Agenda item

INFORMATION NOTE OF THE HUMAN RESOURCES 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 – 7 minutes 19 seconds

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

·       There was a new Key Performance Indicator (KPI) for recruitment and this was shown in the table at paragraph 3.2 of the report.

·       There were fewer vacancies in the period April to June compared to 2023.

·       There had been 3 unfilled vacancies. These were, for the Senior Environmental Health Officer, IT Helpdesk Support Officer and the Information Officer.

·       Work was ongoing with the recruitment team to fill these vacancies and two of the roles had now been readvertised as career graded positions.

·       There would be a launch of the National Recruitment Campaign in November which would highlight a variety of Local Authority careers. The campaign will be supported by social media adverts and would run alongside the current recruitment branding.

·       Staff turnover had been below 9% since April 2024.

·       Union balloting was ongoing for industrial action regarding the national pay bargaining and an update was expected in late October.

·       Since 2013 there had been 81 apprentices hired, of which 35 were employed after completing their apprenticeships and 19 were still working for North Herts.

·       Two graduates had commenced employment with the Council under the National Graduate scheme, and they would be rotate between 4 departments, spending 6 months in each area.

·       Positive feedback had been received for the new Learning and Development systems which was launched in July and included mandatory training modules as well as bite sized learning.

·       A Digital and Data Academy had been launched alongside a specialist training provider and 20 members of staff had signed up for various courses.

·       The September Inclusion group discussed the inclusion-based staff survey and neurodiversity in the workplace. They also marked National Inclusion week with a webinar, personal development morning and updated E-learning tools.

·       Staff absences had decreased over the summer months and HR continued to support managers and staff absent with mental health or chronic health conditions.

The Service Director – Resources provided an update on the staff survey and highlighted the following:

·       Staff members had received two feedback sessions on the survey results and work was ongoing with various groups to look at the consistency of the results and any trends from comments.

·       The plan was to share action plans with staff in December or January highlighting general and specific actions.

·       2% of staff had responded to the survey stating that they did not feel safe in the workplace.

·       15% of staff felt that the organisation did not care about their wellbeing.

·       Work was ongoing to address the work safety concerns, however as the survey was anonymous this was not straight forward. Staff had been reminded that help was available from their managers, senior managers and through emailing HR help.

·       The survey highlighted that the Leadership team were thought of as inaccessible and work had commenced on addressing this.

·       There would be continued use of the intranet to increase staff awareness and inclusion.

·       There were positive responses regarding the Learning and Development offered to staff, however it was highlighted that staff felt that they did not have time to access it.

·       90% of staff said they would recommend working at North Herts Council.

·       Flexible working was highlighted as the best working benefit although it was acknowledged that this was not possible for all areas of Council business.

·       There would be feedback at staff briefings and to the Senior Manager Group with action plans expected to be in place from around January 2025.

The following Members asked questions:

·       Councillor Ruth Brown

·       Councillor Daniel Allen

·       Councillor Claire Strong

·       Councillor Rhona Cameron

In response to questions, the Human Resources Services Manager stated that:

·       The turnover rate was reasonable and the rate had remained steady, other that just after Covid.

·       Details of the turnover for other Local Authorities would be circulated outside of this meeting.

·       The Mental Health First Aiders were part of the ongoing preventative work to assist staff before a crisis.

·       Information was available on the Hub regarding occupational health and signposting to external agencies.

·       The E learning modules had been updated and included spotting the early signs of mental health issues and to raise staff awareness.

·       Timescales were not attached to the survey questions, if was therefore unclear if the results related to specific incidents or were from historical events.

·       The survey was anonymous, and staff have been encouraged to discuss any safety concerns with their managers or the HR team.

·       Public facing staff were provided with support as well as training and development tools.

·       Mental health support was also available through the Employee Assistance Programme (EAP).

·       There should be a hand over during a notice period to ensure the continued smooth running of the department.

In response to questions, the Learning and Development Manager stated that:

·       There were no figures relating to the usage of the Mental Health First Aiders, however they were in use and provided support and signposting, HR were only involved when their input was necessary.

·       There were 10 Mental Health First Aiders, who had regular team meetings.

·       New staff were made aware of the existence of Mental Health First Aiders.

In response to questions, the Services Director - Resources stated that:

·       The survey was anonymous, details surrounding the 2% of staff who did not feel safe in the workplace had been reviewed but were also still being reviewed to identify future actions.

·       The HR team supported staff when specific incidents occurred, the EAP also offered in the moment support.

The SCF Representative stated that any cases on the Portal system would turn red and be reassigned to a manager when overdue and that the Council were supporting ‘#servicewithrespect’ which had been featured in a recent email circulated to all staff and Councillors.