Agenda item

To consider a report by the Human Resources Services Manager (copy enclosed) which seeks the Committee’s observations on the Council’s performance in relation to workforce planning, recruitment, retention and sickness absence management across the Authority.

10.10am – 10.50am

The Lead Member for Corporate Strategy, Policy and Equalities introduced the report (previously circulated) to the Committee.

 

The report provided information and progress of the workforce plan and associated action plan (including recruitment and retention activities) and also provided turnover and sickness absence data for 2024.

 

Workforce planning was an important strategic activity which generated information and data to support the process of ensuring the Council employed the correct people, with the right skills and helped to identify training, and in addition helped to provide vital information on staff health and wellbeing.

 

The report included current information, data and progress. Appendix 1 provided information on the Council’s staff turnover position. Appendix 2 contained data of sickness absences for 2023/2024 which included short-, medium- and long-term absences. Appendix 3 contained details of the workforce plan Action Plan.

 

The 2024 Workforce Planning exercise for the Council would commence in March 2025, and the Council would have a new corporate workforce plan and associated action plan in May 2025. The work on these key areas contributed to theme 6 of the Corporate Plan in ensuring Denbighshire County Council was a well-run, high performing Council, delivering and embedding the staff wellbeing policy, supporting training and workforce development, promoting fairness, equality and diversity and working collaboratively across the Council and with partners to alleviate problems with recruitment and retention.  

 

The Head of Corporate Support Service: People provided further details on the report.

 

Internal Audit had confirmed that the Council had a robust recruitment and retention plan in place which contained the fundamental elements needed and was working well.

 

The intention was for the Workforce Plan to be a live document working alongside information from regularly conducted one-to-one meetings with all employees, which would provide a continuous dialogue on data. The focus of the workforce exercise had been on pockets of areas of recruitment and retention rather than previously being across the board. The new workforce planning exercise would be the first formal exercise since the formation of the Council’s new management structure in 2023.

 

Staff turnover in 2022/23 was at its highest rate of 12.4% however, from 2023/24 onwards there had been a decrease in staff turnover, 11.40% for the period April 2023 – March 2024 and 9.12% for April 2024 – December 2024. As a general rule, an organisation would be aiming for a turnover rate of 10% or less. It was important to note that the Denbighshire County Council (DCC) turnover rate was below the UK average of 16%.

 

Sickness absence was monitored on a monthly basis and the report contained historical data to allow members to note any trends. In 2023/2024 the average working days lost due to sickness was 9.12 days which was a reduction from the previous year (9.56 days). The report included the top 5 reasons for absence which were generally consistent year on year. There was an increase in the unknown reasons for absence and the team were working with all services to see how this could be addressed.

 

The Chair thanked the Lead Member and officers for the report and questions were welcomed from members.

 

Members requested clarity on the data for the average days lost. The Head of Corporate Support Service: People explained that the data was collected per employee, in 2023/2024 there was an average of 9.12 days lost to sickness per employee.

 

Members questioned the comparison data in the report and questioned what the data was being compared to. The HR Services Manager stated that DCC data was compared to data from all 22 Local Authorities in Wales.  However, all-Wales data was not available at present due to a cyber attack affecting the national reporting system.

 

Members stated that data within the report appeared to be historical and questioned if ‘real time’ data was available and how accessible this data was. Members also requested actual numbers to be used for the data as well as percentage figures. The Head of Corporate Support Service: People confirmed that the report did contain historical data due to the data being compiled on a quarterly basis. The most recent data available was from December 2024. Data would be collected again at the end of March 2025 and this information could be made available to the Committee if members wished. ‘Real time’ data was sensitive and was restricted to Heads of Service, Managers and HR.

 

Comments regarding including numbered data in the report rather than percentages only would be considered and incorporated into future reports, if possible, as would the provision of a monthly statistical report to members on staffing numbers and absences per Service area.

 

Members stated that data from exit interviews would be valuable. The Head of Corporate Support Service: People explained that staff exit interviews were voluntary and were completed electronically or face to face meetings were arranged. Keeping this data live would be considered in the future and it was already included in Service Business Plans on a quarterly basis.

 

Members asked if the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) was being considered within the HR Service. The Head of Corporate Support Service: People stated that the current HR system had the capacity to improve and automate the recruitment process.  Recruitment had been identified as an area to be explored as part of the Council’s Transformation Programme.  Work was due to start over the coming months with respect to this.  Once that work was completed the potential uses of AI in HR processes may be explored.

 

Members referred to paragraph 4.11 of the report which stated that there had been 226 leavers (people) and 231 (positions) in the period April 2024 to December 2024, and the position headcount had also decreased during this time by 28 positions. Members requested clarification on the terms people and positions. The Head of Corporate Support Services: People stated that the people data related to how many people had left the Council and the position data referred to how many people had left the Council leaving many positions vacant, an employee of the Council could have more than one position/role within their job description.

 

Members also queried whether a change in manual handling practices in social care along with the introduction of the new waste and recycling system had resulted in a higher number of staff being recorded as off sick due to Musculo Skeletal problems.  Officers advised that the Social Care Service had a robust programme of manual handling training which it provided to staff and working practices were monitored on a regular basis, with strong emphasis being placed on the individual worker’s safety being paramount.  Officers confirmed that sickness absence rates and staff turnover rates in the Highways & Environmental Services (within which the waste collection service lay) were not in excess of what was expected on an annual basis.  With a view to seeking assurances that staff were not cutting corners when undertaking manual handling tasks and compromising their own safety and that of others, the Lead Member suggested that the Council’s Joint Consultative Committee for Health & Safety and Employee Relations could examine the provision of manual handling training to staff and the monitoring arrangements for staff’s compliance with the guidance provided.

 

The Chair gave thanks for the report and for Officers attendance.

 

 

 

At the conclusion of a comprehensive discussion the Committee:

 

Resolved:  subject to the viability of actions identified during the course of the discussion being explored, –

 

(i)             to confirm that it had read, understood and taken account of the information presented;

(ii)           to acknowledge and support the ongoing monitoring of the workforce planning process, workforce action plan, staff turnover and absences; and

(iii)         request that a further progress report on Workforce Planning, Recruitment, Retention and Sickness Absence be presented to the Committee in June/July 2026.