Agenda item

Human Resources Management Statistics Quarterly Report - Quarter 1, April - June 2022

Minutes:

The Human Resources Officer said that she was happy to answer any questions which Members had regarding the report.

 

Councillor Alder referred to the equalities monitoring indicators as seen at paragraph 3.5.1 of the report and said that it would be helpful to have numbers given as well as percentages. The Human Resources Officer said that this preference would be noted for the next report.

 

The Chairman referred to page 92 of the report and asked for an update on the number of job vacancies at the council. The Human Resources Officer said that there were currently twenty job vacancies which were yet to commence recruitment. The Human Resources Officer said that these vacancies were currently being covered by agency staff or were under review, with the majority being within the Planning Department which had just undergone restructure. She said that the job vacancies which existed within the Legal Department and the Revenues and Benefits Department were on pause as these were difficult posts to recruit to and therefore different advertising campaigns were to be looked at.

 

The Interim Head of Human Resources and Organisational Development said that one of her areas of speciality was the recruitment of difficult posts. She said she would be working with the Human Resources Team to investigate what could be done to create a package to attract suitable candidates to such vacancies.

 

Councillor Dumont said that the vacancies within the Planning Department were not just an issue for East Herts Council and there was a national shortage of Planning Officers. He acknowledged that recruitment to East Herts was further challenged by its location on the border of London and London weighting, but that delays in planning applications were an issue that residents were coming to Members about. Councillor Dumont asked if there was anything which could be done differently to recruit to Planning vacancies, including the possible recruitment of candidates outside of the area who could work remotely. He asked if such actions could be detailed in the next report. The Human Resources Officer said that the Planning Department had just undergone a restructure, with most posts now being career graded. She said that this had been implemented to aid the recruitment and retention of officers following staff exit interviews which had given the lack of career development within the Planning Department as a reason for leaving the organisation. The Human Resources Officer said that new adverts for the current Planning Department vacancies were due to go out in the next two to four weeks.

 

Councillor Bull asked if smaller planning applications were being dealt with more quickly. The Human Resources Officer said that the more junior posts were already in situ to enable this, adding that these posts were easier to recruit to. 

 

The Interim Head of Human Resources and Organisational Development said that there were other recruitment tools which could be explored, including Human Resources policies which are not currently being used, for example in terms of renumeration. The Interim Head of Human Resources and Organisational Development said that a full analysis of what was going on around the council was required, and that she had joined the Hertfordshire Heads of Human Resources Group to obtain a true picture of the competition.

 

The Chairman said that the turnover and sickness of employees looked good and asked how East Herts compared to other local authorities. The Interim Head of Human Resources and Organisational Development said that any current information relating to this was only anecdotal and that she would be working with the Hertfordshire Heads of Human Resources Group to understand issues within Hertfordshire, the wider area and nationally.  

 

The Chairman referred to page 97 of the report and asked what percentage of staff were attending training and how this was monitored. The Human Resources Officer said that approximately ten percent of council staff were attending training, and this was scoped from the appraisal system. She said that training courses were advertised to staff, many of which were online/virtual sessions.

 

RESOLVED – that the Human Resources Management Statistics for Quarter 1 (April – June 2022) be considered and received.

 

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