Agenda item

Workforce Profile Report

To consider the report.

Minutes:

Nikki Craig explained that the workforce profile was an annual survey of the make up of the council. The first section of the report included things like a head count and pay grades, while it also made comparisons to the previous year so that trends and patterns could be identified. There had been a reduction of 55 employees over the last year, mainly due to a transfer of staff to Achieving for Children. A full time monitoring officer had also been appointed. The second section of the report considered the protected characteristics. One positive was the comparison between starters and leavers profile in ethnicity and disability, which showed a larger percentage of starters than leavers. At a senior management level, no employees were from a Black, Asian or Minority Ethnic background. The final section of the report highlighted the councils commitment to improvement and also employee initiatives like the diversity, equality and inclusion network. The network had recently surveyed staff on their diversity related experiences. The report had been compared with the Census 2011 results, next year the report would be produced using the new Census 2021 data.

 

The Chairman noted that there were no employees from a Black, Asian or Ethnic Minority background in senior management at RBWM and asked what was being done about it. Protected characteristics were part of the report but there was nothing on the socio-economic background of employees, which would be good to know.

 

Nikki Craig said that RBWM was keen to nurture talent from within and it was important that senior management identified who was keen to progress and develop. The diversity, equality and inclusion network survey had recently been completed and it would be interesting to see those results which would reveal how staff felt.

 

Vanessa Faulkner, Service Lead – HR People Services, said that the diversity, equality and inclusion network had recently completed the survey. Once the results had been collated, the network could then move forward and see what they wanted to do.

 

Nikki Craig suggested it would be possible to look at socio-economic information of staff and said that she would discuss this idea with her team. However, this would depend on staff being comfortable to share this with the council.

 

Councillor Werner asked what resources were being used by the council to help those with a disability. He noted that the figures in the report did not include companies owned by RBWM, for example RBWM Property Company Ltd, and asked why they were not included. Councillor Werner asked if RBWM was interested in the diversity of the various contractors which the council worked with.

 

Nikki Craig said that the provision of equipment in relation to disabilities would always be provided to any employee who required it to undertake their role. RBWM Property Company Ltd and external contractors were separate entities to RBWM and therefore officers did not see any of the data, as they were not RBWM employees.

 

Councillor Werner asked how the process could be changed, it was important that external companies were following RBWM standards when it came to equalities.

 

Nikki Craig said that during the procurement process, there were questions asked about adhering to the Equalities Act. She said that she would need to ask an officer from procurement for confirmation of what procedures they undertook. Officers could ask for general employee data but there was no obligation for external organisations to share this with the council.

 

Councillor Werner suggested that this was something that could be added to the procurement process.

 

ACTION – Nikki Craig to ask procurement team for confirmation of the process used to ensure that contractors abide by similar equalities values as RBWM.

 

Councillor Hill said that voluntary turnover was shown as 10.55% but this did not match with the head count figure for March 2020. He asked what figure it represented.

 

Nikki Craig explained that turnover was calculated by the leavers figure being divided by the starters and average head count across the year.

 

Councillor Sharpe commented that everything looked good in the report and asked if this was a correct statement to make.

 

Nikki Craig said that things did look good on the whole but some areas could be improved, for example the lack of ethnic diversity at management level. It would be interesting to compare the report next year when the latest census data would be available.

 

Adele Taylor said that things like the survey from the diversity, equality and inclusion network would help officers to understand how staff felt to work at RBWM. There were opportunities for the council to improve.

 

The Chairman asked if the Panel would get to see the results from the survey that had been undertaken by the network.

 

Nikki Craig explained that the network was employee led and the results of the survey would be referenced in future reports which would be brought to the Panel. She said that she would be happy to ask the network to see if they would be happy to share the results with Members.

 

ACTION – Nikki Craig to ask the diversity, equality and inclusion network if survey results can be shared with the Panel.

 

RESOLVED UNANIMOUSLY: That the Corporate Overview and Scrutiny noted the report and:

 

i)             Received future reports which would take into account the Census 2021 detail when published.

Supporting documents: