human resources strategy 2014-2018
service and people first
human resources strategy 2014 - 2018
The Context of Human Resources in
North Lanarkshire Council
In February 2010 the Council introduced its first HR Strategy,
spanning the period of 2010-2014. The Strategy set out the
direction of human resources for the four year period and
how the Human Resource community would contribute to
accomplishing the Council’s major objectives
The last four years have been a period of
considerable change for North Lanarkshire
Council and its employees, with internal
and external pressures leading to significant
restructures across the organisation. Some
employees have left the organisation; some have
taken on new roles and responsibilities. By the
end of 2014, it is anticipated that the Council’s
staffing establishment will have reduced by 8.8%
since 2010/11. There is no doubt that the impact
on the organisation has been significant.
Throughout this time, HR has been at the
forefront. Working with colleagues, HR teams
have supported the organisation in achieving
its overall objectives and developing the
organisation through its people. Much has been
achieved, including:
• Supporting the organisation to effectively
manage the workforce re-structuring agenda,
reducing the number of employees by 1912
with the need for 3 compulsory redundancies.
• Maintenance of a stable, employee relations
culture during this period of significant
change.
• The design, management and implementation
of HR solutions to ensure continued, (and in
many cases, improved) service delivery.
• Introduction of the Living Wage for the lowest
paid employees in the organisation.
• 572 training opportunities have been provided
for young residents of North Lanarkshire
through the modern apprenticeship
programme over the period, with 263 moving
on to employment and 226 moving on to
further study.
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• An overall reduction in sickness absence of
almost 20% in the lifetime of the first HR
Strategy.
• The Youth Investment Programme was
launched in February 2012 with an ambitious
target to support 5000 people into work by
March 2015. The Council is well on the way to
meet and exceed this target.
• The successful establishment of Culture NL and
North Lanarkshire Properties and management
of the associated TUPE transfers.
• The review, update and introduction of
new employment policies in line with
organisational need and legislative
requirements.
• The introduction of the Learning &
Development Strategy 2011-14, including the
launch of phase one of the succession planning
programme – initially focusing on third tier
officers.
Moving forward, the organisation continues to
face uncertain times with the certainty of further
change. Working with trade union colleagues,
the Council remains committed to seeking
to avoid compulsory redundancies wherever
possible and finding the most appropriate
solutions to ensuring that the quality of
service provided by North Lanarkshire remains
paramount. The needs and interests of the
workforce are critical – 36.9% of the Council’s
gross annual expenditure budget in 2013-14 was
spent on our employees.
For North Lanarkshire Council to be the best it
can be, our employees must understand what
they need to do and why it is so important. As
an employer, we must ensure that we provide
an opportunity for our employees to tell us
what they think, to listen to and reflect on their
thoughts, views and concerns.
human resources strategy 2014 - 2018
The HR Strategy 2014-18 is driven by and
supports the Council to deliver on its
organisational priorities.
Working together, we can achieve the vision
for the organisation, its service users and the
residents of North Lanarkshire.
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human resources strategy 2014 - 2018
What Does North Lanarkshire Council
Want to Achieve?
“We will put Service & People First in North Lanarkshire to deliver
quality services which provide best value and create prosperity,
achieve social justice and meet local needs.”
North Lanarkshire Council’s Corporate Plan sets
out the strategic direction for the organisation,
and its commitment to providing high quality
and responsive services to the service users and
residents of North Lanarkshire. Our key themes
are:
Health & Wellbeing
North Lanarkshire Council is committed to
working with our partners to tackle the health
inequalities within North Lanarkshire, focusing
on issues related to alcohol and drug misuse,
smoking, mental health, diet and nutrition and
physical activity.
The Council aims to build on major sporting
events such as the Glasgow Commonwealth
Games 2014, releasing the huge legacy potential
by improving access to sport and physical
activity. Initiatives to support mental health and
tackle addictions remain a key priority.
With approximately 78% of the Council
workforce residing in North Lanarkshire, the
HR Strategy will support health and wellbeing
within the organisation in a number of ways.
The Council’s Health & Safety Plan seeks to
tackle the key issues for NLC and focuses on
improving communication with and involvement
of employees in matters relating to their health
and wellbeing and raising awareness of the
importance of health and wellbeing with
managers across the organisation. A key focus
for Health & Safety teams in the Council is the
maintenance of our Healthy Working Lives
accreditation at Gold level and our Mental Health
Commendation Award.
Ensuring ongoing access to occupational health
and physiotherapy support for employees is a
key HR priority. Occupational health ensures
that the health of employees is considered within
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the context of their employment and helps the
Council to make appropriate decisions and offer
the correct support to employees suffering with
ill health. Providing access to physiotherapy
support has also shown to be successful in
helping employees to avoid long term mobility
problems.
Attendance management remains a key priority
for the organisation. While much has been
achieved, it is critical that the Council continues
to look at the way in which sickness absence
is managed, putting in place support for both
employees and managers.
Lifelong Learning
North Lanarkshire Council is committed to
providing an educational environment that
is relevant to children and young people
and provides them with the resources
and experiences they need through their
nursery, primary and secondary school years,
allowing them to develop skills for learning,
life and work. The Council will continue to
deliver new approaches to training, learning
and development, supporting people into
employment and volunteering. We will work
together to provide greater opportunities and
clear pathways to further learning, sustainable
employment and community participation by
providing targeted support based on individual
needs.
The HR Strategy supports this priority in a
number of ways. Direct support to schools is
provided across a broad spectrum of services,
including: assistance with the recruitment of
teaching and support staff, promoting and
meeting the requirements of professional and
statutory programmes and dealing with all
aspects of conditions of service terms for teachers
human resources strategy 2014 - 2018
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human resources strategy 2014 - 2018
and associated professionals. The HR Strategy
underpins support provided to our colleagues
by ensuring they are best placed to deliver the
education our young people deserve.
Within the Council, our organisational value of
Listening & Learning sets out our commitment
to continuous improvement through learning
– “we will continually learn, transforming
our organisation through the knowledge,
capability and initiative of our workforce.” The
HR community will support our employees by
providing a development framework which
supports managers and employees to deliver
services to the best of their abilities by investing
in learning and managing performance for
optimum results. The Performance Review &
Development (PRD) process provides a regular
opportunity to discuss individual learning needs,
while the Learning & Development Strategy
outlines the key skills gaps (and the plan to fill
those gaps) at an organisational level.
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Regeneration
Regeneration of the local area is a key priority for
the Council. This must be tackled in a number
of levels from a focus on growth of the business
sector to attracting new investment, protecting
and enhancing the environment and building
on successes to improve the image of North
Lanarkshire.
Our Council introduced the Living Wage in
April 2013, helping to protect the lowest paid
employees in the organisation. We remain
committed to supporting the Living Wage and its
principles.
As the largest employer in North Lanarkshire,
the Council has an important role to play in
the working lives of many residents. Through
an established programme of service and
financial planning, Services determine workforce
requirements over the coming years. Such
information is used by the HR community to help
support workforce change.
A key priority for the Council is tackling youth
unemployment and preparing our young people
for the workplace. The modern apprenticeship/
vocational training programme is strongly linked
to this process, identifying opportunities to
develop the skills needed by the organisation.
Led by HR, the modern apprenticeship/vocational
training programme has provided training
opportunities to 572 people since 2010, with 263
jobs achieved and 226 progressing to further
study in the same period.
The Youth Investment Programme has had
significant success in creating opportunities
for unemployed residents of North Lanarkshire
through the youth placement and graduate
opportunity programmes, and is now on track
to meet the ambitious target of supporting
5000 people into work by March 2015. The HR
Strategy recognises the importance of continuing
to support this process by supporting the
development and evaluation of new training
roles and graduate opportunities and providing
job seeking training for graduates nearing the
end of their time with the Council.
Service & People First
The Council’s commitment to put Service &
People First means ensuring that we operate
as efficiently, economically and effectively as
possible to address our strategic priorities. This
means addressing four key priorities – more
customer focus, workforce development, greater
efficiency and improved performance.
The HR Strategy supports the key aims of Service
& People First in a number of ways. More
customer focus is delivered by empowered
employees who are well placed to respond to
customer needs. Promoting the integrity and
the quality of the service provided across the
organisation to our customers is critical. HR
teams work with managers across the Council
to promote and meet the requirements of
professional and statutory programmes such as
the Protecting Vulnerable Groups (PVG) scheme.
A programme of learning and development
ensures employees have access to learning
opportunities which will help to improve their
skills and confidence. The Performance Review &
Development (PRD) programme helps to manage
this approach effectively - ensuring employees
get access to the training support they need to
meet their individual needs. Customer focus is
human resources strategy 2014 - 2018
also about ensuring we understand what our
customers need and want. While for many
Services this means consultation with the public,
internally HR teams take the lead in developing
and maintaining consultation mechanisms
for both employee groups and trade union
colleagues.
Workforce development is a fundamental result
of this investment in learning and development
and the Council’s commitment to Investors in
People demonstrates this. Within the Strategy,
workforce development is also about the “nuts
and bolts” of the employment relationship and
Service managers and HR professionals continue
to engage with employees and trade unions on
change programmes which aim to restructure
the organisation in line with the challenges
which lie ahead. Supporting the CMT in the
development and implementation of a budget
driven transformation programme lies at the
heart of achieving greater efficiency, while the
Council’s focus on improving service delivery
through the reduction in sickness absence levels
have been supported by Service managers and
HR teams across the organisation.
Improved performance is the critical theme
which links all Service & People First priority
areas. The HR Strategy underpins the links and
support to employees and managers across the
organisation to ensure North Lanarkshire Council
performs at the highest level and delivers services
of the highest quality.
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human resources strategy 2014 - 2018
What Do We Want Our HR Strategy
to Achieve?
For North Lanarkshire Council to achieve its key objectives, we must ensure the
organisation is efficient and effective – the best that we can be.
For the HR community, the focus moving forward
will be targeted in three key areas:
• Organisational Development
• Improved Performance
• Consultation, Feedback and Equality
Organisational Development
There are many aspects to organisational
development. Workforce planning is a key
concept – this means getting the right people
in the right place at the right time and doing
the right things. We will continue to support
colleagues in the process of service and financial
planning, helping to ensure that the impact on
the existing workforce and the requirement for
new or changing skills or staffing levels are fully
considered. This includes consideration of the
need for recruitment, retraining, redeployment
and restructuring. Organisational development
is also about investment in our workforce,
ensuring that employees have the skills required
to meet the challenges of the future, in addition
to building and maintaining organisational
capacity to provide high quality services to
our customers – internal and external. A focus
on workforce planning and development is
also critical. This means predicting the future
demand for different types of staff and seeking
to match this with supply. Effective workforce
planning is an important tool to help the Council
maximise our resources and build current and
future capacity in a structured and planned way.
To assist the Council in effectively planning and
developing our workforce, all Services have
access to the Improvement Service’ Workforce
Planning Toolkit – an important resource which
can help to assist us in planning for structural
change.
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Key actions will include:
• Continuing to support the Corporate
Management Team in leading the
development and implementation of a budget
driven transformation programme.
• Working with key stakeholders on the
introduction of a new HR/Payroll platform.
• Continuing to work to resolve outstanding
equal pay claims, protecting the interests of
North Lanarkshire Council while evidencing
our commitment to ensure equality.
• Introduction of a new Learning &
Development Strategy for 2014-18, including
the ongoing focus on organisational
succession planning.
• Carrying out a review of the Performance
Review & Development programme.
• Continuing to support the Inter Service
Working Group to create employment
opportunities for young people in North
Lanarkshire.
Improved Performance
Improving performance means ensuring that
North Lanarkshire Council operates efficiently,
that employees are productive and that our
policies and procedures are of best practice
quality. We will work with managers and
employees across the organisation in our
continued efforts to improve performance across
the organisation.
Key actions will include:
• Continuing to provide advice consistent with
best practice and employment legislation to
employees and managers across the Council.
• Developing and delivering initiatives and
sharing best practice to reduce sickness
absence levels.
• Leading and co-ordinating the development/
review of the Council’s employment policies/
guidance notes in line with legislative
requirements and operational priorities.
• Working with key stakeholders in the design
of a more flexible workforce, ensuring the
needs of employees are fully considered
and employment policies/procedures are
established or reviewed.
Consultation, Feedback & Equality
The critical importance of consulting with our
employees and trade union colleagues when
planning for change across the organisation is
paramount to the success of our Strategy. The
maintenance of a stable employee relations
culture is highly valued within the Council, and
we remain committed to working with trade
union colleagues to achieve the best results for
both the organisation and its employees.
The Council has a duty under the Equality Act
(2010) to consult with our employees, gathering
and using information to identify key issues in
employment, avoiding discriminatory practices
and understanding the impact that policies,
procedures and practices have on different
employees.
We will also continue to use the information
gathered in the biennial employee survey to
human resources strategy 2014 - 2018
highlight and address any areas of particular
concern to employees.
These factors will form the basis of our approach.
Key actions will include:
• Continuing to work with trade union
colleagues, always ensuring our engagement
mechanisms are fit for purpose.
• Working with the Corporate Equality Working
Group to support the launch and development
of a new Employee Equality Forum – an
essential mechanism for consulting with
employees from protected characteristic
groups.
• Continuing our commitment to the Equality
Impact Assessment process, ensuring all
HR policies and procedures are analysed to
consider whether they affect or will affect
different groups of people in different ways.
Next Steps
To ensure HR Strategy objectives are met, an
annual action plan will set out key milestones and
timescales, with progress monitored regularly by
senior HR professionals.
Progress will be reported to the Corporate
Management Team bi-annually. Outcomes will
also be published on Connect.
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North Lanarkshire Council
Corporate Communications
Chief Executive’s Office
Civic Centre
Windmillhill Street
Motherwell ML1 1AB
t. 01698 302141
e. [email protected]
www.northlanarkshire.gov.uk
CORP_00861 Ver.1/ 10.2014
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