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Attract and keep the right people

We want to be recognised as an employer of choice

People should consider working for the council to be a rewarding, exciting, fulfilling and valuable opportunity. This means we will attract the best talent and keep the best people.

The planned activities to help us achieve this theme are:

Recruitment and selection

The updated recruitment and selection policy is now offering guaranteed interviews to additional groups - care leavers and veterans. 

The new starter checklist has been reviewed and was made live in December 2022, providing further clarity for both employees and managers, alongside service specific induction advice.

Engagement with frontline workers is paramount, and pocket guides are provided to frontline employees. The latest version was sent to home addresses of frontline employees in October 2023.

Become a fostering friendly employer

We became a Fostering Friendly Employer in February 2020. Moving forward, we will now engage with our workforce to discuss the impact, experiences and feedback, with a view to develop and improve our offering.

Find out more about being fostering friendly (opens staff room/internal website).

Develop our access Programmes, including work experience, paid internships and graduate Programmes

Our work experience scheme will begin in the summer of 2023 and we have engaged with the senior leadership team to identify suitable student placements. Each work experience week will have a corporate welcome event and celebration of success.

Design a fair and transparent and equitable pay and reward package

We continually review pay as part of our job evaluation process, and gender pay gap analysis. We are investigating whether a technical grade is required for very specialist roles within the Council. This is in addition to a full review of all market factor supplements to take place by end of March 2023.

Employee recognition programme is in place

From April 2023, as part of collective bargaining, all NJC employees will receive an additional day of annual leave which was agreed as part of the 2022/23 pay settlement.

An evaluation and review of employee recognition has now been completed and endorsed by Corporate Management Team (CMT). As a result, we have implemented digital thank you cards, long service and extra-long service awards, lapel badges and recognised achievements during departmental briefings.

Total Reward package

The total reward package demonstrates the total value of an employee’s pay and benefits which will include the financial value of the LGPS pension, annual leave, etc. We are considering how we can deliver this in 2023/24.

Employee Suggestion Scheme

We are proud that we use different ways of engaging with our workforce to get their ideas in relation to service delivery, savings, and a range of improvements, e.g. our Big Ideas scheme to seek feedback about how we can achieve budget savings.

Develop our employer branding

We have used individual microsites for recruitment to specialist roles and we intend to develop our own Council hosted microsite to use for all roles to enhance the candidate experience.

New Ways of Working is now embedded across the Council and includes a Framework, Accommodation Strategy, and review of parking.

Support the Corporate Carbon Reduction Plan

The Go Green Travel Policy was launched in 2022 and includes a travel plan that forms part of a 3 year agenda.

We continue our activity to promote the hierarchy of travel and use of Beryl bikes, with improved showers now available.

The Council achieved Carbon Literacy bronze accreditation in 2022 and it is our intention to achieve silver accreditation in 2023.

Create a strong, flexible workforce

Our agency contract was reviewed in 2022 and awarded to Matrix SCM. Insight and training sessions have been provided to our managers and recruitment team, to support with this transition.

Maintain positive working relationships with our recognised trade unions

We have regular and ongoing dialogue with our recognised trade unions, as they are a key stakeholder for the Council.

Develop our talent

We will be launching a Rising Stars scheme to develop talent across the Council, and we will be seeking applications in 2023.  

Look after our workforce

The occupational health contract is due to be re-tendered and the employee assistance programme app continues to be trialled to aid engagement with our workforce.

We are a Fostering Friendly empoyer