Corporate Resources & Regional Affairs Overview & Scrutiny ...committeedocs.northumberland.gov.uk/MeetingDocs/23341_M6470.pdf2016) to assess baseline position Initiate culture change

B

Corporate Resources & Regional Affairs Overview & Scrutiny Committee Date: 7 July 2016

Annual Update Report for Workforce (2015/16)

Report of the Director of Human Resources

Portfolio Member: Councillor David Ledger, Deputy Leader of the Council

Purpose of the Report

The purpose of this report is to:

Provide an annual position statement in relation to workforce related areas of

assurance, workstreams/associated action plans and progress to date within key

areas for Northumberland County Council

To provide assurance to the Corporate Resources & Regional Affairs Overview &

Scrutiny Committee that there is provision and monitoring in place to achieve

necessary Key Performance Indicators relating to workforce for 2016/17.

Recommendations:

The recommendations are:

Corporate Resources & Regional Affairs Overview & Scrutiny Committee

note the contents of the report.

Link to the Corporate Plan

The Northumberland County Council (NCC) Corporate Plan for the period to 2017 has

identified a number of core strategic priorities and supporting key organisational actions

of which the following are particularly relevant to the workforce:

Make the best use of our limited resources to ensure maximum benefit for all

citizens in all communities across Northumberland.

Create a unified Council where all staff and elected members understand their

role and are motivated to deliver excellent services.

2

Listen to and value the views, concerns and ideas of staff.

Work in partnership and collaborate with others to deliver services as effectively

as possible.

Key Issues

An integral part of the Council’s success in delivering high quality services to the

population of Northumberland is based on the workforce of the Council. This report

previously considered the work of the Sickness Management Board. This report has

now been extended to cover the wider workforce issues which are managed by the

Council’s newly introduced Workforce Committee which it has established following the

appointment of a Director of Human Resources.

Background

1. Following the appointment of the Director of Human Resources, the Council has

established a wide range of metrics to manage workforce related issues across

the whole council.

2. Managers are held to account through the new Workforce Committee which is

held on a monthly basis and managers are provided with a suite of workforce

metrics for their area in advance of the meeting which is sourced from the

Council’s e-business system.

3. Focussed attention is paid to absence management but also to other key

performance indicators such as induction, statutory and mandatory training,

appraisal and overpayments for example.

4. The Workforce Committee also monitors the progress of the HR/OD Strategy

which has eleven workstreams of activity, all which impact on the workforce

across all areas of the council.

Update on the HR/OD Strategy

A HR/OD Strategy is now in place for Northumberland County Council with 11 key

workstreams which all have specific action plans. Progress within the last quarter of

2015/16 for each workstream is outlined below:

Prepare employees and the organisation for the practical implementation of agile

working

3

Agile worker training sessions developed and underway (separate sessions for

managers and employees)

NWoW Champions Group being reviewed and Terms of Reference established

with clear responsibilities and alignment to changes with accommodation, IT and

new

Initial Draft of Agile Policy drafted

Series of Intranet poll questions to be posed (for publication prior to end of May

2016) to assess baseline position

Initiate culture change and supporting programme of sustained and focused

employee engagement

SWOT analysis completed of current means of engagement

Review of past employee survey and quotes obtained for 2016 survey

Launch of screen savers across the Council

Closer working with communications and trade unions to establish key messages

to be delivered in line with an annual communications plan

Initial work undertaken to scope annual staff awards

Review employee relations and Trade Union partnership working ensuring it is

meaningful, productive and focussed

Revised Partnership Agreements drafted - 1 x schools and 1 x non schools.

Constructive initial discussions with local trade union reps regarding the number

of stewards operating within the County Council.

Established that Facility Time can be recorded and reported on via e-business

Initial Terms of Reference drafted in respect of Joint Consultative Group.

Established the process for UCATT to be recognised by the County Council.

Ensure HR Information Systems are deployed in a timely and efficient manner,

maximising the ability to extract core HR metrics and management data

Dashboards developed for the Workforce Committee identifying key metrics

Work has commenced between HR and Employee Services to understand clear

metrics for HR

Initial management data has been provided with feedback obtained.

4

Establish an organisation-wide workforce plan is in order to assure future service

delivery through having the right resources with the right skills at the right time

Draft workforce planning toolkit devised

Draft management guidance for use (toolkit) devised

Draft data set produced

Agreed pilot areas for using the Workforce Planning toolkit

Establish and embed succession planning and talent management capability

within the organisation to improve resilience and capability

Draft Succession Planning policy/process devised

Draft Succession Planning toolkit developed

Agreed pilot areas for using the Succession Planning toolkit

Evaluation completed on NCC's current position re Apprentices and Graduates

Improve recruitment process to stimulate greater supply and more robust and

consistent selection of candidates who have a long term future in the

organisation

Development of new exit questionnaire

Delivery of “Confident Interview Skills” Classroom Event

Recruitment and e-learning training modules gone live

Honorary Contract process now in place

Benchmarking exercise completed

DBS policy drafted

Refine and streamline HR/OD Policy and standards to ensure a consistent

organisational approach and the clear demonstration of effective governance

Priority Policies identified and updated

Standardised policy template and approach developed

Trade Union group established for reviewing policies

Policy review and approval mechanism designed and implemented

Learning provision being developed to support implementation of policies

Review current occupational health arrangements and step change to an overall

health and wellbeing plan built to support current and future organisational needs

Joint Occupational Health Service established with effect from 9th April 2016

5

Greater range of services in place to address sickness absence

Increased range and improved capacity of what Occupational Health service is

offered

Nurse led service now is place which is cost effective

Move to shared service delivered robustly and on time

Draft plan of focussed health and wellbeing initiatives for 2016 ready to be rolled

out.

Build an integrated and highly professional service for the organisation as a

whole which is cost effective, resilient and focussed (on delivering the HR/OD

Strategy)

Analysed HR activities/resources as delivered

Reviewed service provision with stakeholders

Restructuring plan devised to facilitate improved service position

Ensure the targeted delivery of relevant learning and development interventions

to ensure that staff and managers alike have the correct expertise and skill sets

to properly and consistently deliver on HR and wider organisational priorities.

Training Needs Analysis process completed and new required learning 2016/17

published

Ten new modules created using adaptive content and modern instructional

design techniques – over 50 hours of new content published and made available

31/03/16

New corporate induction sessions and manager guidance developed

Over 500 staff trained on back care in response to identified corporate H&S risk

and as positive management action to address musculoskeletal injuries within

Local Services.

Required Learning/ Statutory and Mandatory compliance training reports

developed and future reporting requirements agreed.

Key Performance Metrics

Labour Turnover

6

CorporateResourcesDirectorate

Fire andRescue

Directorate

HumanResourcesDirectorate

LocalServices

Directorate

Planning andEconomy

Directorate

StrategicProperty

Directorate

Wellbeingand

CommunityHealth

ServicesDirectorate

LTR Headcount % 11.72% 10.94% 10.17% 13.53% 21.05% 11.11% 12.28%

LTR FTE % 11.53% 10.56% 8.36% 12.30% 20.29% 10.57% 11.13%

NCC LTR FTE % 11.81% 11.81% 11.81% 11.81% 11.81% 11.81% 11.81%

NCC Headcount LTR % 12.75% 12.75% 12.75% 12.75% 12.75% 12.75% 12.75%

0%2%4%6%8%

10%12%14%16%18%20%22%24%

LTR Headcount%

LTR FTE %

NCC LTR FTE %

NCC HeadcountLTR %

Labour turnover over the last twelve months remains relatively static at 12.75% against

a national estimated average of 12% (LGA). There is some variance amongst

directorates which is illustrated below as follows:

Learning and Development Performance

Performance Appraisal

During 2015/16 the total % of all staff who had a performance appraisal recorded was

22%. This is significantly under the expected level of performance of at least 85%.

Need

(Headcount)

Number completed

(Headcount)

% Total remaining

(Headcount)

%

4070 906 22.26% 3164 77.74%

Work is now underway to ensure that managers and employees are aware of the data

recording requirements relating to the performance appraisal process. The appraisal

process and the associated documentation is also being reviewed and will be re-

launched during 2016/17.

Workforce Committee will agree schedules for achievement of appraisals with

Directors/Head of Service and then monitor the performance levels achieved by

Directorate and service on a monthly basis to ensure the appropriate performance

levels are achieved for 2016/17.

7

Basic Induction Programme

During 2015/16 new employees to Northumberland County Council have been required

to complete a basic induction programme online. Performance to date for all employees

has been as follows:

Need

(Headcount)

Number completed

(Headcount)

% Total remaining

(Headcount)

%

4070 2155 52.95% 1915 47.05%

From May 2016 all employees have been required to complete a half day “Welcome to

Northumberland County Council” face to face induction which outlines all of the

corporate learning requirements a new employee will be required to undertake and

ensure that performance is monitored to ensure these are achieved within the first four

weeks of employment. Monitoring of attendance and completion of both corporate and

local induction programmes are being monitored by the Workforce Committee. Initial

feedback has been excellent, those who have attended have confirmed that they have

found the session useful and that they now understand the vision, aims and objectives

of the Council as well as how the Council is structured and the expectations of them as

an employee. We are continuously receiving feedback from employees and improving

the sessions regularly. We have also delivered some bespoke sessions for seasonal

workers within local services (in local depots) and individuals have found these

particularly very helpful.

Information Security and Governance Programme

Annually all staff are now required to complete their information security and

governance training which can be completed in a number of ways:

E-learning

Face to face

Workbook

8

For 2015/16 performance was as follows:

Need

(Headcount)

Number completed

(Headcount)

% Total remaining

(Headcount)

%

4070 1769 43.46% 2301 56.54%

There are some forthcoming changes to be made to the Data Protection Act and this is

being reflected within the training materials and staff can now complete this training in a

number of ways. Workforce Committee is monitoring performance relating to achieving

the required levels of compliance for Information Security and Governance.

Statutory and Mandatory Training

A revised Corporate Training Needs Analysis (TNA) has been developed for all

Northumberland County Council staff which will be monitored for compliance directly by

Workforce Committee.

The ten core subjects that all employees are required to undertake is as follows:

Equality and Diversity – 3 yearly refresher

Manual Handling awareness – 3 yearly refresher

Safeguarding Children awareness – 3 yearly refresher

Safeguarding Adults awareness – 3 yearly refresher

Information Security and Data Protection awareness – annual refresher

Fire Safety awareness – annual refresher

Health and Safety awareness – one off

Stress Awareness – one off

FOI and Subject Access refresher – one off

PREVENT awareness or WRAP – one off

Workforce Committee has agreed schedules for achievement of appraisals with

Directors/Head of Service and the performance levels achieved by Directorate and

service are being monitored on a monthly basis to ensure the appropriate performance

levels are achieved.

9

MONTH Lost FTE Days Estimated Cost MonthEstimated Cost

per Month

April 2495.53 £236,002.27 April £236,002.27

May 2382.70 £225,331.94 May £225,331.94

June 2699.30 £255,272.80 June £255,272.80

July 2789.73 £263,824.77 July £263,824.77

August 2479.29 £234,466.46 August £234,466.46

September 2800.23 £264,817.75 September £264,817.75

October 3180.06 £300,738.27 October £300,738.27

November 2901.76 £274,419.44 November £274,419.44

December 2844.22 £268,977.89 December £268,977.89

January 3299.38 £312,022.37 January £312,022.37

February 3421.30 £323,552.34 February £323,552.34

March 3432.00 £324,564.24 March £324,564.24

Sickness Absence including Estimated Costs (Last 12 Months)

£273,665.88

Total Estimated cost of sickness = £3,283,990.54

Total Number of FTE Lost Days by Month

Average Cost per month =

0.00

500.00

1000.00

1500.00

2000.00

2500.00

3000.00

3500.00

4000.00

Any compliance/performance issues are raised by the Director of Human Resources

with the relevant Director/Head of Service and compliance will be discussed on a

quarterly basis by the Corporate Leadership Team in the form of a formal Workforce

Assurance report.

Health and Wellbeing

The new shared service for Occupational Health (including Physiotherapy, Counselling

and Psychology) came into being on 9th April 2016. Transition has been well planned

and there are some significant additional benefits for staff and managers with the new

service. A Management Board is in place to review and manage the new service and

activity and quality is being reviewed on a quarterly basis. Initial feedback from staff

from staff and managers is positive and a number of individuals are returning to work

earlier than expected using the advice from the Occupational Health service.

Sickness Absence

Sickness absence for 2015/16 had an annual cost of £3.284m. The average number of

FTE lost days per month is approximately 2894 or 1.21 days per month per employee

(total 9.85 per annum) benchmarked against an estimated average of 8.8 per annum

nationally.

10

Directorate Cost of Sickness

Corporate Resources Directorate Total £327,196.96

Fire and Rescue Directorate Total £246,189.63

Human Resources Directorate Total £21,961.39

Local Services and Housing Delivery Directorate Total £1,060,707.38

Planning and Economy £77,504.58

Strategic Property £17,188.75

Wellbeing and Community Health Services Directorate Total£1,445,372.57

Cost of Sickness Absence by Directorate

£327,196.96£246,189.63

£21,961.39

£1,060,707.38

£77,504.58

£17,188.75

£1,445,372.57

£0.00

£200,000.00

£400,000.00

£600,000.00

£800,000.00

£1,000,000.00

£1,200,000.00

£1,400,000.00

£1,600,000.00

Corp

ora

te R

esou

rces

Directo

rate

Tota

l

Fir

e a

nd

Re

scue

Directo

rate

Tota

l

Hum

an R

eso

urc

es

Directo

rate

Tota

l

Lo

ca

l S

erv

ices a

nd

Housin

g D

elive

ry

Directo

rate

Tota

l

Pla

nnin

g a

nd

Econo

my

Str

ate

gic

Pro

pe

rty

Wellbe

ing

and

Com

mu

nity H

ea

lth

Serv

ices D

irecto

rate

To

tal

The cost of sickness absence by Directorate (see below) similarly shows the greatest

areas being Wellbeing and Local Services where the headcount is significantly higher.

Reporting of sickness absence using e-business is being actively promoted and

providing information to managers and HR representatives at a local level is proving

useful to managers in helping them identify trends, patterns and local issues. Work will

continue on refining this information throughout 2016/17 so that as much information as

possible will be provided in an automated way and will be accessible to all managers

and supervisors within the organisation at all levels.

It is recognised that nearly 51% of all staff assignments have had some absence due to

sickness during the last twelve months (as outlined below).

All

Assignm

ents

Assignments with Absence

Assignments

Without

Absence

Percentage

without

absence

4,070 2,063 2,007 49.31%

Staff (Assignments) without Sickness (last 12 Months)

50.69%

49.31%

Assignments withAbsence

Assignments WithoutAbsence

11

Work is ongoing to promote wellbeing with staff with the key focussed health and

wellbeing initiatives for 2016/17 identified as:

Stress

Resilience

Physical Activity Challenge

Flu

Hand Hygiene

MOT Health Checks

Occupational Health, Public Health and HR/OD are working across the Council to

deliver these areas within a structured programme during 2016/17.

Information is being analysed to ensure that each directorate understands their sickness

absence information with FTE lost days by Directorate information and the associated

costs being provided to managers and the Workforce Committee on a monthly basis.

MONTH FTE Lost Days Estimated Cost MonthEstimated

Cost per Month

April 218.24 £22,077.16 April £22,077.16

May 208.54 £21,095.91 May £21,095.91

June 317.79 £32,147.64 June £32,147.64

July 226.49 £22,911.73 July £22,911.73

August 246.32 £24,917.73 August £24,917.73


October 408.89 £41,363.31 October £41,363.31



January 403.52 £40,820.08 January £40,820.08


March 324.53 £32,829.45 March £32,829.45

£27,266.41 Total Estimated cost of sickness -Average Cost per month -

FTE Lost Days by Directorate Including Cost - Corporate Resources Directorate

£327,196.96

0.00

50.00

100.00

150.00

200.00

250.00

300.00

350.00

400.00

450.00

Ap

ril

Ma

y

Ju

ne

Ju

ly

Au

gu

st

Se

pte

mb

er

Octo

be

r

Nove

mb

er

Dece

mb

er

Ja

nu

ary

Fe

bru

ary

Ma

rch

12


Cost per Month

April 152.74 £17,833.92 April £17,833.92

May 156.11 £18,227.40 May £18,227.40

June 148.94 £17,390.23 June £17,390.23

July 151.23 £17,657.61 July £17,657.61

August 156.8 £18,307.97 August £18,307.97


October 287.05 £33,515.96 October £33,515.96



January 207.74 £24,255.72 January £24,255.72


March 188 £21,950.88 March £21,950.88

£20,515.80 Total Estimated cost of sickness -Average Cost per month -

FTE Lost Days by Directorate Including Cost - Fire and Rescue Directorate

£246,189.63

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

January

February

March


Cost per Month

April 12.22 £1,388.93 April £1,388.93

May 7.16 £813.81 May £813.81

June 0 £0.00 June £0.00

July 3 £340.98 July £340.98

August 0 £0.00 August £0.00

September 15 £1,704.90 September £1,704.90

October 32 £3,637.12 October £3,637.12

November 10 £1,136.60 November £1,136.60

December 2 £227.32 December £227.32

January 8.5 £966.11 January £966.11


March 79.84 £9,074.61 March £9,074.61

£1,830.12 Total Estimated cost of sickness -

FTE Lost Days by Directorate Including Cost - Human Resources Directorate

£21,961.39Average Cost per month -

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

Ap

ril

Ma

y

Ju

ne

Ju

ly

Au

gu

st

Se

pte

mb

er

Octo

be

r

Nove

mb

er

Dece

mb

er

Ja

nu

ary

Fe

bru

ary

Ma

rch

13


Cost per Month

April 1055.43 £85,753.69 April £85,753.69

May 1030.73 £83,746.81 May £83,746.81

June 1202.93 £97,738.06 June £97,738.06

July 1208.61 £98,199.56 July £98,199.56

August 1022.28 £83,060.25 August £83,060.25


October 1122.72 £91,221.00 October £91,221.00



January 1163.16 £94,506.75 January £94,506.75


March 1129.54 £91,775.13 March £91,775.13


FTE Lost Days by Directorate Including Cost - Local Services and Housing Directorate

Average Cost per month - £1,060,707.38

0

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

1400

Ap

ril

Ma

y

Ju

ne

Ju

ly

Au

gu

st

Se

pte

mb

er

Octo

be

r

Nove

mb

er

Dece

mb

er

Ja

nu

ary

Fe

bru

ary

Ma

rch


Cost per Month

April 19.96 £2,296.40 April £2,296.40

May 23.48 £2,701.37 May £2,701.37

June 20.72 £2,383.84 June £2,383.84

July 53.1 £6,109.16 July £6,109.16

August 61 £7,018.05 August £7,018.05


October 94.8 £10,906.74 October £10,906.74



January 47 £5,407.35 January £5,407.35


March 69.5 £7,995.98 March £7,995.98


FTE Lost Days by Directorate Including Cost - Planning and Economy Directorate

Average Cost per month - £77,504.58

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

Ap

ril

Ma

y

Ju

ne

Ju

ly

Au

gu

st

Se

pte

mb

er

Octo

be

r

Nove

mb

er

Dece

mb

er

Ja

nu

ary

Fe

bru

ary

Ma

rch

14

Work is currently ongoing to address short and long term sickness absence with the

HR/OD team receiving and reviewing the data regularly together with ensuring that

managers and individuals are clear on expectations.

Further Key Performance Indicator’s to be developed

Further KPI’s are to be developed to support the wider workforce issues which include:

Reliance on agency staffing


Cost per Month

April 0 £0.00 April £0.00

May 0 £0.00 May £0.00

June 8.76 £1,015.81 June £1,015.81

July 13.68 £1,586.33 July £1,586.33

August 0 £0.00 August £0.00


October 27.06 £3,137.88 October £3,137.88



January 14.6 £1,693.02 January £1,693.02


March 0 £0.00 March £0.00


FTE Lost Days by Directorate Including Cost - Strategic Property Directorate

Average Cost per month - £17,188.75

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

Ap

ril

Ma

y

Ju

ne

Ju

ly

Au

gu

st

Se

pte

mb

er

Octo

be

r

Nove

mb

er

Dece

mb

er

Ja

nu

ary

Fe

bru

ary

Ma

rch


Cost per Month

April 1036.94 £99,494.39 April £99,494.39

May 956.68 £91,793.45 May £91,793.45

June 1000.16 £95,965.35 June £95,965.35

July 1133.62 £108,770.84 July £108,770.84

August 992.89 £95,267.80 August £95,267.80


October 1207.54 £115,863.46 October £115,863.46



January 1530.63 £146,863.95 January £146,863.95


March 1640.59 £157,414.61 March £157,414.61


FTE Lost Days by Directorate Including Cost - Wellbeing and Community Health Services Directorate

Average Cost per month - £1,445,372.57

0

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

1400

1600

1800

Ap

ril

Ma

y

Ju

ne

Ju

ly

Au

gu

st

Se

pte

mb

er

Octo

be

r

Nove

mb

er

Dece

mb

er

Ja

nu

ary

Fe

bru

ary

Ma

rch

15

Recruitment and Selection (including time to recruit and compliance with pre-

employment checks)

Fixed Term Contracts (Use of)

Equality and Diversity

The Council increased its score and achieved 25th place within the top 100 employers

rated within the Stonewall Equality Index as well as being the third highest placed Local

Authority. Julius Veasey, from Stonewall, gave some useful feedback to the Council on

our submission on 11th February and this will be used to inform future work.

Work is ongoing to actively promote and recruit further E&D Allies amongst the

workforce and the Council’s LGBT and Disability Network groups which are ran jointly

with Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust continue to be well represented.

16

Implications arising from this report

Policy None Finance and value for money

The workforce is of significant cost to the Council and therefore it is essential that the workforce performs well to ensure that the Council achieves value for money in relation to service provision.

Legal Some policy implications which are being supported by the legal team

Procurement None Human Resources

As included within the report

Property None Equalities (Impact Assessment attached) Yes No N/A

All HR policies and procedures are subject to an equality impact assessment.

Risk Assessment

Risks relating to the ongoing health and wellbeing of staff are managed locally.

Crime & Disorder

None

Customer Consideration

Improved staff performance will impact on the quality of customer experiences.

Carbon reduction

None

Wards All

Report sign off. Authors must ensure that officers and members have agreed the content of the report:

initials

Finance Officer AE

Monitoring Officer/Legal LH

Human Resources KA

Procurement TP

I.T. NA

Executive Director KA

Portfolio Holder(s) DL

Author and Contact Details Kelly Angus Director of Human Resources [email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

Documents

Corporate Resources & Regional Affairs Overview & Scrutiny ...committeedocs.northumberland.gov.uk/MeetingDocs/23341_M6470.pdf2016) to assess baseline position Initiate culture change