Agenda item

Arising from consideration of the minutes, Councillor Heydon referred to a query she had raised since the last meeting as follows:

The latest version of the corporate risk register was made available to the Governance Committee at the last meeting on 29 November 2023 (Agenda page 98) Risk 5, directly related to lack of resources money and staff to deliver services.

Hollie Walmsley, Head of Human Resources was asked to provide a risk update to give a full picture of the current position and any mitigating actions currently being taken.

Hollie Walmsley indicated that the initial report presented to the Task Group in September 2023 outlined 5 main objectives:

She informed members that since September 2023 progress made was as follows:

Implement a recruitment system with a focus on candidate experience and manager self-service. 

The new Eploy system has now been implemented and will go live on 8 January 2024 to capitalise on the increased numbers of active job searchers in the new year.

Eploy has been fully tested with managers across the councils and the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive.

The front end of the system is the recruitment microsite which was demonstrated to the task group in November.  The enhanced functionality of this system will enable © a data-based approach to recruitment, and (d) to manage our talent pool.

Develop an employer brand to increase proactive recruitment ability and communicate this brand.

Activity to develop the employer brand includes the use of LinkedIn and other externally focussed media channels.

Additionally, since October 2023:

1. A series of LinkedIn masterclasses have been delivered to Shared Leadership Team (SLT) – following which we have seen increased use and posting on LinkedIn by SLT.
2. Two articles have been published in the Management Journal to aid senior recruitment.

Upskill managers to be confident and capable recruiters

A series of masterclasses are planned to follow the implementation of the new system, to support the processes around it.  These masterclasses will include:

-          Advert writing

-          Interview techniques

-          Passive vs active job seekers and the differing approaches

In-person training on the recruitment system has taken place.

Coaching with managers has improved the outcomes of recruitment drives.

Benefits

From September -December 2023, across both councils, 69 roles have been advertised and 64 have been filled, a success rate of 93%.

The use of direct approaches to passive candidates has enabled the appointment of 2 software developers, a cyber security officer, and a bio-diversity net gain officer.  These are very difficult posts to fill.

The average time to hire has reduced from 53 days to 29 – time to hire is defined as the time from when a vacancy is created to when a formal offer of employment is made.

The Council has appointed 5 senior leaders on the first attempt and the quality of the applicants was extremely high.

The Task Group thanked Hollie for the updated information. She was also requested to obtain comparative information from other local authorities which will be provided on an annual basis, in line with other local authority reporting frequency.

Resolved -

1.    That the minutes of 20 November 2023 be approved; and

2.    That the updated information provided be included in the final report.