National Graduate Scheme started in October and have settled in well. Each graduate completed four rotations lasting six months each covering a variety of services and projects.

·        A new learning management system launched in July. Since then, mandatory training on that platform was being phased in.

·        Following the launch of the digital and data academy by the digital team, two additional employees had participated which brought the total to 22. Apologies for the error on the paper which stated 20.

·        The Inclusion group met in November, where discussions were focused on the Peer Review, Gender Pay Gap and the White Ribbon Action Plan.

·        Equalities, Diversity and Inclusion E-learning which was launched in October 2024 currently had an 80% completion rate. There were plans to work alongside the inclusion group and managers to increase this figure.

·        A neurodiversity network launched in December 2024 with the first meeting being well attended.

·        Update on Gender Pay Gap Data – the mean pay gap for 2024 was 14.6%. Overall, there had been a steady improvement in gender pay gap at the Council. The updated action plan included support for flexible working, the mentoring scheme for women and encouraging female applicants to apply for senior roles.

·        Absence update  ...  view the full minutes text for item 19