Agenda item

To receive a discussion paper on the Staff Survey carried out in 2024.

RESOLVED: That the Committee commented on and noted the Discussion Paper on Staff Survey 2024.

Audio recording – 21 minutes 26 seconds

The Service Director – Resources presented the Discussion Paper entitled ‘Staff Survey 2024’ and advised that:

·                The first paragraph of the report gave background on the Staff Survey and detail how it had been conducted.

·                The Action Plan contained a long list of actions that were developed to address the comments and concerns that had been raised from the survey.

·                Feedback from the survey as well as general comments from staff indicated that the Council was a good place to work, however there was always room for improvement.

·                There was a focus on certain situations where staff did not feel safe and specific actions had been developed to address these.

·                Workloads and pay were recurring points of discussion at the Council and comments had been raised on these in the Staff Survey. The Council were limited with their resources to action these points, however, they would still look to investigate them where possible.

·                There were false notions that training budgets had been cut and an action had been developed to reassure staff that this had not taken place.   

·                A Staff Conference would be likely to take place across three to four days in the autumn.

·                Appendix A detailed the Staff Survey Action Plan which had been discussed at the Staff Briefing and published onto the intranet.

The following Members asked questions:

·                Councillor Val Bryant

·                Councillor Ruth Brown

·                Councillor Rhona Cameron

·                Councillor Claire Strong

In response to questions, the Service Director – Resources advised that:

·                Engaging with four hundred people in one large venue for the Staff Conference would be difficult, however, they could look into it and compare it with the current plan in place.

·                It would be best for the Customer & Digital Services Manager to give information on the staff provisions in the Customer Service Team and so the question in relation to this would be answered after the meeting.

·                Customer Service Officers generally received one of the lower grades of pay, however they were not neglected in terms of support and had access to the same resources that were available to the rest of staff.

·                Recruitment to the Customer Service Team would continue to be an issue, however, they had made progress on this and would continue to work to secure its future in terms of staffing.

·                The Union wanted the Council to provide updates on Local Government Reorganisation in meetings with them going forward. The Council already provided updates in staff briefings on this topic.   

·                Cabinet agreed a risk in relation to Local Government Reorganisation and Devolution on 18 March. This included HR implications on getting to the stage of devolution, and the impact on staff in terms of change.

·                The Devolution White Paper had brough a lot of uncertainty to the Council, but they did not want this to cause undue concern amongst staff. 

·                Cabinet had expressed their desire to see staff surveys to check in on staff wellbeing and this would be carried out in due course.

·                A small number of comments in the Staff Survey were in relation to the working relationship with councillors and there was training already available on this which the Action Plan acknowledged.

·                Since the Staff Survey, training had been provided to Members on the working relationship with officers and this would be undertaken yearly to reemphasise this.

·                Officers were given confidence to report any concerns they had about working with Members but the reverse of this was also encouraged where Members had concerns about officers.

·                They were open to conversation with Members and Group Leaders to establish Member Development Champions.

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

·                Team Leaders were present in Careline and Customer Service making it possible for officers to step away from stressful situations if needed.

·                The GROW Zone should be sending reminders to Councillors regarding training and this would be investigated.

In response to questions, Councillor Val Bryant advised that:

·                She had spoken about the plans to mitigate the potential problems that would arise from the Devolution White Paper at the Cabinet meeting on 18 March.

·                Meetings were held with the Service Director - Customers, Assistive Technologies Manager and the Customer & Digital Service Manager monthly to hear reports from their areas. At the last meeting, it was reported that they were not fully staffed, a lot of staff were new, and the call response rate was down in terms of the number of seconds it took for officers to answer phone. They gave support to individuals. She would feedback the concerns raised from this meeting to their next meeting. 

·                A major piece of work related to staff support and wellbeing relating to the White Ribbon initiative was being carried out.

·                The White Ribbon Working Party met every 6 weeks, and they had created a 42-page action plan which addressed the working relationships between Members and officers. She would circulate this to Members of the Committee, but it would also need further circulation as the response rate from Members had been low. 

Councillor Ruth Brown highlighted the need for more staff and Member training, however, she acknowledged that Members who needed the training the most would probably would not undertake it.

RESOLVED: That the Committee commented on and noted the Discussion Paper on Staff Survey 2024.