Meeting documents

To consider this report.

The Committee received a report from the Director of Customers, Digital and Workforce as the Lead Officer. 

The following points were highlighted:

·       An analysis of the recent Culture Workshops to help address the challenge of setting the culture for the new authority.

·       The workshops had opened a conversation with employees of all five districts to set the ‘feel’ of Somerset Council and determine ‘how we will do things’ and what was not wanted.

·       A sub-workstream called Culture and Behaviours would be established.

·       In total, 485 employees attended the workshops which were either held face to face or virtually, as a hybrid format was not deemed appropriate.

·       2500 comments were received which were categorised into 100 themes. A strong theme was concern over ways of working and communication.

·       Staff felt strongly protective over ‘dynamic working strategies’ which had been discussed at length with trade unions. Other concerns related to managers listening to employees, wellbeing and general kindness in the workplace which would be fed into the overall People Strategy.

·       Phase two of this work would concentrate on ways to enact what staff want and would include further workshops to help draft the new Corporate Plan and 50 Culture Navigators would be recruited to enable this work to take place and to assess staff feelings on the ground.

The following comments were made, and questions asked:

-       It was stated that when communication were optimised, engagement levels would also be optimised.

-       It was noted that qualitive responses were very important and that the Council’s SLT and the Executive consider those responses and read the feedback. It was suggested if Members could attend a culture workshop.

-       It would be important to consider non-9-5 work pattern roles as there was much flexibility in other sectors; it would be imperative to follow up any suggestions of bullying very rapidly; and that the impact of the menopause on the wider workforce should not be underestimated. In response it was confirmed the Council was mindful of the effect of the menopause and it would be significant to the wider workforce, particularly as the average age of an SCC employee was 45-46 years and that 73% of the workforce were female.

-       It was asked how effective anti-bullying policies and practices are currently and in response it was confirmed they were hugely important and would continue to be so in the Council.

-       It was stated that it was important to continue to listen to the workforce after 1 April 2023 and this should be an ongoing process and it was confirmed it would be imperative to set the culture from April 2023.

-       It was noted that the new Council should also be mindful of the wellbeing of councillors as well as employees and there was significant pressure on both Members and Officers that would extend beyond April 2023.

-       There was a question about what was being done with regard stress management, particularly in services experiencing staff shortages. It was explained that much being done and would continue to help build a positive work environment to combat all undermining behaviours. All Members were encouraged to join the process to aid understanding of the pressures that both staff and Members were under to achieve the best outcomes for the Council. The Officer stated that on the completion of work in B Block there would be a continuation of dynamic working strategies to include hybrid working with particular regard to new staff and young employees. The work of the Economy Community Infrastructure (ECI) team in developing the Workforce Strategy as a planning resource and the work already undertaken as part of this with Children’s Social Care and Adult Social Care with lessons learnt would be applied to the wider organisation. Work would be undertaken to identify how to retain good staff through pay and reward, as well as career progression schemes.

-       There was agreement that the new authority should be a learning organisation.

The Committee accepted the report and welcomed the approach to continue staff engagement.