Agenda item

The Chair introduced Councillor Mike Hallam, the Assistant Director of HR and the Head of Organisational Development, Design and Change who then presented the report via a presentation highlighting key points in the report.

Councillors made the following comments.

·         Had the people strategy been seen by other councillors?

·         What was the evidence that Employee Benefit Scheme worked?

·         It was queried whether there was any data that showed how many staff left WNC within the first 6 months of their employment.

·         The Planning Policy committee issues that had been of concern had not taken centre stage in the report.

·         It was noted that it was important for WNC to grow its own talent.

·         It was queried as to how issues were flagged up within different departments.

·         Could WNC look at employees who have come from other Countries and ensure that their position matched their abilities – there were now various highly skilled people living in Northampton who had encountered difficulties in getting their qualifications accredited.

·         External employment agencies had been used by the council; this was highly expensive, could these be bought back in house?

·         It was queried whether the committee could be provided with a report of how many interim and agency staff WNC employed.

·         Did the council have any staff on zero hours contracts?

The Chair reminded members that the Committee was not there to change policy but  to assess when and if the risk register needed to be reviewed and to advise the Cabinet and the Administration accordingly.

The Assistant Director of HR made the following comments.

• It was advised that there had not been a dedicated recruitment team in place on vesting day.
• The people strategy had also previously been presented at the Corporate Overview and Scrutiny Committee and Cabinet
• The Employee Benefit Scheme was one of the additional things that WNC could do as an employer, the council was open to any different ideas for other benefits. Further exploration of this was required.
• Staff wellbeing and mental health support was a very important consideration.
• Data regarding staff leaving could also be found on one of the presentation slides.
• Communication with understaffed services was required to ensure that any issues were picked up and dealt with in a timely fashion.
• The committee was advised that it had been difficult to employee within the Planning Policy department.
• A Planning Academy was being looked at; this would allow WNC to grow the own talent.
• It was important for Managers to be aware of the skills, knowledge, and experience of their staff for those employees to be utilised effectively.
• It was agreed that external employment agencies had perhaps been overused. There were however some roles that did require outside help to fill.
• Zero hours contracts were one of the contract options that the council had.

Councillor Mike Hallam made the following comments.

• It was important to keep reviewing all the vacancies within the council.
• There were mental health first aiders on hand throughout WNC.
• Conversations would be on-going within the finance and HR department regarding vacancies.
• The council had been too late in their response to the staffing issues within Planning Policy department and had learnt from this.

RESOLVED: The committee noted the actions that had been taken to mitigate this risk.