Minutes:
In presenting the report, the Personnel Services Manager explained that for a number of years Elected Members had considered an annual ‘Employment Monitoring report’ which reviewed equalities based information on the Council’s employment practices.
The report supported the requirements of the Equality Act 2010 with regards to workforce monitoring and also provided evidence of the Council’s commitment to achieving its equality objectives for employment, which had also been developed in line with the requirements of the Equality Act.
Appendix 1 showed the summary information and key indicators which Members and Managers should note. The Panel was advised that in considering the report and the associated Appendix, Members should note the change in employees within the scope of the monitoring information collated, as outlined in the background section.
The Personnel Manager provided background information and explained that the Council had undertaken monitoring of its recruitment and selection procedures since 1996 and of its workforce since 2000, with findings reported to Elected Members and Senior Managers over this period. It was highlighted that where possible, information for the most recent year, plus the previous years, had been included.
Councillor Devereux referred to the previous meeting of the Panel when the annual sickness report had been received and asked why the report was not summarised as part of the key indicators. In response, the Personnel Services Manager explained that the Employment Monitoring report supported the requirements of the Equality Act 2010. She advised that there was a robust separate process for monitoring sickness absence but there was an option to provide a breakdown of those figures in the Employment Monitoring Report, and she would include these in future years.
Following further comments from Councillor Devereux on employment monitoring if it was not a legislative requirement, the Personnel Services Manager explained that the information was collated not only to comply with legislation, but also to enable the Council to look at trends and compare figures year on year. The report provided a snapshot at a particular time. The key areas were reviewed on an annual basis and areas of concern would be investigated further and raised with Management Team.
In response to questions from Councillor Blunt on the Council’s recruitment process, the Personnel Services Manager advised that candidates should not canvass Councillors or officers when applying for a vacancy. However, details of all job advertisements were circulated to all employees and employees could utilise a ‘forwarding’ message to send details to people outside the organisation.. The Council was required to ensure that the best candidate was appointed basedon the criteria agreed. Any candidate would be required to specify if they were related to an officer or Councillor.
Following further questions from Councillor Blunt on Ethnic Group “Undefined”, the Personnel Manager explained that people’s view had to be respected and that an individual may not wish to be categorised into the ethnic groups reported.
In response to questions from Councillor Gourlay on internal only promotions, the Personnel Services Manager explained that if candidates were unsuccessful they received feedback as to why they had not met the specified criteria. The feedback could then lead to a discussion on future development and training needs in order to give the candidate a better opportunity for a future internal promotion.
In response to questions from Councillor Hipperson as to employees suffering a detriment as a result of performance assessment, the Personnel Services Manager reminded the Panel of the Performance Related Pay Scheme and explained that if an employee had only partially met their targets that they would not be progressed through the grade, so the “detriment” was not receiving a pay award.
Following questions from Councillor Middleton on the performance assessment and targets not being met, the Personnel Services Manager explained that if an employees performance was significantly below the required standard there were separate procedures which would be followed to deal with the unsatisfactory performance.
Councillor Blunt asked how many employees the Council had. In response, the Personnel Services Manager advised there were approximately 500 permanent employees. There were however, Alive Management and joint employees as well as seasonal and casual staff.
Following further questions from the Panel, the Chief Executive advised that the Performance Management Scheme was the Borough Council’s own scheme and not a national one. The Personnel Services Manager informed Members that the maximum number of appraisals by a Manager would be 10, although many had far fewer.
RESOLVED: (1) The Panel noted the contents of the report and confirmed its wish for the information to be reported to the panel on an annual basis.
(2) That the report be published on the Council’s web-site and be circulated within the Council.