Issue - meetings

To consider a report by Councillor Julie Matthews, Lead Member for Corporate Strategy, Policy and Equalities (copy enclosed) seeking Cabinet’s approval of the Agile Working Policy and associated guidance documents.

RESOLVED that Cabinet –

(a)       approve the Agile Working Policy and associated guidance documents, and

(b)       confirms that it has read, understood and taken account of the Wellbeing Impact Assessment (Appendix 6 to the report) as part of its consideration.

Councillor Julie Matthews presented the report seeking Cabinet’s approval of the new draft Agile Working Policy and associated guidance documents.

The existing Flexible Working Policy had been reviewed following the new ways of working which the Council had developed during and after the Covid pandemic.  The new Agile Working Policy enabled employees to have greater choice about how, where and when they worked and provided clear guidance and a consistent approach to managing employees in an agile way.  The benefits of the policy had also been highlighted in the Wellbeing Impact Assessment.  The Interim Head of HR guided Cabinet through the draft policy and associated documentation.

Cabinet welcomed the comprehensive report and benefits of the policy, which included greater choice for employees, better work/life balance, reduced car usage, etc., with the ability to work flexibly becoming an important career choice which would help address recruitment and retention issues.

The Lead Member and officers responded to questions as follows –

·       the draft policy had been approved by the Joint Consultative Committee for Health and Safety & Employee Relations and agreed with all of the trade unions

·       in terms of lone workers there were risk assessments in place for managers and employees to keep individuals safe whilst working

·       new employees were supported through the induction process which had been amended to take into account the new ways of working

·       in terms of monitoring output of new working patterns, the importance of regular 1:1 meetings between managers and employees was highlighted, both to ensure wellbeing and as a performance management tool providing an open two-way dialogue; much emphasis had been placed on the value of 1:1s and guidance provided on how to manage those conversations for maximum benefit

·       the difficulties of providing comparisons of working output between the periods pre and post Covid was explained given the lack of comparable data and complexities around measuring outputs for specific job roles.

RESOLVED that Cabinet –

(a)      approve the Agile Working Policy and associated guidance documents, and

(b)      confirms that it has read, understood and taken account of the Wellbeing Impact Assessment (Appendix 6 to the report) as part of its consideration.