Agenda item

Report of the Director of Human Resources.

4.1     The Committee received a report responding to concerns regarding current staff turnover and temporary agency contractors (TAC) usage following the 2014-15 End of Year Performance report.  The paper set out how the City Council was delivering on the Corporate Strategy and medium term savings plan in relation to TAC usage and staff turnover excluding redundancies as a proportion of the workforce.

4.2     The breakdown of reasons for staff leaving the Council in 2013/14 was set out at paragraph 3.1.1 of the report.  Carolyn Beech, Director of Human Resources (HR) was asked about the ages of the employees that had resigned.  Members were curious to know whether the organisation was losing younger members of staff who are possibly dissatisfied with the management culture, opportunities and environment within the organisation. It was noted that the second highest reason for resignations was other employment/the same level and it was unclear to Members what the underlying reasons for such moves were.  Members also were interested to know number of resignations by department. 

4.3     The Committee asked whether the increase in staff turnover had resulted in expertise or skills being lost in key areas.  Ms Beech reported that there were

          issues around the retention of expertise in Children’s Services and Development Planning and work was being undertaken to mitigate this. 

4.4     The “Your Voice” survey is an annual staff engagement survey designed to give employees a voice, highlighting what does and doesn’t work well.  Members asked when the results of the next survey of staff would be available to see if issues identified in the previous year had improved.  Ms Beech advised that another Staff Survey was currently being undertaken.  This was set to close on 25^th September. She stated that she would be able to provide  the Committee with headline results at the next meeting followed by a more comprehensive report in the New Year.

4.5     The Committee then asked Ms Beech questions about  current TAC usage. She advised that setting targets was helpful as it provides the Council with a figure to aim for and to measure performance against.  Targets were set based on discussions with the Executive Management Team in relation to staffing requirements.

4.6     The Director of HR was also asked whether Westminster’s HR would form part of a tri-borough service. She reported that a decision had been taken during the week for Westminster’s HR to remain a sovereign service.  This would help move forward decisions which have been put on hold while a decision was pending.

4.7     RESOLVED: The Committee noted the rationale within the report and the remedial actions being taken to reduce TAC usage and staff turnover. 

4.8     ACTION:

1.     Provide the Committee with an update on staff turnover and the use of TAC in six months time to establish whether the mitigation actions have delivered results.  A breakdown of the reason for resignations should include numbers by department and where possible details of ages (Action for: Carolyn Beech, Director of HR)

2.     Provide figures by department on the number of TACs that have worked for the Council for more than two years on a quarterly basis (Action for: Carolyn Beech, Director of HR)

3.     Provide the Committee with the headline results from the current Your Voice Survey and a more comprehensive report at its meetings in December and February.  (Action for: Carolyn Beech, Director of HR)