workforce plan | our people strategy 2017 2021 | page 1

Workforce Plan | Our People Strategy 2017 – 2021 |


Our People Strategy 2017-2021

Version 1 | March 2017

Review Schedule | March 2019


Great people are the key to a great business. As such, this Strategy is of the utmost importance to our business, Singleton Council.

It is through people that we realise our organisational vision of ‘Engaged people; Safe workplace; and a Performance based culture’. Or ESP as it known to our people!

Our People Strategy supports the Community Strategic Plan (CSP) 2017-2027 which describes the vision for our community as vibrant, progressive, connected, sustainable & resilient. While our 4-year Delivery Program sets out the high level priorities and goals for the organisation, our People Strategy presents a clear picture of how we, as the people who work for Singleton Council, will achieve those goals.

Our goal is to have a highly motivated and engaged workforce led by talented leaders in a work environment that is attractive and second to none to both current and prospective employees. We want to be the employer that everyone wants to work for: an employer of choice.

To achieve this, we have developed a people strategy focused on building on our current position with a dedicated and skilled workforce with the optimum combination of skills and performance levels required to deliver on our corporate goals. As we roll it out over the next four years, we aim to create an organisational culture that promotes dynamic change, staff engagement, personal responsibility and openness.

We acknowledge the enormous contribution that our employees have made to the organisation and I am delighted to present Our People Strategy 2017-2021.

In the weeks, months and years ahead, as we turn words into action, this document will increasingly play a central role in our work. I urge you to take the time to read it.

Jason Linnane

General Manager


Through the development of the Community Strategic Plan, Council undertook a very significant community engagement process. The information, inspiration and aspirations of our community have been clearly identified. This has provided a very solid foundation for Council to align the services and activities provided with our community’s needs and desires.

The aim of Our People Strategy 2017-2021 is to provide a framework for ensuring Singleton Council’s services to the community are provided by the right people, in the right jobs, with the right skills and attitude, at the right time. It describes the outcomes we are aspiring to achieve and provides clear deliverables to progressively achieve them over the next four years.

This can only be achieved if our people:

place the needs of our community at the heart of all we do;

understand our vision and values;

have clear customer focus;

align to our community aspirations;

are motivated, contribute to a positive culture and work collaboratively and effectively;

accept responsibility and accountability in their roles, are clear how their role fits in;

have the right skills and continuously develop these to create and meet change;

are flexible, adaptable and responsive;

contribute to a safe and healthy work environment;

create a welcoming, inclusive community;

are led and managed well; and

drive continuous improvement in the way we work.

Our People Strategy identifies our workforce challenges, and provides for a continuous business planning process to ensure there is sufficient and sustainable capability and capacity to deliver the CSP objectives now and into the future.

Like many businesses, our ageing workforce and constant change in our operating environment provide some challenges. There is a need to ensure Singleton Council is prepared and resourced to meet these demands and challenges.

Our People Strategy demonstrates our commitment to ensuring the strategies going forward address the potential gaps through improvement of leadership, organisational processes, attraction, recruitment, professional development, talent management and succession planning.

This Strategy has been developed by analysing data that was obtained from Singleton Council’s human resource information system and contained within the Australasian LG Performance Excellence Program FY16 Report to construct a profile of our workforce. External data analysis, our Leadership Group, and key stakeholders have also provided us with an understanding of the current and future workforce requirements which form the basis of the development of the People Strategy.

Our People Strategy 2017-2021 is not a benchmark, neither does it attempt to predict or influence the organisational direction Singleton Council may take in the future. The information and data used are what is available at the writing of this document and are subject to change.


Our People Strategy is Council’s tool to have the workforce in place to achieve our organisation and the community’s objectives.

The Singleton Community Strategic Plan (CSP) and Delivery Program is the framework for the future workforce needs of Singleton Council. The challenge for Council is to ensure we have the requisite resources and organisational capability (i.e. Workforce, Assets and Finances) to deliver the CSP outcomes in the most efficient and effective manner.

Singleton Council’s People Strategy 2017-202 clearly defines how we plan to align our workforce and its capabilities, with the CSP objectives. This includes managing our people and resources efficiently and effectively, reviewing the current organisation, developing the current workforce and identifying the future workforce needs.

This People Strategy contains themes that sit primarily within the CSP Our Leadership Pillar: Services are provided by the right people, in the right jobs, with the right skills and attitudes at the right time.

Our People Strategy is therefore a key input into the Delivery Program that enables business units to plan for and make decisions on service delivery and resources required to deliver the CSP. This Strategy provides an ability to bring a renewed strategic focus to Singleton Council’s current workforce related programs, policies and plans.

It contains detail on

What our goals are

What success looks like

How we will achieve it

What we will measure

together with information on how this will be managed in council’s routine business.

It gives our Leadership Team a strategic basis for making human resource decisions and provides a plan to address current and future workforce needs, within and across our organisation.

The implementation of this strategy will help Singleton Council to:

Make staffing decisions to provide services based on strategic priorities

Identify potential resource or skill shortfalls and take steps to address these

Identify and plan for new and emerging roles

Recruit appropriate numbers of staff to meet future needs

Develop workforce skills and capabilities that take time to grow

Provide improved career development opportunities

Reduce staffing costs through appropriate staffing levels

Increase employee motivation and contribution through better job design

Contain workforce-related costs including the cost of turnover, attraction of appropriate employees, absenteeism and

injury


Source: The Australasian Local Government Performance Excellence Program FY16, PWC and Local Government Professionals, Australia NSW, 28 February 2017

(as at March 2017)

The voluntary staff turnover rate is

now 12%. LG NSW average is 12%

45%

48% of LG NSW surveyed workforce are women


Gender Diversity

• 21% of senior

management roles held

by women in FY16

• 43% of new starters recruited in

FY16 were female

• High proportion (65%) of women are

represented at team leader level

• The rate of male employees leaving

in their first year of employment has

increased to 63%

• An Equal Employment Opportunity

Survey is completed by our employees

during March, annually

Recognition

and Salary System

• New recognition and reward

scheme, the Especialist program,

was launched in January 2017

• Our salary system will undergo a

review in FY17 against industry

benchmarks to ensure market relativity

Recruitment

• 28% of employees joined

Council in the past two years

• Average time to fill is 43 days

• Approximately 16 applications are

received per vacancy

• New online recruitment system,

SCOUT, was rolled out in October

2016

• 11% of new starters were recruited

from within local government

Learning and

Capability

• Training spend per FTE is $2,340

(LG NSW average spend on training is

$1045 per FTE)

• 23% of employees receiving

assistance to complete tertiary

qualifications

• Leadership Capability

Framework was developed

in FY16

Workforce

Tenure Snapshot

• Average workforce tenure is 7 years

• 18% voluntary turnover

• 37% employees exit with less than 5

years’ service

• The average age of our permanent

employees is 44 years

• 45.5% of new employees resign

within the first year of employment

• Gen Y (42%) employees are far

more likely to leave Council

compared to Gen X (21%) and baby

boomer (16%) employees

• Generational mix – 35% baby

boomers, 35% Gen X, and 30% Gen Y

• By June 2026, 27% of our managers

and 41% of our supervisors will reach

the retirement age of 65 years

• Succession planning program will

be implemented across Council in

FY17

Employee

Engagement

• Our workforce will be

invited to complete an

employee engagement

survey during May

2017


To effectively plan for the future, we need to understand the risks associated with our workforce. These risks are the things that will inhibit or prevent us achieving the objectives in this strategy. Singleton Council’s Strategic Risk Register identifies the following significant people risks:

Inability to attract & retain key staff Impact on service delivery Impact on staff morale Diminished workforce capacity High turnover Costs to recruit Poor candidate pool Damage to reputation

Injury or illness to staff, volunteers or contractors

Poor engagement

Personal issues

Injuries

Lost productivity

Impact on service delivery

Fines & penalties

Imprisonment

Damage to reputation

Increased insurance premiums

High turnover of staff

There are a number of operational people risks also:

Insufficient employees with the necessary skills, knowledge and behaviours to provide Council services

Lack of quality candidates for critical roles

Insufficient succession planning and talent management, leading to potential skills and service gaps

Ineffective leadership and/or management skills

Loss of skills, knowledge and/or services as mature age/long-term employees leave and younger workforce is

inexperienced

Loss of corporate knowledge

Ageing workforce

A disengaged and/or demotivated workforce

Increased levels of unplanned leave

Culture misalignment

Competitive market for specialist skills

Lack of communication and/or understanding of the organisational values, priorities and strategic direction

Council’s ability to put in place the necessary workforce to achieve the community’s aspirations for the future is affected by several internal and external factors. The factors that will impact on the supply of the workforce include:


Operational expenditure – cost of employment Local Government (State) Award salary increases

Workforce demographics Changes in service level in response to community priorities

Length of service Changes in employment and/or workplace health and safety legislation

Turnover Competition from other Councils/businesses

Skills shortage Reputation

Attraction and retention capacity of Council

Service planning, cultural change required for integrating focus and purpose of the organisation

People-related policy, strategy and plans


The National Local Government Workforce Strategy 2013-2020 and the NSW Local Government Workforce Strategy 2016-2020 provide evidence of the key challenges we face and the imperatives to improve the leadership and performance of our workforce. Our key challenges include:

We will be operating in a tight fiscal environment over the next four years to ensure that we remain ‘fit for the future’ which requires our people to do more with more, same with less, or more with the same. Given that our workforce expenses account for 29% of Council’s operating budget, improved efficiencies and productivity is important for us.

Council has three tools to guide the organisation and our people to greater levels of efficiency:

Business excellence framework - a focus on business improvement using the fundamentals of Business Excellence;

Service delivery reviews – Council has a two year program of service delivery reviews for every service package the Council provides.

Systems thinking and process mapping – a clear understanding of ‘how things are done’ at Council and system view and process maps for Councils core function.

Community service expectations are constantly increasing. Our communities utilise and expect a wider range of services. The community is better informed and more knowledgeable. We are increasingly expected to deliver services, customer support and information outside

business hours and on weekends.

Changes to Government policy, legislation and regulations are going to have an impact on our operations. Most of these changes (Local Government Act etc.) will have a direct impact on our workload, costs and existing resources.

In light of the imminent retirement of baby boomers generation, we need to ensure that workers of retirement age are encouraged to remain in, return to, or join Singleton Council if we are to continue to benefit from the wisdom they possess, and deliver quality services to the community.

By 30 June 2021, we predict that 11% of Council’s workforce will reach the retirement age of 65 years and have the option to retire. If we do not focus on succession planning, we could encounter a situation where our service delivery to our community and customers might be impacted due to a loss of corporate knowledge and experience.


Services and work processes are constantly evolving to take advantage of technology, including:

Advancing our information technology systems, in conjunction with NBN capability, allows greater capacity for remote access and flexible working arrangements

Increasing mobility of our workforce through provision of technology solutions such as tablets

Better communication with our workforce through improved access to information via SharePoint and Skype

Electronic forms making it easier for our people to report incidents and interact within and outside the organisation

Successful adoption of new technologies, new management systems and new methods of work will assist in gaining greater efficiencies and providing better services. There is an opportunity to invest in and engage with modern technology as enabling tools to efficiently and effectively carry out tasks and provide services to our community, including continued use of social media, online recruitment systems or systems that help manage various functions (such as performance review, succession planning and training administration) and making meaningful workforce data readily available to enable evidence-based decisions.

It is critical that our people keep pace with technology changes and that Council takes advantage of the efficiencies and/or improvements to service that these technological changes present.

Effective leadership is important to ensure that a constructive environment and culture is created, that our people are motivated, skilled and focused, that services are transformed and that the community benefits from the Council’s work.

Having the right kind of people leadership is crucial.

Making employment to Singleton Council more attractive (especially to younger generations) requires our culture to be contemporary and one that different generations identify with.

Being an employer of choice is achievable through positive values-based culture, recognition for exceptional performance, opportunities for professional development and benefits and conditions that are an attractive value proposition for existing and potential employees.

As part of implementing succession planning activities in 2017/2018, Council’s Leadership Team needs to identify positions at all levels of the organisation that are considered critical to the ongoing functioning of Council’s operations and services. An extensive assessment will be undertaken to better understand our critical positions and their impact on our organisation into the future.


Singleton Council, like many local government areas, has limited resources with which to provide an increasing number and quality of services. With a clear understanding of what is required to take our organisation forward into the future, the challenge for Singleton Council is to meet these requirements within resources available.

As at 30 June 2016, Singleton Council employs 196 FTE (full time equivalent) positions in a wide range of areas. In addition to its permanent and fixed-term workforce, Council has also has a pool of casual employees (22) who in the main are employed to meet variable and cyclical demand for services in areas such as the library, our visitor centre, and children’s services.

Budget FTE

Permanent Full-time

Permanent Part-time

Fixed Term Casuals Headcount

Total 196 165 24 16 22 227

Over the past four years, from FY13 to FY16, Singleton Council has increased its FTE establishment by 7 positions or 3.7%. However in FY16 the FTE establishment decreased by 3.4%. Our FTE will be continuously reviewed to ensure it meets the needs of our community and the commitments under the CSP however it is not anticipated that without additional revenue streams the FTE allocation would increase. Continuous improvement programs will be addressed to ensure that we live within our means.

The costs for our workforce are calculated as part of the Long Term Financial Plan.

‘In a service-based organisation, such as local government, the engagement and passion of your people is a critical success factor’

Australasian LG Performance Excellence Program FY16 Report

Equivalent to 8.1 FTE per 1000 residents. LG NSW average is 9.3 FTE per 1000 residents


Our people strategies have been identified and developed in response to our workforce challenges. The Community Strategic Plan (CSP) was used as a pivotal reference document to guide and provide context for development of our People Strategies.

Singleton Council delivers services to its communities by means of its employees and the linkage of the CSP to the People Strategy is clearly demonstrated by the CSP strategy: Services are provided by the right people, in the right jobs, with the right skills and attitudes at the right time.

The people strategies are not a once-only fix-all to be used and then shelved. Our people strategies will be reviewed to determine whether they are relevant and in step with any changes to community and customer needs and expectations, as well as our changing environment and labour market.


CSP - Our Leadership Objective

An effective and efficient operational Council

CSP – Our Leadership Strategy

Services to the community are provided by the right people, in the right jobs, with the right skills and attitudes at the right time

Underpinned by Our Values

Integrity Respect Excellence Innovation Enjoyment

Our Workforce Vision

Singleton Council is a great place to work where our values and safety are brought to life every day in everything that we do

Our People Strategy Themes

Employer of Choice Performance-based Culture Engaged Workforce Safe & Healthy Workforce

Our Goals

Council is a workplace that recognises and harnesses the full potential of our people and has effective employee recruitment, engagement, development, and retention practices.

Everyone who comes to work at Singleton Council understands what is expected of them and how their behaviours and performance at work benefits our community

We motivate and inspire our people by fostering a culture of genuine collaboration, engagement, innovation and respect

Everyone who comes to work at Singleton Council leaves work in an equal or better state of health and wellbeing than they arrived.


Council is a workplace that recognises and harnesses the full potential of our people and has effective employee recruitment, engagement and retention practices

Our leaders role model Council’s values, setting high standards of behaviour and conduct for all employees

Our leaders will be effective change agents and have the skills to engage and empower staff to make a real

and tangible difference

Our culture is built on mutual trust and respect recognising the value of a collaborative, diverse and inclusive workforce

Our workforce embraces change as an opportunity to unleash potential and re-shape the way we do business and drive continuous improvement

Our organisation is viewed as an employer of choice attracting highly talented, qualified and diverse applicant pools for all roles

Embed and enhance our values through an ongoing program of consultation, training and awareness

Foster a continuous improvement environment by embedding continuous improvement in all Council activities and benchmarking gains

Promote Singleton Council as an employer of choice by promoting the success of our people and fully utilising our communication capacity

Turnover trends all employees – overall % and by gender (as agreed annually)

# complaints relating to the conduct or behaviour of Council employees

% participation in cultural awareness programs

% completion of mandatory training

% completion of recruitment and marketing programs

% recruits leaving in first year

# of applicants received for advertised positions; % of acceptances

Time to fill/hire

Overall staff engagement score (annual staff survey measure)


Everyone who comes to work at Singleton Council understands what is expected of them and how their behaviours and performance at work benefits our community.

Our leaders drive all levels of organisational performance and the achievement of Council objectives.

Our leaders lead and inspire an energised, high performance culture and get the best out of people

Our workforce is highly skilled and has the capability to deliver Singleton Council’s key objectives

Our workforce structure is aligned and supports the strategic direction of Singleton Council with resources and budget allocated appropriately

Our people actively seek and participate in capability development and knowledge sharing activities

Our people understand the skills required for career progression and are empowered to access available development and career opportunities

Our people embrace new technology and look for ways to maximise collaboration, productivity and efficiency in line with our business operating system.

Our people demonstrate personal leadership and effectiveness at all levels across Council and in all aspects of their work.

Our policies and practices drive organisational efficiency and effectiveness and minimise the barriers that restrict decision making vital in a contemporary and modern workplace environment.

Foster skilled workforce and build capability through investment and increased participation in learning and performance development

Actively commit to workforce planning through implementation of succession plans and a knowledge management approach

Improve end-to-end organisation development and human resources processes through a contemporary improvement of policies and processes

Provide enhanced technology, tools and systems that support our workforce through a proactive and ongoing review and implementation program


Workforce profile – gender balance, age profile and employment status

% of identified tools, policies and processes completed

% of employees participating in development programs al learning and development

% increase of employees accessing online learning

% succession plans in place for all identified critical positions (as agreed annually)


We motivate and inspire our people by fostering a culture of genuine collaboration, engagement, innovation and respect

Our leaders are highly visible and accessible, providing staff with information to enable them to do their jobs and take opportunities to celebrate success, innovation and continuous improvement.

Our people actively participate in meaningful two way communication processes, seeking regular formal and informal feedback and embracing a shared responsibility for individual, team and organisational performance

Our people understand the valuable role they play in delivering the community vision and are empowered to contribute to Singleton Council’s success

Acknowledge and reward our people through a well communicated program of formal and informal

acknowledgement

Develop and evolve our approach to staff engagement, collaboration and communication through increased access and participation in learning and development training programs

Continue to develop and deploy tailored programs and support tools that build leadership and management capabilities

Support our people in their leadership and managerial responsibilities through proactive continuous improvement

in learning and development opportunities as well as implementation of policies, procedures and tools

Promote and support the development of emerging leaders through active and targeted development programs


% participation in communications and engagement learning and development opportunities

Implementation of our Especialist Reward and Recognition Program

% improvement in Leadership 360 scores


Everyone who comes to work at Singleton Council leaves work in an equal or better state of health and wellbeing than they arrived.

Our workplace has an embedded culture that only accepts zero harm

Our workplace supports employees to maintain a healthy work life balance and embrace initiatives that promote health and wellbeing

Zero lost time injuries (LTIs)

Actively support the health, wellbeing and safety of our people through wellbeing program

Proactive promotion of safety culture through learning and development , awareness and safety culture programs

% participation/involvement in workplace wellbeing interventions

Sick leave absence days per Full Time Equivalent (FTE)

Reduction in injury rates and StateCover premium

Employee Assistance Program (EAP) utilisation rates

Review of EAP reports


Our People Strategy is owned and delivered throughout Singleton Council, and our leaders will play a key role in its delivery - guided by the strategic planning process.

Implementation of the strategy is the responsibility of the Leadership Team, and will be implemented through an operational workforce plan that is a proactive and continuous process of shaping the workforce to ensure that it is capable of delivering organisational objectives now and into the future.

An annual plan will be developed with specific actions and success measures. We will also develop our understanding of how the specific success measures contained within the People Strategy impact on our wider measures of organisational success to inform the annual implementation planning process and will be measured and monitored through Council’s governance process.


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