Issue - meetings

The report of the Strata Human Resource Lead was submitted outlining progress update on key Human Resource work and in particular the completion of the restructures within Strata.

In response to a question from the Leader of East Devon District Council regarding the need for a structure chart, the Chief Operating Officer clarified that a Strata Intranet for all three authorities would be available by the end of October and this would include a structure chart for the organisation.

Strata Joint Scrutiny Committee considered the report at its meeting on 15 September 2016 and its comments were reported.

RESOLVED that the report on progress with Strata restructure and the people data as in the circulated report be noted.

The Strata HR Lead for Human Resources presented the Human Resources update report setting out continued progress on key HR work during the restructure period.

The Board had approved additional restructure costs of £108,000 plus up to £31,000 redundancy costs. Flexibility between sites had been important and 72% of those offered Strata conditions had accepted, apart from the document processing team based at East Devon.

Notwithstanding delivery requirements, a focus on people issues were important including staff engagement, communication and training. The results of the staff engagement survey had been published and were available on the Strata internet. It had been recommended that the Strata management team draw up an action plan on feedback received from the survey which would help the attainment of Investors in People.

The following responses were given to Members’ queries:-

·         three apprentices had been recruited, one for each site, with one having been taken on permanently. An IT recruitment firm was engaged with view to the recruitment of further apprentices wherever possible;

·         project delivery pressures on Strata management as well as those on Council managers were recognised and were monitored through the appropriate indicators. If necessary, timing of project delivery would be subject to negotiation with the three Councils;

·         training was of particular importance with various training opportunities on offer through the Learning Development Partnership including on line training, one to one courses and training led course - for example  a forthcoming data base course would be attended by half of one of the Strata teams who would subsequently train other team members; and

·         staff turnover was monitored in terms of Business Plan commitments to ensure the availability of staff resources and to achieve savings as far as possible.

Strata Joint Scrutiny Committee noted the progress of the Human Resources report.