Issue - meetings

            That having considered the Quarter 3 Workforce Information report, the Committee is assured of progress. 

The Interim Human Resources and Organisational Change Manager introduced the report to provide Members with an update for the third quarter for 2015/16 for the following:-

·         Headcount and Full Time Equivalent (FTE)

·         Organisational Age Profile

·         Employee Turnover and Stability (including Redundancies and Early Retirements)

·         Attendance (Including 100% Appraisal)

·         Performance Appraisals and Development

·         Resource Management (Agency Workers)

·         Equality and Diversity

The headcount for the Council continued to decrease and the cumulative absence FTE days lost for quarter three was 7.34 which was a positive movement.  The projected outturn for 2015/16 was currently 9.78 which was slightly above the annual target for the year of 9.60 days.  The outturn figure had reduced when compared with 2014/15 but there was a need to continue to monitor the situation.  On the issue of agency workers, the Interim Manager explained that the majority of spend was within Streetscene & Transportation which had 75 front line vacancies and Social Services which had used a number of agency workers to cover vacancies and to supplement some of the core workforce allocated to special/ad hoc projects. 

            Councillor Robin Guest sought clarification on whether the issues relating to appraisals had been resolved.  The Interim Manager indicated that there had been a positive response to the completion of appraisals but difficulties in capturing the information within the software were still continuing.  Both the Chief Executive and the Interim Manager shared the frustrations expressed by Members and the Interim Manager added that being able to capture the data would assist with workforce planning. 

            In response to a question from Councillor Arnold Woolley, the Interim Manager advised that the Council’s induction programme had recently been updated to include those employees who had changed jobs within the Authority.  It was expected that this would be undertaken even though the information was not being captured.  Councillor Woolley expressed his concern that the expectation was not being delivered and that there were no controls in place to monitor this.  The Chief Executive referred to the transition arrangements that were in place and the Interim Manager explained that both the employee and the manager had to sign to indicate that the induction had taken place.  The Chairman asked whether there were any employees who had not had an appraisal for longer than a year.  The Interim Manager responded that there was a system in place to monitor when appraisals took place which would include the date of the appraisal and any follow up action or competency assessment that had been carried out. 

            The Chairman sought clarification on the 77 agency placements that had exceeded the 12 week Agency Worker Regulations threshold.  The Interim Manager explained that the regulations gave agency workers additional protection after 12 weeks on areas such as pay and holidays. 

            Councillor Arnold Woolley raised concern at the number of agency workers who had been in place for more than 12 weeks and queried why they were not employed by the Council to fill the vacancies that they were covering.  He also asked about costs  ...  view the full minutes text for item 93