Issue - meetings

The Head of Human Resources and Organisational Development submitted an updated that focussed on key areas that the HR and payroll team had been working on since quarter 2 of 2021/22 (July to September 2021).

The Chairman expressed how pleased she was to see the compliments for the work of the Trainee Human Resources Officer at paragraph 3.6 of the report. She congratulated the Trainee Human Resources Officer on completing her training.

The Chairman referred to the blended working offer having been made to all eligible Officers and asked about the timescale for Human Resources writing to employees once the blended working requests had been collated. The Trainee Human Resources said that she would be starting to write to Officers from next week and checking working patterns from next week onwards.

The Chairman referred to recent leavers from the HR team and said that a new Officer would be starting in January. She asked if there was any plan to recruit a new trainee now that Emily Cordwell was qualified. The Trainee Human Resources Officer said that the new HR Manager would be starting in January and advised that there was no plan to recruit new trainees and this was being offered up as a saving.

The Chairman commented on the new system provider to review the sickness absence reporting tools. She asked if it was realistic for this system to go live in December. The Human Resources Officer confirmed that the system would go live in December and she had been carrying out preparatory work within the test system to ensure that the software was working correctly.

The Chairman referred to the East Herts core competencies for Officers and said that there would be a delay due to sickness. The Human Resources Officer said that the Head of Human Resources and Organisational Development would be working on a new PDR form which would link in with these new core competencies

Councillor Curtis asked for an update in respect of progress towards there being a dedicated team within Development Management to deal with major development sites. The Human Resources Officer apologised that she did not have an update and she would get back to Members after the meeting. Members received the report.

RESOLVED – that the report be received.