Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from Councillor Ruth Pickersgill, Councillor Jo Sergeant attended as substitute from 11.30am.

The Chair welcomedall parties to the meeting and introductions were made.

There wereno declarations of interest.

To agree the minutes of the last meeting as a correct record.

Resolved – that the Minutes of theprevious meeting held on 4 July2019 beagreed as a correct recordand signed by the Chair.

         Matters arising:

Minute no.5 - a member asked if the former Chair had written to Councillor Cheney regarding the implementation of the Top 10 Actions to achieve maximum Apprenticeship Levy spend. The Head of Human Resources confirmed that he had e-mailed a narrative to the former Chair to enable this. The former Chair confirmed he had received the e-mail from the Head of Human Resources.

Minute No.8 – a member asked about progress regarding the setting of salaries/starting salary point of newly appointed senior staff raised at the last meeting. The Director: Workforce & Change said that the Constitution/ToR’s were being looked at for both Selection Committee and Human Resources Committee and changes were anticipated to be in place by the new Civic Year. It was noted that the current situation that a senior post could not be formally offered until the HR Committee had approved the starting salary was not the most efficient method. The Members of the Committee asked that Councillor Cheney be formally invited to the HR Committee as soon as possible so that they could ask questions and discuss the proposed changes.

NB. up to 30 minutes is allowed for this item

Any member of the public or councillor may participate in Public Forum.  The detailed arrangements for so doing are set out in the Public Information Sheet at the back of this agenda.  Please note that the following deadlines will apply in relation to this meeting:-

Questions - Written questions must be received 3 clear working days prior to the meeting.  For this meeting, this means that your question(s) must be received in this office at the latest by5 pm on 20 September 2019.

Petitions and Statements - Petitions and statements must be received on the working day prior to the meeting.  For this meeting this means that your submission must be received in this office at the latest by 12.00 noon on 25 September 2019.

The statements were received and noted. Tom Merchant – Bristol Unison was in attendance and spoke to the Committee. The Head of Human Resources responded to the issues raised in the statement and confirmed that Joint Consultative Committees were being established. Members of the committee requested a verbal update at its next meeting. In relation to Councillor Stevens statement the committee noted the statement and were advised that the Council does not operate a bonus scheme for its employees. The Head of Human Resources agreed to respond to Councillor Stevens on the issues raised in the statements as soon as possible.

To note the work programme.

WorkProgramme for 2019/20 was noted. A member asked if a detailed update report on the Council’s exit payments that were the subject of recent publicity and asked if this could be included in the Work Programme, this was agreed.

The Committee received a report updating on recent Pay and Reward developments and the proposed changes to Apprenticeship pay arrangements.

Comments made –

1.     It was noted that an increase in Apprentice pay had the potential to be a highly influential tool for greater social mobility and encourage applications from less well-off areas of the City, which had historically seen less take up compared with other areas;

2.     Increasing apprentice pay would improve the attractiveness to young people seeking an apprenticeship role and this would, in time, reduce the likelihood of Levy funds being passed from the Council to the Treasury;

The Committee welcomed the changes to Apprenticeship pay arrangements and the positive action being taken to recruit underrepresented groups into new apprenticeship roles.

Resolved - that the proposed Pay and Reward developments including the proposed Apprenticeship pay arrangements, be welcomed and noted.

Presentation to be shared on the day

The Committee received a presentation updating the situation regarding the Council’s recently installed HR and Payroll Implementation system – iTrent.

The Committee was advised that the introduction of the Council’s new system had gone well but there remained some issues and challenges. Future roll outs of the system would be timetabled accordingly and published on ‘The Source’. An issue relating to Council members paper payslips was raised and it was agreed that this would be looked into.

Members expressed their thanks to the Director: Workforce & Change and the Human Resources team for initiating and implementing the system.

Resolved – that the presentation be noted.

The Committee received a detailed report about the Council’s Draft Health and Wellbeing Plan setting out the Council’s priorities to improve the Wellbeing of the Workforce.

Comments made –

1.     Issues around agile working such as staff having to carry equipment (eg laptops) required more consideration;

2.     Pockets of poor practices in some work teams needed to be targeted and improved on, it was suggested that engaging directly with staff might enable progress to be made;

3.     Important to build on good practices so that lessons could be learnt and utilised to improve areas that were underperforming;

4.     Greater consideration should be given to increasing the number of private/soundproofed areas in open plan offices to enable confidential/personal issues to be better dealt with;

5.     Some of the issues connected with health & wellbeing would be picked up by the Council’s new workforce dashboard eg, stress, sickness, cultural issues;

6.     Important that management attended training courses to enable early intervention on a range of employee related issues;

7.     Suggested that to help with musculoskeletal problems staff be encouraged to attend therapeutic exercise sessions, noted that employees had flexitime and ability to self-manage their own time to help with this eg ensuring breaks were taken.  

Resolved – that the Council’s draft Health and Wellbeing Plan be welcomed and noted.

Presentation to be shared on the day

The Committee received a presentation about the Council’s new Workforce Dashboard which used advanced analytic tools to display important Human Resource metrics, utilising interactive and interrogative functions.

Members welcomed the new dashboard and the clear advantages that it would bring. Officers agreed to send a PDF version to all members to enable members to interrogate the information further.

Resolved – that the new Workforce Dashboardbe noted and that a PDF version be sent to all members of the Committee.

That under s.100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public be excluded from the meeting for the following item(s) of business on the grounds that it (they) involve(s) the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in paragraph(s) 1 (respectively) of Part 1 of schedule 12A of the Act.

That under s.100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public be excluded from the meeting for the following item(s) of business on the grounds that it (they) involve(s) the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in paragraph(s) 1 (respectively) of Part 1 of schedule 12A of the Act.

1.     Executive Director: Growth & Regeneration

In considering this item members felt that, whilst acknowledging the decision of the Selection Committee, scrutiny regarding the process of recruitment to this post would be desirable. Members also asked that the handover phase between the present incumbent and the new appointee be made as quickly as possible and to be informed of the details of this as soon as possible.

On being put to the vote there were five in favour and two against.

Resolved – that the annual salary of the Executive Director: Growth & Regeneration be approved as recommended by the Selection Committee and as set out in the report.

2.     Director: Housing & Landlord Services

       On being put to the vote there were five in favour, one against and one abstention.

Resolved – that the annual salary of the Director: Housing & Landlord Services be approved as set out in the report.