Issue - meetings

Cabinet Member – Councillor Menna Trenholme

To consider a report on the above.

DECISION

1. To accept the report and to note the observations received.
2. That the Committee notes concern regarding the high level of staff absences and requests that updates on the Strategy in future detail specific data, i.e. comparison over periods, etc. 

The Cabinet Member for Corporate Services and the officers were welcomed to the meeting. ⁠

Submitted - the report of the Cabinet Member for Corporate Services inviting the committee to scrutinise the staff well-being field to receive assurance that appropriate arrangements were in place and the proposed Strategy would address the challenges in terms of the after-effects of the pandemic period amongst the workforce and staff absence costs due to sickness.

The Cabinet Member set out the context and the Assistant Head of Corporate Services provided a brief summary of the content of the report.

Members were given an opportunity to ask questions and offer observations. ⁠ 

It was noted that:-

·       As was always common in a staff survey, there were a lot of views in the report regarding the information and skills of middle managers, and it was noted that the Strategy was welcomed as long as it was implemented and adopted specifically by senior officers, and that the line managers, and specifically the middle managers, received regular training and leadership.

·       Although the report had quoted some words from staff to convey the feeling, it would have been beneficial to present more data and information to show the views of staff from different departments within the Council as a result of the Staff Voice Survey.

·       That the staff absences were high, and it would have been beneficial to present more information to see whether there were obvious problems in some departments, and the reasons for that.

·       The opportunity for the committee to scrutinise this field again was welcomed.

In response to the observations, it was noted that:

·       The data was certainly available. In terms of the Staff Voice Survey specifically, there was a clear message in terms of the statistics on well-being, with the well-being score lower than the jobs / services score. There was also a clear message that front-line staff were unaware of the support packages available.

·       In terms of the observations regarding managers, a healthy and satisfied workforce was now one of the 9 work streams in the Ffordd Gwynedd Plan, with another work stream related to staff and manager developments, and the Strategy would tie into that in terms of the programmes available to develop managers.

⁠It was suggested, although middle managers were experts in their field, that they were not always natural managers, and it was asked where should staff refer any concerns they had about managerial-related matters. In response, it was noted:-

·       Clearly, staff could escalate such matters within the service or the department, but, as part of the Well-being Plan, it was intended to identify well-being coordinators within each department.

·       Staff could also refer the matter to the attention of the Human Resources Service or the Whistle-blowing procedure.

It was noted that it would be interesting to see the statistics on pages 2 and 3 of the Well-being Plan over a period of 5 years to be able to compare the current situation with the situation before and during the Covid period.

The intention  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8