Agenda item

To consider a report on HR and Organisational Development issues

The Organisational Development Manager presented a report which provided a general update on human resources issues.

It was reported that the Making A Difference annual staff awards had taken place in December 2014.  The winners of each category were as follows:

·         Employee of the year for support staff 2014:

Jonathan Sayer

·         Employee of the year for front line staff 2014:

Becky Yates

·         First-time manager of the year 2014:

Lee Hudson

·         Manager of the year 2014:

Jonathan Potter

·         Team of the year for collaboration 2014 – joint winners:

Connecting Cheshire Partnership

Supported Employment Team

·         Team of the year for outstanding service 2014:

Youth Crime Prevention

·         Members’ choice 2014 – joint winners:

Lorraine Rushton

Congleton and Macclesfield SMART

·         Corporate Leadership Board award for community impact:

Housing Options

·         Deputy Leader’s award for special public service:

Tim Kingston

·         Leader’s Award for employee of the year:

Sue Walczak

As part of the Council’s continued work to build staff engagement, there was a proposal to hold four half day conferences entitled the ‘Big Event’, which would share and update colleagues on the opportunities and challenges ahead for the Council.   The Committee expressed an interest in the events, asking about attendance, post event evaluation and costings.

A new and market leading employee recruitment system known as Taleo was expected to go live on 15 January 2015.  Jointly commissioned with Cheshire West and Chester Council and CoScious, the new system would replace the current vacancy management system which was no longer fit for purpose.  The Taleo system supported the end to end recruitment cycle from identifying the need/vacancy through to sourcing potential candidates, engaging and managing candidates through the process, completing checks and formalities and bringing them into the Council.    The Committee asked that the access to job opportunities was not confined to on-line applications but tailored to the potential candidate pool and ensuring access to disabled and disadvantaged applicants.

Work would commence shortly to develop the Council’s Workforce Strategy for 2015/18.  The outcomes of the workforce strategy were as follows:

·         Have an agile, multi-skilled, engaged and high performing workforce able to respond to the challenges and opportunities ahead

·         Where appropriate attract and retain the best people from all sectors of the community to work for the Council

·         Share and deploy available resources across the Council in the best way to ensure priorities are achieved.

The Committee commented on objectives and themes of the Workforce Strategy.  Further details would be brought to the Committee in due course.

Shared parental leave was a new legal entitlement for eligible parents of babies due, or children placed for adoption, on or after 5 April 2015 and allowed both parents with the opportunity to consider the best arrangements to care for their child during the child’s first year.   As a result of the legislation,

HR would being reviewing the Council’s maternity, paternity and adoption leave and pay policies and procedures to make the necessary administrative changes.  The Committee would be updated on any changes to these policies once the review had been completed.

Work was being undertaken on the possibility of using pay variance to support the retention of key staff on an exceptional basis.  The Committee expressed a number of reservations in doing this and it was agreed that further work would be carried out on the policy.

The Council was required to produce and publish a pay policy statement by 31 March on an annual basis.  Cabinet would be considering the pay policy at its next meeting and make recommendations to Council on 26 February for adoption.  A copy of the draft pay policy was shared with the Committee.  A shorter version of the pay policy had been developed which focused on the Council’s broad pay principles and policies which would require minimal updating each year.  Further information would be provided by web based links which could be updated as appropriate – providing a relevant and reader friendly format. 

It was reported that six people had left under the voluntary redundancy terms in Quarter 3.  The total severance costs for all six employees was £275,636 inclusive or redundancy and actuarial costs.  It was estimated that over the next five years, these reductions would save the Council over £1,095,555.  The terms for voluntary redundancy would be reviewed in September 2015.

The Council was providing 200+ work experience sessions for  your adults and school children and arranging 50 apprenticeship pathways for schools and college leavers into employment.  Three people with learning difficulties had been offer Apprenticeships and of these, two had moved into permanent roles with the Council.  Just under 3% of Apprentices had declared a disability.  In addition the Supported Employment Teams supported individuals with various disabilities into paid employment within the Council and external organisations.

The Gold and Silver HR consultancy packages had been bought back by 138 schools, which was a slight decrease on last year due to some schools joining Multi Academy Trusts which provided their own HR support.

The changes to the disciplinary, grievance and dignity at work policies and procedures, reported at the last meeting, had now been considered by the Corporate Leadership Board and Trade Unions and the policies and procedures  are in the process of amendment .  It was asked if the proceeding resulting from these policies and the appeal hearings could be tape recorded.  The Committee was in support of the idea.  Officers agreed to explore the idea further and report back to the Committee.

The cumulative average days lost to sickness in the third quarter were slightly higher than in the pervious financial year.   It was agreed that a special meeting should be held to discuss sickness absence in more detail.

RESOLVED:

1          That the report be noted. 

2          A special meeting of Staffing Committee be held to discuss sickness absence.