Issue - meetings

To consider a revised workforce strategy following CV19 (report of Councillor Tracey Carter and Chief Executive enclosed).

Consideration was given to the report of the Chief Executive and the Portfolio Holder for Governance and Customer to seek changes to the Workforce Strategy (2019-2023) which was revised following the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Portfolio Holder for Governance and Customer introduced the report and highlighted the following points:

• Changes had been made to the Workforce Strategy 2019-2023 following the COVID-19 pandemic;
• There had been a rapid shift over the last four months to remote working and there was a  need to ensure that staff were performance focused and managed based on outcomes whenever and wherever they worked;
• There was a need to respond to changing customer needs and to enhance the customer experience by ensuring staff continued to be more digital in delivering services, while still maintaining face-to-face services where appropriate;

• The HR team were working with the Health and Safety team to ensure that all staff were working in a safe environment and were monitoring staff health and wellbeing.

The Portfolio Holder proposed that the recommendation be amended to ensure that the Strategy is reviewed in January 2021.

It was questioned whether current difficulty in filling vacant roles was likely to continue, given that there were likely to be higher levels of unemployment due to the pandemic. Cllr Alcock requested that an update report to be brought to the Performance Monitoring Panel in a year’s time on the Council’s progress against the criteria set out in the report.

The Executive Director for Commercialisation advised that it had previously been very difficult to recruit for specialist roles and despite numerous attempts, these roles remained vacant.

DECISION:

That the Workforce Strategy 2019-2023 (revised following CV19) be approved and reviewed in January 2021.