Agenda item

Kate Sullivan (Lead Commissioner, Culture, Leadership and Performance) introduced the report which provided a summary of employee engagement activities undertaken since the introduction of a new approach to engagement in 2022/23. The report outlined key achievements; areas for development; a focus on equality, diversity, and inclusion (EDI); and objectives for 2023/24.

Kate Sullivan reported that:

·       Engagement with colleagues in 2022/23 had been supported by three touchpoints throughout the year, two surveys, as well as the ‘Big Conversation’ hosted by Directors.

·       YourSay survey results had been made available to Tier 4 managers in 2022/23 making it possible for managers to consider and act on the findings of the survey.

·       Response rates to surveys had increased to 40% in July 2023, and 43% in February 2023.

·       Employee engagement had improved by 2%, rising from 74% to 76% during 2022/23.

·       Workload was a key focus during 2022/23 with 77% of colleagues agreeing that they were able to achieve a good balance between their work and personal life.

·       There had been an in-year increase from 62% to 64% of colleagues who agreed that they had a manageable workload.

Kate Sullivan reported that a new set of questions had been introduced in 2022/23 focusing on EDI. It had been found that the least engaged colleagues had chosen either not to respond or selected ‘prefer not to say’ when asked about protected characteristics. Efforts would be made to seek improved engagement in this area.

Kate Sullivan outlined the priorities for 2023/24 which included:

·       Maintaining participation in YourSay activities.

·       Securing health insight to support the wellbeing offer with a focus on workloads.

·       Supporting teams to take action locally, encouraging regular and open conversations.

·       A ‘Community Teams’ project to engage more fully with colleagues who were not routinely office-based.

In conclusion, Kate Sullivan reported that 2022/23 had been a successful year. Key business measures had scored above 75% which was a positive outcome. The YourSay engagement approach had been launched successfully with new branding, communication, and intranet resources. In the year ahead there would be a continued focus on workload and wellbeing, as well as maintaining and increasing response rates.

Councillor Millar praised the quality of the report. She highlighted that response rates had increased but remained below 50%. She asked how further progress to increase response rates could be made. She noted that the 12% rate of attendance of the ‘Big Conversation’ was relatively low and asked how participation could be improved in future.

Kate Sullivan stated that it was encouraging that the response rate had increased which had been a targeted outcome. However, achieving improved participation was a priority. This would be supported by the Community Teams project to reach out to colleagues who were not routinely office-based. Efforts would also be made to liaise with Executive Directors to examine response rate data leading to engagement with specific teams where response rates had been low. She advised that Big Conversations had been held as hybrid sessions to enable colleagues to join virtually. The sessions had been recorded to allow staff who had been unable to attend to watch a recording.

In response to Councillor Hammersley, Kate Sullivan stated that it was acknowledged that 36% felt that they did not have a manageable workload. An option had been provided to allow colleagues to leave comments to elaborate on their survey responses. These comments had been collated and analysed. From this, the Big Conversation had been launched with a focus on workloads. When supporting Big Conversation sessions, Directors gathered ideas and suggestions for how workloads could be most effectively managed. This would continue to be an area of focus in 2023/24.

Councillor Tromans noted that the proportion of staff who had agreed to the statement “I believe action will be taken as a result of the YourSay Survey” was relatively low at 42%. She asked how this could be improved.

Kate Sullivan advised that this was among the lowest scoring survey statements. Scoring had been tracked over several years. Since 2019, the proportion of staff indicating that they believed action would be taken as a result of the survey had increased. The decision to share survey results with Tier 4 managers was anticipated to lead to a further improvement. It would enable discussion and focused analysis looking at the implications of survey responses at a team level as well as more broadly across the organisation.

In response to the Chair, Kate Sullivan offered to provide details of how much lower those members of staff who preferred not to disclose protected characteristics scored against the three wellbeing questions outlined on page 8 of the Our People Annual Review 2023/24. This information would be circulated to the Committee following the meeting.

In response to Councillor Hammersley, Kate Sullivan advised that scoring for the statement “I am able to take responsibility for my own performance” provided an indication of whether staff felt as though they had a clear idea of what was expected of them, and the extent by which they could take personal responsibility for their work. The results of the engagement questions provided a set of performance measures that could be viewed alongside other performance measures to indicate how effectively the organisation was performing across targeted outputs.

In response to the Chair, Kate Sullivan advised that the statement “I feel safe to be my authentic self” had been included to develop an idea of the extent by which people felt able to bring their whole self to work. The Our People Strategy aimed to ensure that an individual felt able to bring their authentic self and whole lived experience to work, rather than feel it necessary to adopt a different persona at work. The survey was anonymous so the identities of individuals who indicated that they did not feel safe to be their authentic self were not known. However, there were ways to explore the subject in more detail. The results of the survey were shared with the Council’s EDI Group to enable consideration to be given to why some staff felt unable to bring their whole self to work and how action could be taken to bring about an improvement.

Councillor Hammersley moved that the recommendation be accepted and was seconded by Councillor Millar. This was supported unanimously by the Committee.

Resolved:

That the Staff and Pensions Committee notes the Annual Review of engagement activity for2022/2023 and endorses the future activities outlined within the report.