Agenda item

Purpose of Item

      To set out the main services which HR & OD currently provides to the council, its managers and workforce, to enable members to focus on future areas they would wish to scrutinise in more depth.

Declarations of interest:

None.

Witnesses:

Carmel Millar, Director of People & Development

Ken Akers, HR Relationship Manager (Adults)

Rakhi Saigal, Strategic HR Manager

Managers with experience of restorative practice in the workplace:

Amy Howard (Adult Social Care)

David Sharpington (Environment & Infrastructure)

Lorraine Juniper (IMT, Business Services)

Key points raised during the discussion:

1.    The Director of People & Development introduced the report and explained that a key aim of the HR&OD service was to look after the interests of managers, staff and the workforce. By doing so, the organisation would have a happy, skilled workforce who give a great service to Surrey’s residents.

2.    Members questioned what the current issues being faced by Human Resources at Surrey could be described as. Recruitment and retention were highlighted as areas to be focused on. Certain services within the organisation had more difficulty recruiting – for example social care, procurement and chartered surveyors.  Members were informed that a Surrey Social Worker academy had been introduced, as well intensive recruitment campaigns in Children’s Services to deal with shortages in the social care workforce.

3.    Officers explained that the HR&OD service had recently refreshed their lone working policy, following an increasing national trend in physical and verbal abuse against public sector workers.  There was a clear no tolerance policy on violence, meaning that officers should never accept abuse as ‘part of their job’.   A number of refreshed policies were referenced, and it was agreed that it would be helpful to receive a briefing note once the current period of policy-review had been undertaken.

4.    Members queried methods of retaining staff.   The Director of People and Development explained the importance of understanding why employees were leaving the organisation, and advised that exit interviews were always undertaken.  There was also a Best Companies Staff Survey being completed by staff at the moment, which would help understand what makes employees want to stay with Surrey County Council.  It was explained that exit interviews suggested the top reasons for officers leaving the organisation were salary related, exceeding full potential within current role and seeking different opportunities.

5.    The Board understood and stressed the importance of staff recognition, and ensuring staff feel valued and supported within their role.  They saw the importance of appraisal in recognising staff potential.

6.    Members noted that at peak periods, there were large numbers of vacancies across the Council.  These periods of demand were sometimes addressed by employing agency workers.  This was particularly the case in services such as Highways and Children’s  Services due to periods of demand and the urgency of their work.  Agency working would be considered in more detail in the next item on the agenda.

7.    The Senior Manager (Adult Social Care) explained to the Board, the current challenges she faced regarding staff retention, demand and vacancies.   To tackle the challenges, teams were visiting different colleges and advertising roles locally to attract new talent. 

8.    The Strategic HR Manager informed the Board that since 2013, HR&OD had led a culture change programme of work, focussing on supporting the resolution of employee relations issues across services via a restorative approach. This was seen as an alternative to the formal disciplinary or grievance route. The approach involved encouraging staff to resolve conflict at work in a more informal manner.

9.    Members heard from three team managers who had used restorative practice in their teams.  This included an example where a restorative culture had led to a reduction in the number of disciplinary procedures, a case that demonstrated improved staff morale and a number of opportunities where outcomes had been improved for staff and managers.

10.  The restorative practice approach would be promoted through workshops and presentations to different services and teams.  HR Advisors had now all been trained on restorative facilitation, and the number of cases being dealt with through this informal process was increasing.  Members queried whether the lack of written policy was an issue and whether this made it difficult to distinguish when matters should be taken through a formal HR policy route.  Emphasis was given to the extensive training that HR staff had received on how to support managers.  It was noted that some cases would still take a formal route, however, those formal conversations would take place in a more restorative manner.

11.  The Director of People & Development explained to the Board that HR Advisors now spent around 50% of their time on restorative cases, and 12% on formal cases.  This was in direct contrast to East Sussex, who still had a number of formal and compromise agreement cases. Members emphasised the importance of preserving the Surrey brand within the Orbis partnership (East Sussex and Surrey County Council shared services).  Upon discussing the importance of building a culture of coaching and restorative practice, Members urged the need to have manager champions, who would maintain the ethos as the HR service moved into a shared partnership with Orbis.  It was agreed that a future item could be brought to the Scrutiny Board on the culture of restorative approaches in Orbis.

Further action/Information to be provided:

• Officers to provide:
  • statistics about the  number of cases that are resolved through restorative approaches.
  • A briefing note on major changes made to HR policies, following the current period of review and refresh

Recommendations:

That the Council Overview Board would receive a future item on:

Recruitment and retention, vacancy management, “looking after our staff” and equipping managers to deal with HR issues.