The Assistant Director (Human Resources, Legal
& Democratic) provided a presentation to the Panel, which
explained the work being undertaken to address the future ways of
smarter and flexible working.
This process had involved organisation wide
sessions which had addressed the areas of:
-
Well-being and resilience
-
Working in new ways, barriers and
opportunities
-
Relationship building and re-connecting
-
Building future resilience
-
Leadership from 2020 onwards
Various staff workshops had identified the
following five workstreams for future development:
1.
Re-designing the office of the future and safe workplaces
2.
Exploring the future of the workforce and ways of working
3.
Health and well-being
4.
Digital
5.
Public access and ways to engage with the community
The Council had also recently launched an
Organisational Charter which set out eight principles of working
remotely:
1.
Creation of a clear separation between work and personal time
2.
Virtual meeting etiquette
3.
Connecting with others (well-being support, communication)
4.
Staff being able to work more flexibly and smarter
5.
Transparency and trust
6.
Meetings with purpose
7.
Team alignment
8.
Upholding of values and behaviours
However, there also continued to be on-going
challenges with remote working, particularly around:
-
Risk of digital burnout
-
Definition of productivity
-
Re-alignment of priorities and setting the direction around future
ways of working
-
Planning the long term change in how we
work, particularly around future workplace culture
-
Work intensification and the longer term
impact on well-being
-
The move to working in a virtual workplace culture
-
Achieving the balance between work and home life and its
practicalities
Further organisation wide sessions would be
arranged with staff around cultivating positive mindsets,
fulfilling creativity and potential and boosting
accomplishment. Further work would also
be undertaken around the changing role of leaders/managers to
ensure that they had the skills to effectively manage a remote
workforce.
The presentation also set out the short term
actions which would need to be undertaken to ensure the development
of an inclusive workforce, along with the actions which would need
to be undertaken with regard to the longer term aspect of the
Workforce Strategy.
The Panel supported the work being undertaken
with regard to future proofing the
workforce. It was also acknowledged of
the huge amount of work which had been undertaken to keep the
Council operating during the pandemic.
The Panel also supported the work on the changing role of managers
within a virtual workforce, as managing staff virtually could be
challenging and managers should be provided with the necessary
training/skills to be able to do this effectively.
It was also noted that services were facing
different challenges and that this would also be addressed within
the future organisational development and the Workforce
Strategy.
With there being no decision required, the
Panel noted the presentation.