Issue - meetings

INFORMATION NOTE OF THE HR SERVICES MANAGER

To update the Joint Staff Consultative Committee on the progress made in the last quarter completing HR work and projects and supporting people issues.

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

Audio recording – 14 minutes 57 seconds

The Human Resources Services Manager presented the Information Note entitled ‘HR Update’ and advised that:

·                Paragraph 3.2 provided an update on recruitment. The table within this highlighted key recruitment data and the key performance indicator for Q3 compared with the previous year. The quarterly target for this had been met.

·                Compared to the previous year, there were a similar number of vacancies including apprenticeships in Communications, Careline and Human Resources. A similar number of vacancies were also filled at the first attempt in both quarters although there was one Senior Planning Officer position that had remained vacant.

·                Turnover was approximately 9% and she was aware that the Committee had requested a comparison on turnover data and they believe that used the LGA benchmarking tool to achieve this. However, the data for this would not be available until the end of the financial year, and they would continue with quarterly monitoring on turnover until it was available.

·                The Union had submitted a claim for a £3,000 pay increase on each spinal point. Once the national briefings for employers had taken place, it was expected that an offer would be made by the employers and they would continue to monitor this and provide updates to the Committee.

·                National Apprenticeship Week took place in February and the Communications Apprentice developed the communications for the Council that week with a quote from one of the Service Directors who was previously an apprentice at the Council.

·                Graduates had almost completed their first of four rotations within Council service areas and would be moving onto their second rotation soon. There would be further recruitment through the graduate scheme later this year. 

·                Paragraph 3.7 provided an update on learning and development. They continued to raise staff awareness on the resources that were available to them on the learning management system and there were several development activities on there that were linked to the Staff Survey Action Plan.

·                The Inclusion Group meeting in February focused discussion on equalities data and provided feedback on a poster that had been developed to promote support to staff as a result of the action plan. 

·                The Equalities Diversity and Inclusion E-Module was at an 86% completion rate and saw a 6% increase in January. They would continue to work with department managers to increase this figure further.

·                8.84 days per full-time employee were lost due to absence over the last twelve months which was slightly down on the previous report.

·                COVID cases had reduced, but there were a high number of flu and cold cases which were expected at this time of year.

·                Several employees that were previously on a long-term absence had completed return to work procedures.

Councillor Ruth Brown thanked the Human Resources Services Manager for her report and highlighted that the return of many staff from long-term absence was good to see.