Minutes:
The Committee considered a report of the Director of Corporate Resources
which provided an update on the Council’s Ways of Working programme and shared
the recommendations from the Scrutiny Task and Finish Group which met in
December 2021. A copy of the report, marked ‘Agenda Item 11‘, is filed with
these minutes.
In presenting the
report, the Director explained that there had been a great deal of success with
implementing the Ways of Working Programme, with leases agreed with external
tenants for space at County Hall which was not being used. He added that the leasing
of such space was being handled in a measured way while the Council’s internal
structures were settling but there were significant opportunities to increase
rental income. A pilot office model project had been running in County Hall
room 700 for some time and feedback had been received from staff involved. The
feedback would be used for future development with a key focus on developing a
positive and flexible working culture and to ensure managers had the resources
to effectively manage a hybrid team. A considerable amount of organisational
development support was in place in order to support teams in generating the
right culture for the new ways of working to be successful and to fully exploit
the benefits that were set out in the organisational business case. Moving
forward, productivity and efficiency would be the main focus across the
organisation, in light of the future MTFS reductions predicted and managers
would be using their skills to manage performance regardless of where people
worked.
In response to concerns expressed by the Committee, the Director
explained that:
i.
staff
would not be pressured to work from home as it was recognised that this could
lead to isolation. The majority of staff across the Council who were previously
completely office based had been included in the transition to flexible working
and there were no staff members working permanently at home. Each service had
developed a bespoke Ways of Working Action Plan to bring about the benefits of
flexible working for staff, service delivery to customers, the organisation and
productivity. There would be a focus on collaborative working, effective
management of productivity and sufficient social interaction within teams
rather than focussing on staff being based in the office for a specific number
of days. The Director explained that managers understood that some staff may
feel isolated and would hold regular reviews with their staff to discuss the
best working environment for them and to offer support, ensuring that they were
engaged, productive and included. He added that, the offer of flexible working
would form a key part of the recruitment and retention strategy, to mirror the
offer from the Council’s competitors as this was now an expectation from
potential applicants.
ii.
The safety
of staff working from home was paramount. All staff were required to complete
an online DSE assessment for their home environment and managers received
results of the assessment. Managers were holding conversations with staff
around their general wellbeing, working location, conditions and provision of
the correct equipment for carrying out their role. Members noted that there
would be difficulty in the Council eliminating all hazards around the
employee’s home environment which did not relate to their work-based activity.
iii.
Managers would use a range of methods to monitor
performance and productivity effectively, as well as supporting the wellbeing
of their staff, such as regular one to one meetings, wellbeing conversations,
customer feedback and tracking key deliverables. Staff performance would be
easier to measure in areas where activities would be tracked through numerical
targets, such as the Customer Service Centre, rather than in teams where, for
example, project working would be more common. A Performance Compendium had
been produced which indicated that productivity had been high across the
Council.
Arising from discussions, the following points were made:
RESOLVED:
That the report and the progress made towards the Council’s Ways of
Working programme be noted.
Supporting documents: