Our workforce is our biggest asset and we must have the right people in the right roles, retain them and grow them
We want our employees to know we value their talents and will help them develop.
The planned activities to help us achieve this theme are:
Implement and deliver our apprenticeship strategy and exceed national target of 2.3% of the workforce being apprentices
The apprenticeship strategy is live and targeted recruitment for specialist sectors, such as drivers and the care profession are our priority. We have exceeded the national target of 2.3% of workplace apprenticeships, with this figure currently being 2.46%. This includes disciplines such as Care, Business Administration, Legal and Finance, Chartered Management and Senior Leadership.
Since April 2022 we have enrolled eleven people onto workplace apprentices, inclusive of a Landscape Technician which contributes to our environmental and sustainability projects.
Implement a volunteering strategy
Our Employer Supported Volunteering Policy launched in October 2022 and we are working to promote team building opportunities across various Plymouth initiatives.
Create and implement the Employee deal
Our employee deal consists of a number of products. Consideration will be given to a core offering, then specific provision to suit service needs, whilst ensuring equality and fairness between departmental areas.
We provide our workforce with the tools, skills, knowledge and guidance to do their jobs, both for managers and employees. A suite of modernised employment policies are key for this work. In May 2021 updated policies and procedures, such as grievance resolution, disciplinary, and recruitment and selection were published and made accessible to all. Training was given to support the understanding and application.
Other policies and frameworks are supporting the Council's key deliverables and contributing to the employee deal: Managing Change Toolkit, Drugs and Alcohol, New Ways of Working, Flexible Working Policy, Review of Parking, Go Green Travel Policy, complimented by extension of salary sacrifice and other initiatives.
Develop a coaching approach across the organisation
Coaching is currently available through the multi-agency coaching network (MACNet) and we seek to develop additional opportunities to embed a coaching culture within leadership and management across the Council.
Workforce development plans for teams and individuals
The future design of workforce development and succession planning will follow the outcome of the budget setting process for 2023/24.
Development framework for employees skills
We will develop a new approach to engage with management teams to understand the needs for their services and skills required for successful delivery, and this will inform our corporate offer for development.
Engagement - 'The Big Listen'
We aspire to be the best and for this to work well, we need an engaged and motivated workforce and to know the views of our employees.
The Big Listen engagement survey took place in 2022 and included engagement sessions with our frontline employees. The outcomes of the survey have been shared with the workforce and we have adopted a new model which will involve further focus groups across the workforce to find solutions to issues that have been highlighted in the survey results. These focus groups are planned for delivery by April 2023.
HSW Assurance
A health and safety systems management toolkit, including a training matrix, is in place to ensure all essential training is recorded and undertaken.
An audit programme was launched in November 2022 to provide assurance of compliance to the Council's HSW management systems. Further key performance indicators on near misses and incident investigation have been set and continue to be developed and monitored.