Issue - meetings

The Head of HR and OD briefly introduced the report. He expressed his thanks to Payroll for their continued good work. He said that a blended work offer was being prepared, which meant that staff could come back to the office full time, or accept an offer to split their time between home and the office on a 50/50 basis. This would give the Council and Officers the ‘best of both worlds’. There were some exceptions to this, such as caretakers, who would need to be permanently based at the office. As this was an offer to staff, it did not need to be written up as a formal policy and agreed at Local Joint Panel; if staff did not wish to accept the offer, they could reject it and return to the office full-time, as was outlined in their contract. This would be a fixed-term offer for one year, at which point the success of this approach would be reviewed.

Members were also advised that the HR Strategy was being drafted and would be presented at the next meeting of the Committee. There was also work being done on amending the policy around disturbance allowance as providing the current 18 month relocation provision to all staff if the Council moved premises would not be financially viable.

Councillor Dumont asked if the blended working offer would be presented as a formal written offer to Officers. He also asked if after a year the expectation would be that all staff returned to the office. Finally, he asked if the Council monitored staff’s working pattern or productivity when they were working from home.

The Head of HR and OD said that staff would likely make an application to be part of the new blended working scheme. Staff could work in the office full time if they wished. There would be a review after a year and the Council would have the ability to ask staff to return to the office at this point, although this depended on the success of the arrangement. There had been no active monitoring of Officers as staff relationships were built on trust, although there were ways a manager could consider how an employee was working if concerns were raised. Managers could also ask staff to come into the office and work alongside them if necessary.

The HR and OD Co-ordinator said that managers were encouraged to have at least three one-to-one meetings with staff each year at which their performance would be discussed. Members were advised that issues with performance were generally rare.

RESOLVED – that the report be received and considered.