A Local Government Workforce Strategy: The English experience

1
A Local Government Workforce Strategy The
English experience

• Joan Munro
• Workforce Strategy Lead
• 26th February 2009

fit for purpose structure
modern processes technology
effective people
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History

• UK wide Local Government Workforce Development
  Plan produced by Local Government National
  Training Organisation
• 2003 First English Local Government Pay and
  Workforce Strategy produced with Government
• 2004 2nd version
• 2005 3rd version
• 2007 Current version, wholly local government
  owned

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Why have an English Workforce Strategy

• Encourage all authorities to play their part in
  addressing workforce issues
• Encourage authorities to co-operate in addressing
  shared issues rather than competing
• Save time, effort and costs in addressing shared
  issues regionally and nationally
• Tackle national issues together e.g. tackling
  skill shortages, work with professional
  associations
• Align efforts to make bigger impact

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Operate at three levels

• Galvanise, support and encourage action locally
  via levers, incentives, promotion etc
• Support and encourage and spread learning from
  regional action
• Take national action and influence other national
  players e.g. government department, sector skills
  councils

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What makes a strategy work.

• Not just a bit of paper
• Process, consultation, buy in
• Getting Leaders Chief Executives other key
  stakeholders on board
• Making it useful save effort on the ground
• Not prescribing or overwhelming
• Using levers e.g. inspection
• Providing relevant support (nationally
  regional)
• Alignment internally with other government
  initiatives
• Monitoring e.g. Annual Workforce Survey
• Reinforcement
• Persistence

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Are we fit for the future?

• Are we attracting enough of the right people to
  work in local government?
• Are supporting them in developing the right
  skills?
• Are we keeping the right people?
• Are we effective at motivating them and
  maximising their performance?

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Local government of the future
More customer focussed
More partnership working
More personalised services
Focus on outcomes
Better value
More innovative
Held in high regard
Place leadership
More flexible
High performance
More enabling
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Workforce implications

• Less staff, more high performance
• Different structures, different employers
• New ways of working
• Attracting and keeping the best
• More flexible practices
• Cut out wasted effort
• Keep staff on board

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Visionary ambitiousleadership
Effective management
Innovative, responsive, joined up with partners
Local Government the heart of the community,
the place to be, the place to work
Streamlined ways of working
Community engagement
Critical skills for success
Recruitment pipeline, career opportunities
Diversity mainstreamed
Flexible, fair rewards that promote high
performance
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Strategic priorities

• Organisational Development --- Effectively
  building workforce support for new structures and
  new ways of working to deliver citizen-focused
  and efficient services, in partnership
• Leadership and Management Development ---Building
  visionary and ambitious leadership which makes
  the best use of both the political and managerial
  role, operating in a partnership context
• Skill Development ---With partners, developing
  employees skills and knowledge, in an
  innovative, high performance, multi-agency
  context
• Recruitment and Retention With partners, taking
  action to address key future occupational skill
  shortages promote jobs and careers identify,
  develop and motivate talent and address diversity
  issues
• Pay and Rewards --- Modernising pay systems to
  reflect new structures, new priorities and new
  ways of working and to reinforce high
  performance, including encouraging a total
  rewards approach

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Strategy impact and achievements

• Workforce issues much higher profile
• Many more councils taking holistic approach to
  addressing critical current and future issues
• Much greater emphasis on OD/Strategic HR
• Much more leadership development at all levels
• Skills gaps being addressed
• Skills shortages reducing
• Lots of co-ordinated action, efficiency savings,
  regional and sub-regional action
• Diversity and diversity good practice increasing

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Specifics

• 87 of authorities report have identified their
  critical workforce issues are taking effective
  action to address these across the authority or
  in some services
• 62 running workforce activities with partners
• 55 of authorities have a dedicated OD function
• 92 of authorities undertaking leadership
  development
• 45 of authorities run graduate schemes
• IIP 51 workforce covered in 2001, now 81

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More specifics

• 86 of authorities new running grow your own
  schemes (44 in 2006)
• 78 of authorities are running apprenticeship
  schemes (up from 50 in 2006)
• 84 of authorities are remodelling jobs (up from
  54 in 2006)
• Recruitment difficulties per authority have
  dropped from 16 per authorities in 2004 to 8 in
  2008
• All recruitment difficulties are reducing except
  for school crossing patrols
• 91 involve TUs in planning workforce development
• 60 have Union Learning Representatives
• 79 undertake skills audits across the authority
  or in some services

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Not working so well

• Still some significant skills gaps
• Change management (27)
• Strategic commissioning (21)
• Organisational development (20)
• Business process improvement (19)
• Slow progress in pay e.g.
• Implementing single status
• Moving away from time served pay systems
• Implementing total rewards approach

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Examples of IDeA support activities available

• Workforce Improvement Peer Challenge
• Diversity Peer Challenge
• Communities of Practice e.g. on talent
  management, HR, building employee engagement, etc
  
• Lgtalent Website (incorporating LG jobs, LG
  careers national graduate development
  programme)
• Workforce Best Practice Checklist and Case Study
  Library
• Publications e.g. Faster, Fitter and More
  Flexible, Front Office Shared Services reports,
  Its People Stupid
• Research reports e.g. Integrated Workforce
  Strategy Project, Middle Managers Personalities
• Weekly email

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Final comments