Basingstoke & Dean Borough Council Human Resources Committee Meeting

Councillor Taylor sent her apologies.

There were no declarations of interest.

There were no urgent matters.

The Chair confirmed that the minutes of the meeting held on the held on the 12^th July 2022 were confirmed by the Committee as a correct record.

The Chair advised that following on from the last Committee meeting they still had a vacancy on the Joint Consultative Committee (JCC).  Councillor Rhatigan was nominated and appointed to the JCC for 2022/23 municipal year. 

A JCC meeting to be arranged before the end of December.

The Head of Human Resources (HR) Communications and Policy and Human Resources Manager introduced the report which set out key people indicators and management information to the end of the first quarter 2022/23 and made comparisons with the previous years’ performance.   She advised that here had been a slight increase in headcount and FTE during 20221/22 and the first quarter of 2022/23

The workforce age profile remains stable with majority (51%) of staff falling within the 35-54 age ranges, which was no change on previous years.

The number of staff that left the organisation in 2021/22 increased compared with 2020/2021, as did the voluntary resignation rate. The levels in 2021/ 2022 were more akin to the pre-pandemic levels, with 2020/2021 being an atypical year with reduced movements within the labour market in large part due to the COVID-19 pandemic and associated fiscal measures.  Of the 81 leavers so far in 2021/22 (excluding dismissals), 17 completed an exit questionnaire.

The average days lost in 2021/22 was 8.66 days, an increase from 2020/21 and above the pro-rated target for the period.  Sickness absence related to COVID-19 was the top reason for absence in Q1 2022/2023 and therefore a significant contributor to the sickness levels. Despite that, the council continued to take a proactive approach to the management of sickness absence.

Mental health related absence was the most prevalent cause of sickness across the organisation during 2021/2022, although positive to note was that the average length of absence had decreased, meaning that on average individuals were returning to work sooner.

The Council promoted a variety of health based initiatives which was organised by the Wellbeing Group.  This was made up of staff from across the Council and chaired by the HR team.  The purpose of the Wellbeing Group was to assist in the delivery of the Council’s Wellbeing Strategy by promoting a safe and healthy work environment.

The council remained committed to improving skills and provided training, education, and work-based experience through apprenticeships. There were nine apprentices in post currently, and four staff members who were undertaking training via an up-skill apprenticeship qualification. There were a further six apprentice opportunities in discussion for recruitment.

As a local employer, they continued to support employability at local schools, colleges, and community events within the borough, to help raise awareness of the soft skills employers were looking for.  Activities included, preparing for an interview or building on employability skills, helping to run mock interviews or team building events and included members of the HR team participating in careers evenings. 

The Committee discussed the report and made the following comments which included:-

·         Requested that future reports included current vacancies and recent appointments by Department.

·         Attended and enjoyed the coffee morning for mental health wellbeing and

highlighted the importance to recognise men’s challenges with mental health.

·         Commend the amount of information contained within the report and the adoption of best practices and HR solutions.

·         Would like to see the identification of the emerging key issues that need to be addressed included in future reports.

·         Although the cultural workshops had an attendance of 180 staff it was important to reach all staff.

·         Suggested that there could be an approach where Councillors could be involved in influencing the culture, the values and the key principles adopted from the process rather than sitting on the sidelines.

·         Interested in organsational development and whether the way Councillors worked could be improved as they were aware that they could sometimes come across as critical by the nature of their role.

·         Requested report writing training be made available to assist with committee reports to make them more succinct with plain English in order for them to be easily understood.

Resolved that:  The Committee notes the report.

The Head of Human Resources (HR) Communications and Policy introduced the report and advised that the purpose of the pay and benefits review was to provide a fair and transparent system for establishing pay grades and relevant allowances which ensured the council could attract and retain staff, respond to market changes and comply with equal pay legislation.  It also sought to enable a full review of spans of control across the organisation with a view to rationalising the current structure.

To achieve the purpose, the pay and benefits review had been designed with four workstreams which are inextricably linked:

§  Introduction of a new job evaluation system to enable a fair and transparent system for assessing the worth of job roles within the council moving forward;

§  Review of existing job roles within the council in line with the job evaluation system as job families;

§  Review of full benefits package including pay benchmarking; and

§  Review of spans of control across the organisation.

The council were working in partnership with KornFerry to deliver the two workstreams associated with the new KornFerry Hay job evaluation system.

Following the completion of the job evaluations, pay modelling would be undertaken to enable the development of options for future pay and grading structures.

In addition to the review of all roles in-line with the KornFerry Hay system engagement work would be undertaken with staff from across the council to ascertain both their feedback on the current benefits package and an understanding of which types of benefits/ rewards were most beneficial as part of an overall staff retention approach.

Consultation was planned to be undertaken with staff in the New Year on the proposed new pay and benefits system. This would enable the proposed new system to be fully explained in addition to enabling staff to understand the potential impact of it for them as individuals.

The Committee discussed the report and made the following comments which included:-

§  Ensure that there would be pay protection for any roles that were downgraded after the review.

§  Consideration of performance related pay.

§  Essential that staff were fully aware of all the benefits currently available so they can make an informed decision when asked about benefits packages.

§  Pleased that UNISON was involved in the job evaluation process.

§  UNISON to be involved in the consultations regarding the pay modelling.

Resolved that:  The Committee notes the report.

The Head of Human Resources (HR) Communications and Policy introduced the report which provided an annual review of occupational safety and health for 2021/2022 and indicated the key proposed areas of focus for the annual health and safety action plan for 2022/2023.

The Committee discussed the report and made the following comments which included:-

§  Positive that 10 near misses had been reported but it was felt there had probably been more.   Encourage HR to support the Health and Safety function on the near miss reporting as it was considered a cultural issue.

§  Pleased to see violent and abuse had been mentioned in the report.

Mechanism to ensure staff were aware that the culture of abuse was not acceptable.

Resolved that:  The Committee notes the report.

The Head of Human Resources (HR) Communications and Policy introduced

the report and advised that the annual statement provided information to the Committee about the cost of redundancies, early retirements and settlement agreements that had taken place during the last complete financial year.

The council paid termination costs totalling £49,421.86 in 2021/2022. This

compared with a total of £54,193.35 for 2020/2021.

The total of £49,421.86 was comprised of £43,073.77 in redundancy costs and £6,348.09 related to PILON payments. There were no other costs either related to settlement agreement payments or early retirement costs.

Resolved that:  The Committee notes the report.

The Head of Human Resources Communications and Policy introduced the report and advised, constitutionally, the HR Committee were responsible for the approval of a set of policies that had a significant impact on staff and/or on costs to the council.

Further to this the HR Committee were constitutionally required to undertake an annual review of the delegation to Officers to agree all other employment policies not explicitly listed on page 3.15 in Section 2.6.5, paragraph (3) of the constitution, determining whether the Committee wishes to amend the delegations for any certain policies.

Three policies have had minor updates made to them which the HR Committee  requested to review and approve: the Capability Policy, Redundancy Handling

Policy and Whistleblowing Policy.  The minor revisions had been made to those policies which were outlined within the report

The Committee reviewed and agreed the minor amendments to the Capability Policy, Redundancy Handling Policy and Whistleblowing Policy and were satisfied

with the delegations to Officers.

Resolved that:  The Committee

§  Approve the following updated policies:

Capability Policy

Redundancy Handling Policy

Whistleblowing Policy

§  Are content with the delegations to Officers for the employment policies not listed in section 2 of this report, as outlined in section 3.3 of this report.

The Head of Human Resources Communications and Policy confirmed the suggested work programme which the Committee noted.

The meeting ended 19:51

Chairman