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’, following which Members asked questions.

Audio recording – 8 minutes 16 seconds

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

·                Paragraph 3.2 of the Information Note provided an update on recruitment. The table within this highlighted the Key Performance Indicator (KPI) for Q4 and the recruitment data showed that this had been met. There was also a comparison of data with the same quarter in the previous year within the table.

·                79% of vacancies were filled at the first attempt and most were filled at the second attempt, however, there were fewer vacancies in Q1 this year compared to the same quarter in the previous year.

·                Paragraph 3.3 highlighted staff turnover which continued to be approximately 9%. This was higher than last year but the Local Government Association (LGA) benchmarking tool which used Infinistats showed that their staff turnover percentage was broadly in line with other councils in the East of England.

·                National Employers had offered a 3.2% increase across all NJC pay points for the majority of employees, however, UNISON were still demanding an increase of £3,000 across all spinal column points and were advising their Members to reject the offer. 

·                Two apprentices had attended the LGA Apprentice of the Year event that took place in May. This was an online event which brought together apprentices across the country to encourage collaboration and the development of skills required to tackle challenges in local government.

·                Graduates were in their second rotation of service areas and interviews for the second cohort had been completed.

·                The graduate recruitment process was managed by LGA and candidates went through a robust assessment process to reach the shortlist for panel interviews. Graduates could receive offers from more than one employer which could lead to more interviews if their preferred candidate decided to accept a job offer from elsewhere, however, they expected the next graduate to start in Autumn 2025 if they were successful.

·                HR had developed bite sized training sessions for managers which were designed to be short and focused sessions to develop their knowledge and skills in key areas. They would continue to develop these based on feedback to fulfil the action on this which was detailed in the Staff Survey Action Plan.

·                Employee Wellbeing was detailed at paragraph 3.8 and the Council had participated in Mental Health Awareness Week in May by signposting staff to internal and external resources and providing them with videos about maintaining positive mental health.

·                The activities of the Inclusion Group (IG) were set out in paragraph 3.9 of the Information Note. Their meeting in June included a guest speaker from a charity called ProAge who worked to create inclusive workplaces.

·                The IG had discussed the Supreme Court ruling on the meaning of sex within the Equalities Act and they would await the guidance that was due to be released on this later in the month.

·                Additional guest speakers would be invited to attend future IG meetings to shift the focus of the group to other areas  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5