Agenda item

This report provides the latest information on the workforce for 2024/25. 

Discussion

The Chief Organisational Culture Officer introduced the report which provided the latest information on the Council’s workforce for 2024/25. The report was the first annual report on staffing levels across directorates, together with comparative information from the previous year. The report also provided information on diversity and demographics.

Agency Staff and retention/recruitment: Concern was expressed as to the high turnover rate particularly within the first year. It was noted that currently those statistics might be pulling in data from in internal moves so may not accurately reflecting retention issues.

Concerns were raised about the high number of agency staff and associated costs. The Chief Organisational Culture Officer explained that the overall agency position was slightly higher than the previous year. It was explained that they were used to cover vacancies where there were difficulties in recruiting permanent staff and to cover things such as maternity leave or long-term sickness absence. The figures also covered the use of consultants for specialty expertise, on casual contracts for particular expertise for example educational psychologists. There were areas of constant churn due to the demanding nature of certain roles and efforts were being made to improve recruitment and retention through career pathways and staff engagement, as well as benchmarking activities and exit interviews but there was more work to be done.

It was commented that there was a significant difference between using agency staff for specialist skills and covering vacancies. The Chief Organisational Culture Officer undertook to circulate a breakdown of the data outside of the meeting. She also advised that the difficulty in recruiting to certain roles was not unique to this council.

It was suggested that salary band Range 2 or below were not incentivised to remain and the Chief Organisational Culture Officer agreed to specifically look at retention data around this range.

The Chief Organisational Culture Officer advised that the reason for the 20% increase in FTE over the last five years was attributed to rising demand and previous cuts to resources. It was explained that additional resources were required to meet demand in various services, including children's services, adult social care, and legal teams.

Exit interviews: In response to questions the Chief Organisational Culture Officer advised that exit interviews could be with the line manager or HR or anonymously online. However, there was an issue on timeliness between being advised of someone’s departure and them being present in the office to complete one due to annual leave etc., so this was being reviewed. In Children’s Services face to face exit interviews were conducted with independent persons. However more data was required.

Sickness absence: In response to concerns about stress and anxiety among staff it was advised that there were efforts to understand and address the causes through data analysis and collaboration with public health and noted that both work-related and personal factors contributed to stress and anxiety.

In response to further questions, the Chief Organisational Culture Officer advised that a chatbot had recently been trialled to answer low level HR questions, as well as a ‘wellbeing’ chatbot which used medway wellbeing information as well as NHS sources. This would free up officer’s time rather than be used as a replacement for officers. She did not see a need for pulling together lower levels activities into a higher paid position, instead there were just ways to work smarter.

Equality: In response to a query, it was explained that the need for comprehensive data ensured compliance with equality legislation and created a better understanding of the workforce and therefore where to prioritise resources, and this included sexual orientation.

Members noted the Joint Consultative Committee comments from the earlier

meeting.

Decision

That the Workforce update 2024/25 and further supported data as set out in the Appendices to the report, be noted.