Agenda item

The Performance and Corporate Services Committee is RECOMMENDED to:

Consider this report and its accompanying annexes. Where necessary to seek further information on points of strategy or policy clarification from the Cabinet Member and operational or specialist clarification from officers, with a view to making suggested improvements, additions or refinements to the proposed approaches.

The Cabinet Member for Corporate Services and Corporate Director introduced the report, which brought together three work streams: the refresh of the IT, Digital and Innovation Strategy; a framework for agile working; and the organisational development and employee engagement programme (‘Delivering the Future Together’ (DTFT)).

The three programmes were interlinked as good, efficient IT enabled agile working and an organisational development strategy was required to deliver agile working by enabling engagement with staff around the council’s direction of travel as an employer and ensuring that that an agile workforce remained productive, efficient, effective and content.

The Committee heard that:

a.    The council had good IT capability. During lockdown, most staff had laptops and were able to transition to remote working; the challenge was in respect of enabling staff to use IT in a way which supports agile working – e.g. to work flexibly and collaborate in different online spaces. The agile framework represented a shift to long-term planning in respect of defining workforce agility and how flexibility and personal responsibility and accountability would operate in different cases; it was intended to support mangers to develop ways of working which enabled them to deliver their services.

b.    Significant engagement had been undertaken with staff in respect of the agile framework and DTFT. Trade unions were regularly engaged with in respect of other matters; union representatives had been lightly engaged in respect of the development of the strategies, as their focus was more on employee relations and HR policy. There were no immediate plans to introduce home-based contracts; the council was part of the national terms and conditions framework and would follow what was agreed at that level.

c.     IT solutions were being, and human resources (HR) policy solutions were to be, developed around four agile work types. The work types were to enable the development such solutions, rather than pigeonhole staff.

d.    The labour market had recently become significantly more challenging and agile working was part of becoming an employer of choice.

e.    Corporate services adopted a business partnering model to make services, including procurement, more integrated. The agile framework was coproduced with staff champions and workshops had been held to avoid siloes and inform its development, and that of the property strategy. However, the differences between services were recognised and welcomed and the council was not to apply a ‘one size fits all’ approach to services in respect of agile and IT.

f.      Workforce reporting had recently improved, but HR metrics were not yet of the desired standard. Productivity measures were to be developed as part of a new HR strategy. There was an expectation of staff meeting in person from time to time under agile working.12-3-2 – an appraisal, performance and management programme – had been reinstated.

In respect of IT specifically, the Committee heard that:

a.    The strategy was designed for the IT service rather than staff; the focus in respect of staff was working with them to improve user experience. The IT service had been redesigned in 2021 and had introduced a customer engagement team to better meet services’ needs, work with staff in respect of user acceptability of change, and communicate changes with them more effectively.

b.    The 2019-2022 strategy was subject to annual reviews and had been initially developed with Member input. It was not reviewed in 2020 and 2021 due to the covid-19 pandemic. Following a review in 2022, only marginal changes were to be made as the strategy already included becoming more agile, aiming to modernise delivery, improve working and reduce costs. Digital innovation had been added to create a more holistic approach to technology. Digital infrastructure for the county, including broadband had also been added. The focus on cyber security had been increased due to increased risk.

c.     During the covid-19 pandemic, the council had procured a new printing service which reduced the number of printers on the estate. The Director – IT & Digital stated that reducing printing (‘paper light’) was the council’s intention for cost and climate reasons. The transition would require management to maintain the support of staff and Members.

d.    The strategy delivered approximately £0.5 million in savings in 2021/22.

e.    The council’s physical data centres were based in Birmingham and its virtual data centres were also based in the UK; the Director – IT & Digital was certain that no council data was stored outside of the UK. A Member noted that the council’s virtual data centres were only carbon neutral due to offsetting.

f.      The IT & Digital Service was ensuring that the council’s buildings had the necessary connections to enable the Zero Trust model. The council did not have all the required levers to alleviate the county’s digital connectivity issues but was doing what it could to improve the county’s infrastructure. Generally, staff had been able to work remotely with success.

g.    The Director was confident in the capabilities of the Service, which had a proactive apprenticeship scheme to enable succession and was providing digital T Levels to students from the Institute for Technology.

h.    A programme board with representation from across the directorates was responsible for approving IT purchases and the council aimed to procure solutions which were as standard as possible to avoid additional costs. An efficiency programme was in place to remove redundant capabilities.

i.      An upgrade of the council’s contact centre under the strategy had improved residents’ experience of engaging with the council, including its responsiveness to contacts. Work remained to be done on improving digital engagement, particularly the council’s website and certain external portals.

In respect of agile working specifically, the Committee heard that:

a.    The Corporate Director was cautious about introducing remote contracts before the organisation had developed clarity on when those were appropriate or before the organisation had capability to support them. They did not consider that this would impact recruitment and retention as the council was already flexible and agile and some roles could be performed exclusively remotely. The council had recently initiated a strategic review of its employee offer and ‘employer of choice’ branding, which included IT options around improving recruitment workflow.

b.    There was an equity issue in respect of whether staff who worked from home should be reimbursed for costs incurred therefrom, when staff who commute would not be reimbursed for travel. Providing sufficient resource to deliver services was a greater priority than reimbursing home working costs at present. The health and safety risks associated with home working required consideration.

c.     The council was focused on employee wellbeing and appreciated the benefits of a shared culture and employee engagement. Occupational health support such as mindfulness was available. Relationships between staff and their managers were key – leadership and management development was to be recommissioned under DTFT.  The employee champions network was central to enabling staff to provide feedback for escalation to the relevant people and on the employee experience.

d.    Consistency in relation to flexible working was managed through HR policy and advice to managers when staff requested flexible working arrangements under their statutory right to do so. Such arrangements balanced service and employee needs. The council aimed to avoid disputes in the first place, but they were addressed between employees and line managers in the first instance, followed by grievance procedures.

e.    The council’s property portfolio was based on its pre-pandemic needs but it was not rushing to conclusions regarding its future needs. The developing property strategy was likely to include how the council would determine its property needs and include descriptions of the different properties that were relevant to that consideration. In the short-term, the council had buildings which were suitable to be used as pilot work hubs, but this would not involve mandating that staff transition to hub-based working.

In respect DTFT specifically, the Committee heard that:

a.    The council used a multi-channel approach to communicating the strategy and receiving feedback: employee champions; line managers; staff forums; and wider communications. The council’s adopted a strengths-based approach to conversations with employees.

b.    It was recognised that the council had not previously been good at recognising staff performance. An online platform had been introduced to enable staff to receive recognition for their work.  In-person employee awards were provided.

c.     An organisation-wide staff survey had been delivered and 600 staff participated in focus groups during the commissioning of DTFT. Employer accreditation in relation to staff satisfaction was being explored; benchmarked satisfaction would further the council’s aim of being an employer of choice. The importance of responding to data on satisfaction was highlighted.

ACTIONS –

1.    The Director – IT & Digital to provide the Committee with the cost to date and total anticipated cost of the IT, Digital & Innovation Strategy and the savings delivered to date and to be delivered by the Strategy under the Medium-Term Financial Plan.

2.    The Director – IT & Digital to include ‘paper light’ processes in the IT, Digital & Innovation Strategy.

3.    The Scrutiny Officer and Corporate Director – Customers, Organisational Development & Resources to discuss timing of bringing an update to the Committee on the implementation of Delivering the Future Together.