Agenda item

The Human Resources Officer introduced the report, highlighting its new format and dashboard approach which continued to include all the main areas of interest. She said that she welcomed Members feedback on this new format.

The Human Resources Officer said that the council staff headcount was approximately 300, and so this was the figure which the percentages within the report were based upon.

The Human Resources Officer gave the Committee statistics for staff absences due to stress in Quarter 1;

·               There were five long term staff absences which related to stress in the period. Of these five cases, three staff members had now returned to work, one staff member had retired, and one staff member remained absent from work.

·               There had been no staff members leave due to stress.

·               There were three short term staff absences which related to stress for the period, it was not recorded if this was absence due to work related stress or ‘other’ stress.

The Chairman thanked the Human Resources Officer for her report and update and asked if the 300 headcount was full-time equivalent (FTE).

The Human Resources Officer said FTE was 275.07, with a staff headcount of 308.

Councillor Connolly said that she thought that the dashboard format was great and thanked the Human Resources Officer for her work. She asked if the sickness absence data contained within the report was based on full time days and requested that this be specified.

The Human Resources Officer confirmed that the sickness absence statistics within the report were based on full time days, and that this would be specified in future reports. 

Councillor Connolly said that it was disappointing that there were no reported employee work related incidents and ‘near misses’ within the statistics. She said that such reporting should be encouraged as this could stop incidents from escalating into accidents.

The Health and Safety Officer agreed with Councillor Connolly and said that the reporting of ‘near misses’ was a focus. He said that a staff member’s reaction to a situation was individual, with many front-line staff not reporting abusive/ confrontational situations. He said that work would be done to reinforce that staff should report incidents.

Councillor Deffley said that he too thought that the new report format was great, and a step forward. He asked that an explanatory sentence be included under each of the bullet points. The Chairman agreed and said that it would be good to have the bullet points under categories.  

The Human Resources Officer said that Learning and Development was not included in the report, and asked the Committee if they would like to see this in future reports.

The Chairman said that this should be included as the Committee wanted to be kept informed about the development of staff.

Councillor Swainston said that she really liked the dashboard format and asked if comparison data with other local authorities could be included going forward.

The Human Resources Officer said that such comparison data could be included.

Councillor Connolly referred to page 48 of the report and asked what was in place for staff as both the Occupational Health and Employee Assistance Programmes were out of contract.

The Human Resources Officer said that new contracts were being investigated, but that she could not give a timeframe at present for when this process would be concluded. 

The Head of Strategic Finance and Property said that he was assisting Human Resources with the procurement of these new contracts and that the Employee Assistance Programme remained available to staff. 

The Chairman referred to exemption reporting and asked that explanations be given in the report as well as figures. She said that it would also be beneficial to the Committee to have sight of an organisational chart.

The Human Resources Officer said that an organisational chart was part populated and would be available to the Committee when completed. She said that the chart’s completion was dependent on the council obtaining a full licence from the software provider.  

It was moved by Councillor Hollebon and seconded by Councillor Connolly that the recommendations, as detailed be approved. After being put to the meeting and a vote taken, the motion was declared CARRIED.

RESOLVED – that (A) the Human Resources Management Statistics for Quarter 1 (April - June 2023) be considered.

B)  that the move to a dashboard approach for Human Resources statistics, with exception reporting only be agreed.

C) that it be agreed that non-staff Health and Safety issues are reported through Safety Committee meeting with minutes being sent to the Human Resources Committee.