Huntingdonshire District Council

Workforce Development Strategy:

maintaining a capable, confident

and committed workforce

Version: FINAL

Prepared by: LGSS: Organisational and Workforce Development

Linked documents: Corporate Plan 2014-16

2

Section 1: Introduction

The Council’s Corporate Plan 2014-2016 sets out what we need to do to be

successful.

Our vision is to continue to improve the quality of life for the people of

Huntingdonshire and work towards sustainable economic growth while providing

value for money services. To achieve this we need the right people with the right

skills, in the right place at the right time. Key to Huntingdonshire District Council’s

success is you, our workforce, and enabling a skilled and motivated workforce is

critical.

Facing a number of challenges over future years, we need a highly skilled workforce,

equipped to support our customers’, councillor’s and partners’ requirements. We

need to invest in our workforce and you need to be the best you can be. This

strategy and action plan outlines how we will do this together.

Who this strategy is for

This strategy is for you, our employees, to show what we will be doing to recruit and

retain the right people, to develop our existing workforce, to improve our time at work

and enable you to deliver your best.

Who we consulted with

The strategy reflects a broad range of views resulting from consultation with: the

senior management team, staff, managers, the Staff Council, Cabinet and the

Employment Panel.

A vision for HDC

Our strategic themes and outcomes for 2014 – 2016 are:

A strong local economy – making Huntingdonshire a better place to live, work

and invest

Enabling sustainable growth – delivering new and appropriate housing with

minimum impact on our environment

Working with our communities – making sure they thrive and get involved with

local decision making

Ensuring we are a customer focused and service led council – delivering

value for money services.

3

We will be achieving this in the context of a severely constrained budget for the

foreseeable future, with the challenges and opportunities of an ageing population,

and increased citizen demands for more choice and better service outcomes. Like

other public sector organisations we face the need to make transformational change

to the way HDC operates - our infrastructure and the way we deliver our services.

We need to make significant change quickly and some of this change is already

underway.

What does a future HDC look like?

HDC will be a leaner, smaller organisation, with a flexible and agile workforce where

we all need to be accommodating and responsive to changing demands. Different

business models to help us be more cost effective, for example, shared services, or

partnership arrangements, may change our locations and working arrangements.

We will need to make some uncomfortable decisions about reducing or losing some

services, or charging for some of the services we currently provide or others

providing them instead.

Technology will help increase opportunities to deliver services differently. Reducing

cost through reducing office space, enabled by technology, will increase the

opportunities for flexible working. To meet the demands on us we will need to be

more commercially and customer focused.

All these changes offer challenges as well as opportunities for everyone and cannot

be achieved without a commitment to change from all of us. This workforce

development strategy is aimed at outlining how the council will develop your skills

and abilities, intended to ensure your own capability, motivation and engagement in

bringing about these changes and to make HDC a great place to work.

Our priorities for the next 18 months

While there is some urgency to make fundamental change to the way we work, we

also need to ensure that we do this in a way that provides a firm foundation for the

future. The following provides an overview of the priorities over the next 18 months.

Facing the Future: establishing the means of creating a sustainable future for

service delivery for the people of Huntingdonshire at an appropriate and

affordable level.

Exploring the choices we need to define the purpose and structure of the

organisation: what we do and what others are better placed to do.

Getting ready for years 2-3:completing the set-up of shared service

arrangements and continuing to achieve efficiencies; driving service

prioritisation; reviewing alternative methods of delivering services; putting in

place the infrastructure to support future agile working (HR policies, IT etc.)

4

Potentially closing down some activities and services, whilst also prioritising

those areas of most importance

Setting up new activities and services

Expanding shared services

Within the next five years we expect to see the growth agenda across the District

well underway and to see tangible outcomes from the earlier work, a more focused,

cost effective and resilient organisation.

What this workforce strategy will mean for you

As a valued HDC employee, you will need to:

Take an interest in knowing more about HDC and the regular updates

on our future plans

Understand and demonstrate our values and competencies

Be prepared to contribute your views and ideas: regular team

meetings, 1:1s, annual appraisal, focus groups and meet-SMT

sessions – all these provide opportunities for you to do this

Have a flexible and agile approach and help to create an

organisational culture that is focused on customer needs

Know who our leadership and management team are

Encourage innovation in the way that we work

Feel recognised and rewarded for your contribution

Be positive and supported through the transition to our new ways of

working

Enjoy the benefits of working for HDC

If a manager, you will need to:

- Provide strategic direction and make sound leadership decisions

- Recognise good performance……

- Provide your teams with appropriate support …..

5

Section 2: Our current workforce

Since 2013 our number of employees has been gradually decreasing. We employ

659 people at HDC. This decrease is in line with other councils: in the LGA’s

workforce survey (2012/13) 71% of responding councils said they had reduced the

number of staff posts to reduce workforce cost.

Workforce Profile Key Facts

Age

The average age of our employees is 46 years. Currently just over 40% of staff are

aged over 50. To ensure the resilience of the Council we will want to retain the skills

and knowledge of our experienced colleagues while growing others within the

organisation.

Length of service

Our average length of service is around 10 years, close to the Local Government

average of 12 years.

Employee turnover

Our turnover over the last few years has varied. In 2014 (calendar year) our

employee turnover was 14.8% compared to 7.3% in 2013 and 11% in 2012.1 A

reasonable level of turnover is seen as positive in maintaining the resilience of the

organisation while bringing new skills and ideas.

1 Figures calculated based on all permanent employees leaving as a percentage of all permanent

employees

627 620.4 599.7 580.37 577.08 563.78

703 705 680 667 653 659

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

800

Q2 2013/14 Q3 2013/14 Q4 2013/14 Q1 2014/15 Q2 2014/15 Q3 2014/15

Nu

mb

er

of

Emp

loye

ss

Headcount & FTE Trend

FTE Headcount

6

Sickness absence

The graph shows the trend of average sickness absence per full-time equivalent

(FTE) employee since December 2012. It shows that sickness absence has

increased to 11.1 days lost per FTE. It is higher than the corresponding period the

previous year (7.9 days/FTE) and also, is above the CIPD Public Sector Average

and EELGA Authority Average.

We all need to address this level of absence as it reduces the capacity of the Council

to deliver its business.

Ethnicity

Two per cent of our workforce are from a Black and Minority Ethnic background.

Comparing this against the population, in the 2011 Census, 5.2% of the district’s

usual residents described themselves as non-White.

8.4

8.9 8.7

8.3

7.97.6

8.2

10.1

11.1

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

Q3

2012

/13

Q4

2012

/13

Q1

2013

/14

Q2

2013

/14

Q3

2013

/14

Q4

2013

/14

Q1

2014

/15

Q2

2014

/15

Q3

2014

/15

Sickness Absence per FTE

HDC Days Lost EELGA average (7.4 days) CIPD Public Sector average (8.7 days)

Other workforce profile key facts

Just over a quarter of our workforce work part time

A majority of our employees are women (53%)

8% of staff have declared a disability

7

Our values

Selflessness

Honesty & Integrity

Objectivity

Accountability

Openness

Leadership

Section 3: Creating a culture for Huntingdonshire District

Council

Culture is often described as ‘the way we do things round here’. It is demonstrated

in the way we all act and behave. We need all our employees to identify positively

with HDC as their employer and to feel connected to our vision and values.

We already have a well-developed set of core values, and a set of competencies that

we are in the process of embedding, that apply to everyone. These are important

because they provide an explicit, practical expression of how we work and need to

work.

The results of the employee survey in July 2014

tell us that most of you consider you are treated

fairly at work and with respect by the people you

work with. However, some have experienced

discrimination or bullying and harassment at

work. We will reinforce the values and

behaviours that we expect of all staff and will not

tolerate poor behaviour. The Code of Conduct

makes clear what we expect you to demonstrate

every day and require you to evidence each year

through the annual appraisal process. The code

also protects each of us and provides advice on

managing difficult situations. We are also

producing an employee handbook that will

provide a summary of the benefits that HDC

employees will receive.

8

Our competencies

Customer focus: understanding and responding to the needs of our

customers

Influencing: achieving impact using confident persuasiveness

Innovation: generating and critically evaluating new approaches to

continual improvement

Decision making: assessing the evidence and making sound, timely

decisions

Planning and organising: establishing and implementing clear actions and

timeframes

Flexibility: adapting constructively to respond to changing need

Management of others: sets clear objectives for others, supports and

motivates, recognises good performance and tackles poor performance

Commercial awareness: identifies opportunities to make the organisation

more competitive, efficient and profitable; includes financial factors in

decision making; knows and manages a budget

Embedding our values and competencies

We are working hard to embed our values and competencies:

We have produced the Code of Conduct to provide guidance to employees on

the behaviour we expect

We are embedding the competencies and values in our job descriptions and

person specifications

The new performance appraisal process will be underpinned by both the

values and the competencies

We are developing our training programme to target the necessary skills and

behaviours

9

Employee Engagement

Employee engagement is defined as how committed we feels towards HDC, its

vision, strategic priorities and values. It is reflected in how aligned each of our own

objectives, values and aspirations are to HDC’s, how involved we all feel and how

proud we are to work for HDC - our organisational ‘citizenship’.

The employee opinion survey carried out in 2014 provided valuable feedback on how

employees feel about HDC. We were encouraged by the feedback that showed that

the majority of you are confident in decisions made by your manager, that nearly all

of you have the skills to do the job effectively, that most of you feel you are treated

fairly at work and with respect by the people you work with.

Some feedback suggested that we need to do more to help employees understand

the Council’s vision and objectives and how our roles contribute to the success of the

organisation. We need to improve the way news and information is communicated,

including raising individual and collective accountability. We need to recognise and

value the contribution that we all make to HDC’s success, and change needs to be

handled more effectively. The Employee Opinion Survey action plan outlines the

steps being taken to respond to the messages from the survey.

We can only succeed if we are all prepared to commit to engaging with the Council,

for example, by modelling the values and behaviours set out in the Code of Conduct,

by actively participating in identifying your learning needs through your PDR and

PDP, by contributing your suggestions for improvement – and by recognising that the

changes we need to take will take time and require positivity from us all.

10

Section 4: Developing the future Huntingdonshire District

Council workforce

The overall size of the HDC workforce has been reducing over a number of years

and this will continue, given the constraints on funding and the need for greater

efficiency. We will need to continually review the way we operate and the services

we deliver.

We have to ensure that our workforce evolves to support these changes, that we

both attract and retain key talent, but also have the mechanisms in place to ‘grow

our own’ talent and become necessarily agile.

Having the right workforce policies and working practices

Our role and job descriptions will need to become more flexible so that we can meet

changing needs. We will expect managers and employees to regularly review job

roles in order to make sure these meet our business needs. We are looking at how

we recognise and reward employees, celebrate and learn from successes and how

to develop flexible working arrangements.

Reviewing services

We will continue to fundamentally review services to ensure we are delivering what

we can afford and what our customers need. These reviews are likely to lead to

changes in what we do and how we do it. As part of this process we will identify the

number and types of staff and range of skills that need to be in place.

As part of this ongoing review process we will identify different business models to

help us deliver a service more cost effectively. This could include more shared

services or partnerships with other organisations.

Talent management

As part of developing our workforce we want to understand our employees’ career

aspirations – what you want to achieve and how we can help you to do this, but

progressing this needs to be owned by you.

Line managers will be encouraged to use the performance appraisal process and

regular 1:1’s to put in place individual development plans.

We will expect our managers to identify talent within their teams, and develop and

help the organisation to use this talent. This will help us to develop a pool of talented

employees with transferable expertise who can support the Council across key areas

and allow us to move resources around more flexibly and at short notice to meet

demand and improvement initiatives.

11

Bringing in new talent

We need a diverse range of skills and experience and, when appropriate, we will

recruit people to join the Council. Our approach will include recruiting apprentices

and graduates, where we can ‘grow our own’, as well as directly recruiting people

with relevant skills and experience.

Promoting work flexibility

We will encourage flexibility across the organisation. This will ensure the best use of

our employee’s skills and capacity, and offer the individual the opportunity to develop

their skills and enhance their promotional opportunities and career aspirations.

These opportunities could take the form of secondments, job rotation or involvement

in cross organisation projects where we can bring together a wide range of skills and

experience.

Leadership and management

Good leadership and management is key to the Council’s success.

A key part of our workforce development strategy is to ensure our leaders are

equipped with the tools, knowledge, skills and attributes to support the delivery of a

challenging agenda. We have already identified the competencies that we need and

have embedded these into all job roles through job descriptions, through the

objective and appraisal setting process, as well as by training to support

development at all levels. They also underpin the development programme that the

senior leadership team is already participating in.

Development priorities

We will focus our development priorities on the following areas:

Leadership and management: enhancing performance, change management,

decision making, communication and engagement skills

Commercial skills: financial awareness, commissioning and procurement,

contract negotiation, management and monitoring.

Technology and business transformation: increasing ICT skills and use,

identifying business models for future delivery, building partnerships.

Customer focus: understanding our communities’ needs, managing

expectations.

A new working environment

The world of work has been changing for some time, whether in the private or public

sector, driven by the need to reduce costs and to take advantage of the opportunities

that technology provides to work more flexibly. The Council needs to find better ways

to use technology and create efficiencies in the way it works. To promote agile

12

working, one step that we are taking is to enable remote working whilst reducing

office space.

This means we will have different working practices whether these are electronic

storage systems to reduce paper systems or flexible working. Services and teams

will need to work differently focusing on both process and behavioural changes. The

service reviews will reflect these changes.

There are advantages for both the organisation and employees in developing flexible

working, for example it provides a wider pool of potential recruits for the Council, and

for all of us, it can improve work-life balance through reduced travel to work time and

by working directly across the District in a location nearer to home or at home.

Developments in technology will enable us to achieve this and will require an

investment in appropriate technology, the development of relevant ICT skills in our

employees, and a different way to manage people.

How will we know if this strategy is working?

The strategy will be working if we deliver on our Corporate Plan outcomes, if our

employees feel more involved and valued for their contribution. The Council and

public will also see tangible improvement to the efficiency of the way we all work and

of the services we provide. The senior leadership team will monitor this plan at

regular intervals.

Key measures will be:

An increase in skills and knowledge tracked through the annual appraisal

process

Motivated employees shown through our employee surveys and day to day

culture

Reduction in absence rates and a healthy turnover rate

Less recruitment needed due to having a strong talent pool.

Reduction in recruitment times and costs

13

Workforce Development Action Plan

What How Who

Culture and employee engagement

1. Increase engagement and

improve communications with

all employees

Implement the Employee Opinion Survey Action Plan

Develop a Communication Strategy

Corporate communications

team and directors and

managers

2. Integrate HDC values and

competencies

Values to be incorporated into regular 1:1s and appraisals

Monitor the implementation of the Code of Conduct through

appraisals and line management

All managers

3. Review HDC induction Review the induction process to ensure that new starters

understand HDC’s role, its expectations of employees, and what

expectations they can have of the Council

OWD review of induction

already underway

4. Create a culture of innovation Establish a suggestion scheme CMT

5. Embed HDC’s competencies Integrate into job descriptions and person specifications

Integrate into the new appraisal scheme

Provide training to employees as part of the appraisal scheme

launch briefings

HR

All managers to use in

appraisal process

HR/OWD to integrate into

appraisal briefings

14

What How Who

6. Ensure all staff know what is

expected of them, have

objectives set, receive feedback

on their performance

All employees have regular and appropriate 1:1s and an annual

appraisal, as well as attending regular team meetings

All managers

Developing the future HDC workforce

7. Ensure HR policies reflect

changing need including:

recruitment, reward, absence

Programme to review policies is in place HR and CMT

8. Identify organisation

development and learning

needs

Every Service Review is identifying learning needs

Workforce development strategy to be monitored and reviewed to

ensure it is responsive to changing need

Develop annual training plans for each Service area

Reviewing managers and

OWD

CMT and OWD

Managers and OWD

9. Talent management Ensure all employees have a PDP

Provide guidance to managers on how to do this

Managers

OWD

10. Promote work flexibility Establish a mechanism to offer opportunities to employees to

work in other parts of the organisation or on organisation wide

projects

CMT

15

What How Who

11.Leadership and

management

Continue the Senior Leadership Development Programme for

leadership team

Target management training by role, performance need, and

through appraisals

Integrate desired level of skill into job descriptions and person

specification

Integrate as an objective into appraisal process

SMT

Directors and HoS with

support from OWD

HR

All managers

12. Develop commercial skills

within the Council

Increase ICT skills

Develop understanding and

knowledge of business models

Increase understanding of and

responsiveness to customer

need

Identify the level and type of need of training and develop an

appropriate programme of learning

Identify opportunities for employees to embed their learning

Integrate desired level of skill into job descriptions and person

specification

Integrate as an objective into appraisal process

OWD

Directors and HoS

HR

All managers

13. Creating a new working

environment

Identify and act on the implications of working more flexibly on: CMT, HR, managers

16

What How Who

HR policies and practice

Behavioural change in the workplace

Management skills and practice

Technology provision