To receive the report.

Nikki Craig, Head of HR, Corporate Projects & IT, said the report was produced on an annual basis and was also published on the website. The report covered a number of areas including: head count, grade bands, part time employees, length of service, voluntary turnover and starters and leavers, up until 31^st March 2022. The second section of the report covered the nine protected characteristics. Under the Equality Act 2010, the council was required to report and publish this information. It was hoped that there could be a comparison with the 2021 Census data, however only data on gender and age had been released so this comparison was not yet possible. Comparisons had been made between previous years where possible.

Councillor Walters noted that there were more staters than leavers over the course of the year, he asked what jobs the additional starters were in.

Nikki Craig said that the overall head count had only increased by five, from 548 to 553. The starters and leavers were across all areas, some areas had higher turnover than others. Nikki Craig said that she would be able to share a list of which service areas the starters and leavers had come from, this could be shared with the Panel after the meeting.

ACTION – Nikki Craig to share starters and leavers list with the Panel.

Councillor Walters commented on sexual oriental, with a percentage saying that they ‘would prefer not to say’. Councillor Walters felt that it was important that the employee was the best person for the job.

Nikki Craig said that it was not useful if the protected characteristics data was not completed, the data was collected at the start of the recruitment process. HR were considering what positive action could be taken to reduce the number of people who ‘preferred not to say’. The reason for collecting data on protected characteristics was to ensure equality and to make sure that nobody was being discriminated against. The recruitment process was about someone’s capacity and ability to fulfil a role. Part time working was less at a more senior level, work had been done to understand what the barriers were to working part time for senior staff.

Councillor Story asked what conclusions could be drawn from the number of staff that were 65+. He asked if there was an obligation for the council to have a workforce which was proportionate, under the Equality Act.

Nikki Craig said it would be good for the council to have an age profile which was reflective of the local area. The number of elderly residents was due to the number of care homes and that a number of residents had chosen to retire. Around 50% of the current workforce nationally were millennials, this was not reflected in the employee make up of RBWM.

Councillor Story asked if volunteers made up this age group.

Nikki Craig clarified that the report did not include volunteers, but a number of volunteers in the borough were in that age group. Nationally, there were more vacancies than people that were unemployed.

Councillor L Jones said that there seemed to be fluidity around female staff at RBWM. It would be helpful to understand where starters and leavers came from, as had been raised by Councillor Walters.

Nikki Craig confirmed that she was happy to provide the breakdown. Over the past year, there had been a 55%/45% split on male and female starters. It was difficult to say why people left the organisation, sometimes it was career development but there were a number of other factors, for example personal circumstances.

Councillor Price commented on the mandatory consultation, where only one senior officer had seen the report.

Nikki Craig said that was correct for the covering report, the actual workforce profile had been through a significant amount of consultation amongst senior officers.

Councillor Price said it was worrying that a number of employees did not want to give answers, it was good that officers were doing work to improve this.

Nikki Craig added that there had been an increased response rate to the annual employee survey.

Councillor Price understood that casual staff and contractors were not included as part of the report. She asked what percentage of the total workforce was covered by the data.

Nikki Craig said that before Achieving for Children and Optalis the count was around 1,200 and the other big service area not included was highways due to outsourcing, with around 50 more staff.

Councillor Price asked if there would be any value in having the workforce information from these areas, if it was possible.

Nikki Craig confirmed that the organisations were not required to share their workforce profile data.

Councillor Price commented on part time staff, she often found it difficult to get hold of officers on a Friday. She asked if service delivery was factored into which days staff worked.

Nikki Craig said that there was a flexible working policy, pros and cons needed to be considered. In HR, there were a number of colleagues that worked a four day week. However, the day not worked was spread evenly across the week.

Councillor Price asked if career development was a genuine reason from some leavers, or whether it was an easy option to tick. She said that there was a reference to an ‘ambassador group’ in the report, she asked for the context behind this group.

Nikki Craig said that the exit interview questions were asked anonymously. The ambassador group was a voluntary group of employees across the organisation, they were an employee voice group. The group was an important resource for gauging the opinion of the workforce and feeding in ideas.

Adele Taylor said that the question was asked before employees joined the organisation, it could be updated at a later date. It would be useful for officers to have more information on the workforce. Trust had been measured in the staff survey, improvements had been made in this area.

Councillor Walters asked what the equality, diversity and inclusion network was.

Nikki Craig said it was an employee led voice group, which came together to consider all things related to equality, diversity and inclusion. The Executive Director of Resources and the Chief Executive were also part of the network. An outcome of the survey produced by the network was to have diverse interview panels, which incorporated people with protected characteristics, if possible. Colleagues could be borrowed from other services if required.

Councillor Walters noted that there was reference to the strategy team in the report.

Nikki Craig said that Rachel Kinniburgh led the strategy team, they had corporate and borough wide responsibility on equalities.

Adele Taylor said that sometimes members of the equality, diversity and inclusion network were offered the opportunity to be part of interview panels. It allowed employees to broaden their development.

Councillor Shelim commented on starters and leavers in March 2021, it was hard to understand why people were leaving the organisation when there were few jobs available due to the pandemic.

Nikki Craig said that turnover for that year went down to 10%, so the number of roles available had reduced. Now the turnover figure had returned to a figure similar to before the pandemic.

Adele Taylor said that a lot of work was done to market the organisation, it was important to have employees that also met the values of RBWM.

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.