Agenda item

L Roberts introduced the report and advised that they continued to monitor and manage sickness carefully. She said they had seen a rise in musculoskeletal injuries which has led the health and safety team to run some courses. Staff turnover remained the same and the ICT services were in a good position in terms of performance and the website users have significantly increased.

Councillor Tindall referred to the performance indicator ‘failure to effectively and proactively manage all aspects of employee relations’ and highlighted that the last 2 or 3 JNC meetings had been cancelled due to lack of business. He asked how the employee/employer relations were conducted if not through the JNC (Joint Negotiating Committee). L Roberts advised there were a number of employee forums for engagement and they had regular staff engagement sessions. She said she could investigate why the JNC meetings had been cancelled recently.

                                                                                                Action: L Roberts

Councillor Chapman asked for the percentage breakdown for long term and short term sickness. L Roberts said she could send them to him. Councillor Chapman added that the mentoring had been well received and congratulated them.

Action: L Roberts

Councillor Tindall referred to the robotics article in the local paper and asked if there would be reports coming to us on exactly what is expected to happen. L Roberts explained that it was all part of the New Normal and looking at the new ways of working, new technology and new working processes. She said they were looking at ways of taking information from one system to another to save people doing jobs that may be considered boring and allow them more time to be doing important jobs. She said once they had looked at the processes and been through tendering she would come back with an update for the committee.

Councillor Tindall asked for more detail on the new HR system. L Roberts said she could send something to all members. She summarised that it was a system used by many other authorities and it had a full suite of functionalities which links to the New Normal. Councillor Tindall asked if the system would be accessible to members. L Roberts said she would need to check and understand the definition of a user before she could confirm.                                                                       Action: L Roberts

Councillor Taylor asked what the process was for robotic adoption. L Roberts said she would send it procedure to the committee.              Action: L Roberts

Councillor Adeleke referred to his previous question about the problems with recruiting staff. He asked if they felt staff were happier and more comfortable working here. L Roberts said there would always be turnover and turnover isn’t necessarily a bad thing but from the most recent staff survey people appeared to be happier and were recognising that we’re continuing to try to improve their prospects which is another part of the New Normal. She added that she wasn’t overly concerned about our retention figures.

The Chairman asked if we had a Dacorum App. B Trueman said they had been focusing on the website first but may look at an App in the future.

The Chairman asked if we had looked at using artificial intelligence to improve our systems. B Trueman said it was probably something we would look at in the future but one of the biggest challenges with using AI was that you have to have your data in perfect order. He said they would need to work on a data strategy first.

The Chairman referred to the musculoskeletal problems and suggested we could consider having a wellbeing board with leaflets etc.

Councillor Adeleke asked if it was easier for hackers to get into Apps. B Trueman said our network security was very resilient and they were confident they could block out any attempts of hacking.

Outcome:

The committee noted the report.