Agenda item

Cllr Douris noted that in Aiden's absence M Rawdon and S Choudhury would be presenting, and that some slides regarding KPIs would be explained, but had not been included in the meeting pack, therefore would be sent out separately.

ACTION: Omitted slides to be circulated following the meeting, with questions to be sent via email and copied to T Angel.

S Choudhury noted that fewer incidents had been resolved by the ICT team, primarily due to two vacancies within the team, one of which had since been filled, but the other being for a short-term secondment. M Rawdon highlighted a continuing trend in sickness reduction, with Q3 lower than Q2 and also than Q3 in the previous year, as well as staff turnover remaining healthy and below 10%. Within the communications service key projects were identified as support around the garden waste service, of Hemel Garden Communities' vision survey, of the Hemel Old Town Halloween party, and of various staff update sessions.

S Choudhury noted that call waiting times in the last quarter had been much higher than the target, primarily due to vacancies and staff turnover, with a dedicated training officer role having been created to offer mitigation by quickly upskilling new team members. It was noted that times are expected to remain high due to garden waste subscription, annual housing rent, and Council Tax letters all going out this quarter, and that mitigation strategies include reviewing the automated telephone scripts, and offering call-back services or encouraging self-service channels where possible at peak demand times. S Choudhury also noted that the new customer complaints policy had been launched, and that the next report would have KPIs around this.

In regard to 10% turnover being healthy, Cllr Freedman wondered what benchmarking was being used to use that definition, and also noted that on page 59 it was mentioned as being 15%, questioning whether that was because one figure was for a month and the other for a quarter. M Rawdon clarified that CIPD was the source for turnover of under 15% being healthy. Cllr Freedman expressed surprise, and admitted concern that turnover had only been compared to other local councils with similar issues, but deferred to the team's assessment if it was against the UK environment as a whole. Cllr Freedman requested a follow-up and lessons learned regarding the green bin subscription service, particularly in regards to sign-ups after the first collection and complaints received. M Rawdon agreed to take the feedback to the Head of Communications, who was not present at the meeting.

Cllr Claughton referred to page 58, paragraph 2.3, wondering if any trends or areas of concern had been identified, particularly in regard to the underlying causes of the increase in mental health problems, and whether they would be identified in the upcoming deep dive. M Rawdon confirmed that the underlying reasons were investigated and that there hadn't been a specific cause, noting that support is tailored to each individual case.

Cllr Adeleke referred to page 60, paragraph 4.1 regarding call handling times, and wondered what the industry standard call length was. S Choudhury noted that the target was 300 seconds, but would need to investigate what the industry standard was.

Cllr Adeleke further referred to page 61, 6.3 regarding problems recruiting for service desk, and wondered if a recruitment drive for the council, possibly at local colleges, had been considered. S Choudhury reiterated that the first vacancy had been filled, and that the second was due to the individual being on a six-month secondment, where the short-term basis made it difficult to fill, so the issue was more timescales than lack of candidates.

Cllr Guest referred to page 59, paragraph 2.7 regarding staff turnover, and wondered if there was a breakdown of turnover by department or service and role. M Rawdon agreed that this could be produced and circulated. Cllr Guest further wondered whether anything was being put in to address areas where staff turnover was significantly higher than normal. M Rawdon agreed that this was a key area of work, with various programmes currently running as part of the people strategy.

Cllr Symington wondered how large the service desk team was, and whether pay was an issue. S Choudhury apologised that he couldn't give a confident answer, but estimated twenty people, and reiterated that a customer strategy had been developed, along with one of his key roles being a transformation programme to improve customer service. It was noted that an area of interest was determining why calls might take longer to resolve.

Cllr Douris referred to the first slide on ICT incidents, and wondered what the definition of incident was. S Choudhury explained that he thought it was related to support tickets raised internally, but noted that he would refer the question back to the Head of ICT for a definitive answer.

ACTION: M Rawdon to take request for follow-up and lessons learned regarding the green bin subscription service to the Head of Communications.

ACTION: S Choudhury to investigate the industry standard for call length and inform Cllr Adeleke.

ACTION: M Rawdon to produce breakdown of staff turnover by department or service, and role, and circulate this to committee members.

ACTION: S Choudhury to request the Head of ICT to send Cllr Douris a definitive definition of the term incident in the context of ICT incidents.

Outcome

The report was noted.