The Assistant Director of HR and Organisational Development submitted a report presenting the Committee with the results of the staff survey, which was attached to the report at Appendix 1.  The report explained that there had been many positive results and improvements compared to the previous survey in 2019.  However, there were also some areas where improvements were needed which cut across the whole organisation and the report outlined four areas that would be focused on at a corporate level for improvement over the next year.

The report explained that the staff survey had been open from 29 March to 30 April 2021.  It had consisted of 45 questions grouped under seven areas.  There had been 1004 responses which represented 58% of the Council’s workforce of approximately 1720 staff (excluding schools).  There had been 21 questions where more than 80% of staff strongly agreed or agreed, including:

·       I make a valuable contribution to the success of the Council by doing my job;

·       My line manager shows genuine interest in my wellbeing;

·       I enjoy my job;

·       I would still like to be working at the Council in a year’s time;

·       I know what the organisational values of Team Reading are.

The report also set out the four areas where 60% or less staff agreed or strongly agreed:

·       I believe action will be taken as a result of this survey;

·       I think my pay is fair given the responsibilities of my job;

·       Reading Borough Council works as one, where teams collaborate for the benefit of our customers;

·       I have experienced or seen bullying or harassment at work.

In addition to the quantitative results, the report explained that there were three areas where staff could add ‘free text’ comments.  There were 966 comments made by 520 respondents which had been sorted into key themes and differentiated by whether the comment was negative (65%), positive (21%) or neutral (14%).  The topics most frequently mentioned in the comments were workload, followed by ICT, salary, appreciation and rewards and benefits and bullying & harassment.  The Committee noted that the questions relating to bullying and harassment had not included any time limits, and that it had not been possible to identify whether the respondents were referring to current or historic instances.

The report stated that the Corporate Management Team (CMT) had agreed the following four areas of focus and some of the activities that would be undertaken in response to the survey over the next 12 months:

Workload and priorities

·       The new corporate plan would be used to give clarity on priorities.

·       Incorporating behaviours and a quality assurance process into the management process and upskilling managers in carrying out appraisals and 1:1 meetings, where workload and priorities were discussed with staff.

·       Focusing on staff wellbeing as part of the Team Reading Delivery Plan, including sending a monthly Wellbeing Newsletter to all staff, practical tips on wellbeing and links to support services.

ICT issues

·       Improved monitoring and review of performance data in relation to the new IT support contracts by the Digital Futures Board.

·       The ICT team had hosted an online briefing and question and answer session for all staff on 30 June 2021 when they shared the latest updates and addressed staff comments and questions.  This had been made available to all staff electronically.

·       A new iTrent User Group had been set up with representatives from each directorate, to address the concerns raised about iTrent specifically.

·       The ICT work programme would address a number of digital enabling issues as well as issues with legacy systems.

Behaviours

·       The Council had been working with Business in the Community (BITC) to audit policies and practices around equality and inclusion in the workplace, which had included five staff focus groups.  Officers were working to use the resulting report and recommendations as the basis for an action plan.  Many of the recommendations aligned with the issues raised around bullying and harassment in the staff survey, and these would be integrated into this action plan for submission to Personnel Committee in November 2021.  The Committee noted that the Council had a zero-tolerance approach to bullying and harassment

Recognition

·       Recognition was a workstream in the Team Reading Programme for 2021/22 and the comments from the survey would be used to build on this.  It included, for example, a proposal to hold a Team Reading Staff Awards ceremony to celebrate staff who had role-modelled the Team Reading values.

The report added that the Staff Survey would be repeated in April 2022 so that officers could monitor trends and ensure that improvements in the four priority areas had been made.

The results had been shared with staff in an All Staff Information email on 18 June 2021 and were available to view on the intranet as well as being published in the Staff Newsletter which was sent in hard copy to staff in Environmental and Commercial Services.  In addition, the Chief Executive and the Assistant Director of HR and Organisational Development presented the results to staff in an online briefing on 2 July 2021, followed by a question and answer session.  The event was recorded for staff who were unable to attend.  Staff had also been invited to give ideas and suggestions on how the four priority areas could be improved.

Resolved:      That the results of the Staff Survey 2021 attached to the report at Appendix 1 and the four areas of corporate focus for the next year be noted.