Agenda item

The Head of People and Organisational Services submitted a report detailing the turnover and sickness absence statistics for the period April to November 2010.  Updates were also provided in relation to training and development and performance management.

The Committee was advised that the current turnover rate for the Council was 6.04% against a target of 12%.  The current voluntary leaver’s rate was 4.39% against a target of 8%.  It was noted that there were 22 leavers to date.  Short term sickness was 2.85 days per FTE against a target of 5 days and that the above average long term sickness was 1.19 days against a target of 2.5 days.

In response to a query from Councillor M Wood regarding an upsurge in short absences, the Head of People and Organisational Services confirmed that these figures did not take account of staff affected by winter flu. 

The Head of People and Organisational Services advised that the outturn for corporate induction was currently 40% with fifteen new staff starting this year.  Of those staff, six had been on an induction course.  Councillor C Woodward expressed concern about the induction levels and the role to be played by the Head of Service.  The Head of People and Organisation Services undertook to report back on this issue at the next meeting.

Updates were provided in relation to the Council’s Performance and Development Review (PDR) scheme with Revenues and Benefits achieving an outturn of 95.74%.  The outturn for the mid year review 2010/11 was 64.99% overall against a target of 100%.  Human Resources continued to push to improve on the overall target but it was recognised that it was the efforts of the Head of Revenues and Benefits that had achieved such good results.  It was suggested that such successes needed to be included in Team Update and people thanked for their efforts.  It was noted that a letter had already been forwarded to the Head of Service for her efforts.

It was noted that to date, 31.01% had received corporate training.  The target for 2010/11 was 85.44%.

In response to a query from Councillor J O Ranger concerning redundancies in relation the number of leavers, the Head of People and Organisational Services confirmed that there had been two.

In response to a query from Councillor C Woodward concerning vacancies and the sharing of services, the Head of People and Organisational Services explained that the Council used Manpower and that staff would have to apply for a role as an external applicant.  The Council’s vacancy lists were not shared externally.  She further confirmed that the Council was still actively recruiting. 

The Director of Internal Services confirmed that before vacancies could be advertised they had to first be approved by Corporate Management Team.  The preference was to move staff around internally.  Fixed term contacts were offered to new recruits.  In response to a query from Councillor J O Ranger about deleting posts, the Director confirmed that some posts affected by organisational change could be deleted and that 25 FTE posts might be affected over the next five years.

In response to a query concerning the training budget, the Head of People and Organisational Services confirmed that this was sufficient and that there had been a focus on engagement and behaviour and values which had been given via staff briefings.

Councillor J O Ranger stated that staff within the new organisation would need a lot more training once matters had settled down and would not wish to see the training budget cut.  The Director of Internal Services confirmed that there was nothing in the Medium Term Financial Plan to cut the budget.  The Head of People and Organisational Services confirmed that there would be a focus on up-skilling and looking at the skills staff currently had and the roles they played.

In response to a query from Councillor C Woodward regarding an evaluation of the FISH training, the Head of People and Organisational Services confirmed that she would respond to the Member by email.

Members considered the benefits to the Council of using apprenticeships and the role of the Government in this process.

RESOLVED  – that the report be noted.