Introduction
The Council employs over 9,000 full time equivalent staff. The great majority of staff provide services directly to people in their homes and communities or are employed in schools. Ninety four percent (94%) of staff are located in the areas they serve with 6% of staff working from the Council’s HQ in Inverness.
The job satisfaction, motivation and personal development which people experience as a result of working for the Council has a direct impact on our capacity to deliver high quality services to the public. The Council surveys staff to ascertain how well it supports and manages staff and where to improve.
Performance
Under current documents you can access a summary of the results from the latest survey and for those who are interested the full results are also accessible. We have also included a link to a copy of the newsletter sent to staff which summarises the main actions that followed from the survey.
Actions From Employee Survey
After the 2007 survey, a series of 13 Employee Survey events have been delivered by members of the Senior Management Team throughout the Highland area to report the results directly to staff; to answer queries; and to hear views and suggestions of what should be done to improve. The events were designed to give staff the opportunity to make recommendations for improvement actions.
Corporate Improvements
As a result of staff views, improvements were identified under the following key themes:
Communication
Pay & Terms & Conditions/Working Arrangements
Personal Development Plans/Training & Career Development
Equipment and Environment
General
The Council has committed to the improvement actions across the whole organisation. These have been reported to and approved by the Resources Committee. Services have also been undertaking consultation with their staff and reported Service specific improvements to their strategic committees in September/October.
Progress on Improvement Actions
An Action Plan has been developed with a target date and a lead officer for each improvement action. Progress against the action plan will be monitored by the Employee Survey Reference Group, which has representatives from all Services, and through the Chief Executive’s Quarterly Performance
Future Developments
Review meetings will be held with all Services. A report on progress against the agreed actions will be presented to Resources Committee in September 2009. Staff will also receive an update on progress through a newsletter in September 2009.