PERFORMANCE AND AUDIT SCRUTINYCOMMITTEE January 2007
Report of the Director of Change Management ITEM: 6 Human Resource Matters
1. Purpose of Report
To provide a six monthly update on human resource matters.
2. Background
This Committee receives a regular quarterly report on HR matters. The last report considered was in September 2006 and covered the period April to June 2006. This report covers the period July to December 2006.
3. Numbers Employed
The number of people employed as at 31 December 2006 was 680. The gender and ethnic splits are as follows:
Date Male Female Total
31 May 2005 283 389 672 30 September 2005 287 407 694 31 December 2005 287 396 683 31 March 2006 278 405 683 31 May 2006 274 405 679 31 December 2006 288 392 680
ETHNIC GROUP NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES PERCENTAGE
White British 626 92.06% White Other 8 1.18% Black African 2 0.29% Asian Other 2 0.29% Bangladeshi 2 0.29% Chinese 1 0.15% Indian 32 4.71% Mixed Other 1 0.15% Pakistani 2 0.29%
White & Asian 1 0.15%
Wh&BI Caribbean 1 0.15%
Other Ethnic Group 2 0.29%
Total 680 100 This figure includes all permanent posts on the establishment and weekly paid employees.
The number of women in the organisation has reduced to 392 as at 31 December 2006
although the overall numbers of employees have increased slightly over the period from 679 to 680. The number of women who are in the top 5% of earners in the workforce has increased to 25% together with the top 5% of earners from ethnic minorities to 3% in line with the BVP1. The percentage of employees from minority ethnic communities has increased again and now stands at 7% (5.9% in September 2006). The percentage of disabled employees remains at 2%, which is below the BVPI target of 4%. This last BVPI can be an illusive one as it relies on self-selection. Advertising is still continuing on an ethnic minority website and steps will be taken to check that our data reflects the current position.
4. Turnover and Vacancies
The turnover rate for this period, as follows:
Male Female Total
Number of Leavers 18 32 50 Resigned 8 29 37 Dismissed 1 1 2 Redundancy 4 2 6 Retirement 2 0 2 Ill-Health Retirement 0 1 1 Other (End of Contract, Died in Service) 2 0 2
The number of leavers is 50, down from 63 in the previous two quarters. Sadly, one employee died in service during the period.
5. Sickness Absence
The sickness absence figures for both the second and third quarters are attached at Appendix 1 and 2. Sickness absence increased during the third and forth quarter to 2.5 days (4.3%) and 2.8 days (5%) respectively. Long term sickness accounted for 51% and 43% respectively of the total. This is a decrease from the first quarter where long term sickness accounted for 59% of the total. The increase in the third quarter was anticipated as part of the normal seasonal variance. However, records show a sharp increase in sickness due to viral infection during part of September and October, which had an affect on the sickness figures for this period. These figures are a significant improvement on those of the same periods in 2005. Then, sickness for the second quarter was 3.3 days per employee and for the third quarter, 3.2 days per
employee.
It, unfortunately, has not been possible to provide information on reasons for sickness this quarter due to the change to the new Trent HR and Payroll system. The report providing this information is currently being written by Midland Software. The next report to Committee will cover the third and forth quarters.
As part of the effort to manage sickness absence, regular meetings are now routinely held with staff who have been sick, including back to work interviews and sickness consultations. In addition case conferences are held for staff who have a significant record of sickness (both long-term and short-long-term). These case conferences involve members of the management chain including the Director, the Head of Human Resources and the Absence Adviser. The aim of these is to bring together all those who have an interest to enable timely and appropriate decisions to be made.
At the meeting of 17 October 2006, where Members considered sickness absence levels within the Chief Executive’s Department, data on comparisons between Charnwood and other similar authorities was requested. The Audit Commissions BVPIs for local authorities for the year 2005/6 has recently been published. From these figures it is evident that Charnwood appears in the bottom quartile for district authorities. The figures for district authorities are as follows:
Districts BVPI 12 Average 9.64 Top Quartile 8.29
Median 9.54 Bottom Quartile 10.92
6. Learning and Development
Several new courses were introduced in the final quarter of last year including; Dealing with Challenging Behaviour Workshop, Absence Management Training and a pilot for the Making a Difference Workshop that encourages employees to look for improvements in the service they deliver. All these new courses were well received with delegates identifying how they will implement learning to the workplace.
The new Welcome to Charnwood Induction Programme has now been fully implemented. And evaluation feedback from delegates shows that this has been well regarded. The 2006 Future Leaders Programme was completed in December with all the delegates delivering a
presentation on their personal leadership style and what they have learnt from the programme. Plans are currently being drawn-up for the 2007 Future Leaders programme.
The Institute for Leadership & Management (ILM) Award programme was completed in
October 2006, with eleven employees achieving the nationally accredited Leadership Award. In January 2007, a new ILM Coaching Certificate course will start. This has been developed in partnership with Loughborough University. Eight managers from Charnwood Borough Council will study alongside eight managers from the University who will also share good practice across the two organisations. Additional funded opportunities for Middle Management Development will also be provided through the Leicestershire & Rutland Partnership (LRIP) from February 2007.
Other planned learning events for early 2007 include a series of half-day I.T. workshops that will focus on individual needs identified through the completion of a pre-course online assessment form. Further training has also been organised in SharePoint, which is the software that drives the intranet.
Specific courses currently under development for Members at Charnwood include a workshop that will provide an overview of Project Management and an improved Induction Programme. Additional learning opportunities are also being developed in conjunction with the Member
Development Strand of the LRIP and Charnwood Borough Council’s Member Development Reference Group.
7. Trent – Integrated HR and Payroll system
Phase one of the implementation of the integrated HR/Payroll system Trent has been successfully completed with all monthly paid staff being paid via Trent from 1st October 2006, followed shortly by all weekly paid members of staff, Casuals and Members. In addition, during the period October to December, the Human Resources team has advertised 28 vacancies with 667 application packs being sent out and received a total of 711 application forms from applicants during the period of October to December 2006. All of these have been processed through Trent.
Whilst it is still early stages in terms of the system development we can already realise an improved look, feel and ease of use compared with the HR and Payroll legacy systems. There is now a single corporate source of information about the Council’s employees and establishment which will allow more effective corporate performance management reporting and give real savings on the cost of operating the Payroll system and a separate HR system.
Phase two of the project has begun. This includes the implementation of the Web-recruitment, People Development, Learning Events Administration and Occupational Health and Safety Modules. In addition to these areas Self-service is to be developed giving staff and managers access to the system for updating their personal information, requesting and authorising annual leave, booking training events etc. There will also be the improved ability to produce timely, accurate and relevant information through the reporting tool, Business Objects and to streamline and automate business processes through the use of Workflow.
8. Employee survey
All employees were invited to complete the annual anonymous employee survey in September 2006. A total of 110 responses were returned. This was a disappointing response compared to 2005 when a total of 374 people responded. However the results were still statistically valid. The results have been considered by SMT and CMT and managers have been asked to discuss these with their teams. Initial feedback is that the survey needs to be shorter and simpler. Concerns were also raised about how confidential the survey was.
The main findings show that 64.5% or respondents said that they were satisfied with their jobs as opposed to 30% who said they were dissatisfied. In 2005 59.5% of respondents were either satisfied or very satisfied with their job with 22.7% dissatisfied or very dissatisfied.
41.8% of respondents are satisfied (overall) with the way the council is being run. 55.6% of respondents are to some extent dissatisfied. In 2005, 34.5% were satisfied and 58.6% dissatisfied.
Over 50% of respondents said they find it difficult to manage competing demands on their time and 81.8% stated that they have to work intensively. 67.2% have to neglect some tasks because they have too much work to do.
Team briefings/meetings are seen as the most effective way of keeping up to date with what is happening in the Council (78.2% effective). Staff Matters, Core Brief, the Intranet and the Council Website were seen as effective by 45 – 50% of respondents.
48.2% of respondents feel that senior management are not willing to listen to staff ideas and opinions. 53.6% of respondents do not think that senior management are willing to act upon staff ideas and opinions. 19.1% think that they are willing to act. 53.6% of respondents do not think that senior management provide opportunities for staff to disagree with them on an issue and 58.2% of staff felt that senior management do not clearly explain to staff the reasons for their decisions. Brian Hayes, Chief Exec, said: “This is something that we’re looking into how we improve, reporting back how, when and why things have changed.”
The publication of the Job Evaluation results has had a clear impact on the attitudes expressed. It was evident from the free form section comments that emotions across the organisation are high.
Some initial decisions that have been made are:
A number of Corporate Plan briefing sessions are to be held in March and there will be opportunities for the issues raised in the survey to be addressed directly.
The Staff Suggestion Scheme will be reviewed.
There will be more, shorter surveys throughout the year – complemented by the larger survey to compare results across the years.
Core Brief will be merged into Staff Matters to simplify internal communications.
9. Other Employee Initiatives
Flu jabs were offered to 100 employees at the end of November as a trial. Due to shortages of stocks from the manufacturer, we received the vaccines 2 months later than anticipated. The vaccines were initially offered to from line staff and those working with vulnerable people. However, due to the low take up by these groups, the vaccines were offered more generally. The value of this initiative will be considered.
A number of policies are now being implemented to ensure the Council complies with
legislative requirements including Retirement, CRB Checks and Maternity. In addition policies including Flexible Working , Religious Belief, Smoking and Disability Leave are going through the final stage of consultation.
10. Harassment and Bullying, Disciplinary and Grievance Cases
The number of cases under the harassment and bullying, disciplinary or grievance procedures for the period April to June are as follow:
H&B Disciplinary Grievance
2 2 5
11. Job Evaluation and Equal Pay
After some delays, Appeal Hearings have commenced. In November, a pack of information and a completed questionnaire were sent to Unison Regional Headquarters for Unison to consider whether to recommend the scheme to their members. We are waiting the outcome of these deliberations, although Unison has, unfortunately, now put an embargo on any member ballots
in respect of job evaluation. This means that it has not been yet possible to make payments to employees whose job grades have been uplifted as a result of job evaluation.
Background Papers: Charnwood sickness absence figures Workforce Plan
Officer(s) to Contact: Jane Brinklow, 634606
Appendix 1 Sickness Absence Summary QTR.2 July - September 2006
Directorates (Monthly) Av. No. DAYS LOST ABSENCE RATE**
TOTAL ABSENCE
RATE BY SERVICE
AREA* DAYS LOST TOTAL
LONG-TERM ABSENCE % PER EMPLOYEE Change Management 0.3 0.6% 0.6% 12.5 0.0 0% Chief Executives 0.0 0.0% 0.0% 0 0.0 0% Public Services 2.4 4.2% 5.3% 70 24.0 34%
Deputy Chief Executives 2.4 4.2% 4.2% 132.5 108.0 82%
Development 1.6 2.8% 2.8% 91 37.0 41%
Housing & Health 3.6 6.4% 6.6% 357 194.0 54%
Leisure & Environment 1.3 2.2% 2.3% 72.5 0.0 0%
Partnerships & Customer Services 2.5 4.4% 4.4% 323.5 116.5 36%
Physical Regeneration 2.3 4.1% 3.0% 14 0.0 0%
Risk Management 5.2 9.2% 9.2% 87.5 63.0 72%
1160.5 543 47%
Directorates (Weekly) Av. No. DAYS LOST ABSENCE RATE
PER EMPLOYEE
Public Services 3.2 5.7% 235.5 188.0 80%
Deputy Chief Executives 2.5 4.3% 16 0.0 0%
Housing & Health 6.1 10.7% 34 25.0 74%
Leisure & Environment 1.6 2.8% 30 0.0 0%
Physical Regeneration 0.0 0.0% 0 0.0 0%
315.5 213 67%
Monthly Employees 2.4 4.1%
Weekly Employees 3.0 5.2%
Council Total 2.5 4.3%
* includes both monthly & weekly
Appendix 2 Sickness Absence Summary QTR.3 October - December 2006
Directorates (Monthly) Av. No. DAYS LOST ABSENCE RATE**
TOTAL ABSENCE
RATE BY SERVICE
AREA* DAYS LOST TOTAL
LONG-TERM ABSENCE % PER EMPLOYEE Change Management 0.7 1.2% 1.2% 27 0.0 0% Chief Executives 0.0 0.0% 0.0% 0 0.0 0% Public Services 1.9 3.3% 6.8% 31 0.0 0%
Deputy Chief Executives 1.8 3.2% 3.3% 108 22.0 20%
Development 2.3 4.0% 4.0% 131 63.0 48%
Housing & Health 3.8 6.8% 6.7% 436 203.0 47%
Leisure & Environment 1.0 1.8% 3.5% 78 0.0 0%
Partnerships & Customer Services 3.0 5.3% 5.3% 396 142.5 36%
Physical Regeneration 8.4 14.7% 10.1% 42 25.0 60%
Risk Management 6.0 10.5% 10.5% 98 87.0 89%
1347 542.5 40%
Directorates (Weekly) Av. No. DAYS LOST ABSENCE RATE
PER EMPLOYEE
Public Services 4.6 8.1% 201 109.0 54%
Deputy Chief Executives 2.6 4.5% 10.5 0.0 0%
Housing & Health 2.9 5.0% 16 0.0 0%
Leisure & Environment 4.6 8.0% 130 98.0 0%
Physical Regeneration 0.0 0.0% 0 0.0 0%
357.5 207 58%
Monthly Employees 2.6 4.6%
Weekly Employees 4.3 7.5%
Council Total 2.8 5.0%
* includes both monthly & weekly
