Agenda item

The Committee received a report from the Head of Internal Communications and Organisational Development regarding the emerging priorities for the next refresh of the Workforce Strategy.

Key facts emphasised in the report were – 

1. The Workforce Strategy sets out actions that would help achieve the Council’s vision to create an inclusive, high-performing, healthy and motivated workplace and become an employer of choice.
2. The plan was reviewed and refreshed annually, and this was now getting underway for 22/23. The strategy and associated action plan were set against significant progress in the Council’s transformation journey and would be shaped by core priorities of developing talent, health, and wellbeing, living with Covid, and embedding equality and inclusion in everyday practice.
3. There were six workforce strategy themes:

·       An empowering organisation – Creating a shared purpose and a positive environment where people are confident and enabled to do their best every day.

·       Equality and inclusion – Building an inclusive organisation where the workforce reflects the city we serve and the needs of all citizens, and where colleagues feel confident about being themselves at work.

·       Performance and talent development – Developing careers and managing performance in a meaningful way.

·       Workforce health and wellbeing – Keeping our workforce safe and healthy, and our workforce engaged and resilient

·       Structure, pay and policy – A clear framework to help redesign our council and improve employee relations.

·       Brand and recruitment – Becoming an employer of choice; attracting, developing, and retaining the best talent.

4.      The strategy would be aligned with the priorities in the new Corporate Strategy 2022-27, the equality and inclusion programme and the results from this year’s employee survey, which closes on 10 May 2022.

5. The strategy would involve consultation with a range of stakeholders, including staff led groups and trade union learning reps.

Following discussion and in response to Members questions the following points were raised/clarified:

1. The Council was proactively pursuing its goal of being an empowering organisation, creating a shared purpose and a positive environment where people are confident and enabled to do their best every day. This would ultimately embed itself throughout the organisation and be kept under continuous review to ensure that standards remained high.
2. Performance and Development was being given particular emphasis with focus on internal talent and development of careers via coaching, leadership development and self-help facilities such as the ‘Career Check-in and personal development plan’ and the recently launched ‘Grow your career’ hub to support colleagues to identify their strengths and aspirations, signpost to development opportunities and provide advice for applications and interviews.

3.      It was essential to work with a range of stakeholders to refine priorities and actions. Feedback from stakeholder sources included staff led groups, trade union learning reps, Mayor, Cabinet members, HR Committee, and the senior leadership team.

4. Important to include ‘green skills’ in the development of talents regarding current and emerging climate change issues.
5. Workforce health and wellbeing were even more important regarding the pandemic and the increasingly identified mental health issues arising from lengthy lockdowns.
6. Celebration of success was considered an essential component. One of the mechanisms for this was the Council’s ‘Extra Mile’ initiative, however there were many other ways of doing this such as through team meetings and one to one meeting’s where simply saying thanks to employees was actively encouraged. In addition to this, members were informed of informal ‘thankyou’ cards based on the organisational values.

Resolved – That the emerging priorities for the next refresh of the Workforce Strategy be noted.