People and Culture Strategy 2024 to 2028

We must respond to the demands for the services we deliver and changing expectations of the employees who deliver them. For example, we have an intergenerational workforce and this brings different expectations and poses different challenges, such as attracting young workers to local government, losing the skills and knowledge of workers choosing to retire early and the impact of aging employees continuing to work. We are aware that what an older worker wants from work is very different from a young person and of the need to work to meet their expectations as a means to address retention issues in specific areas.

The extended period of home and then hybrid working experienced by some of our employees has generated ongoing review of our approach to hybrid working, how this can facilitate the achievement of our priorities and support our employees and we will continue to develop this. However a hybrid work style is not an option available to the majority of our employees and our Flexible Working Framework is the foundation to allow other forms of flexible working options including different working patterns, the application of special leave provisions and use of career breaks and this will continue to be developed during the life of this strategy.

At 1 May 2024 our workforce of 5,878 employees is predominantly:

• female (73%)
• white (98%)*
• non-disabled/experiencing a long-term health condition (98%)*
• permanent (90%)
• full-time (61%)

*of those who provided a response

with:

• a median workforce age of 45 years compared to a Scottish median age of 43 years, and Perth and Kinross median of 48 years (40 to 49 years being the most common age group)
• an average service of 11.2 years and turnover of 10%
• approximately 1,600 employees having access to hybrid working arrangements
• around 33% of our workforce working outside of a "Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm" pattern and 12% scheduled to work over weekends
• Technical, Administrative and Support roles (TAS6, 7, and 8) being the most common grade

Workforce information (May 2024)

Along with other employers we continue to experience difficulties that exist in attracting new employees because of increased volatility in numbers looking for work and increased demand/advertised vacancies. Scotland's Labour Market Trends report (published in April 2024) showed a reduction in the unemployment rate and corresponding increase in the employment rate which demonstrates a continuing challenging recruitment market.

Our offer has been enhanced in the past 12 months with the launch of a dedicated platform providing access to a wide range of employee benefits designed to help employees physical, mental and financial wellbeing. This sits alongside ongoing health and wellbeing advice and support from an Occupational Health provider and peer support staff networks.

We have also adapted to the challenges faced in recruitment with increased innovation through the use of social media including videos and advert design. Although having a positive impact for some roles, 27% of recruitment adverts were re-advertisements in the 12 months to April 2024 for particular occupational groups. Re-advertising activity has not only been experienced on our traditionally hard to fill positions in areas such as social care, social work and specific teaching posts it is now extending into regulatory roles, such as Clerk of Works, Environmental Health, and Trading Standards Officers, technical positions including Planners, Architects and Building Standards Officers, and other positions in our Health and Social Care Partnership such as Occupational Therapists.

Learning from experience

We will continue to review, refresh and tailor our approaches to adapt to meet any arising and ongoing challenges during the lifetime of this strategy. This includes the evolving model of delivery in Social Care where there is an increasing need from our communities. We will continue to work together with our partners and commissioned service providers to use our collective resources to ensure the right skills are available and statutory minimum staffing levels are maintained. In 2023 we launched a targeted campaign to attract new employees into social care including social media campaigns and other advertising and this delivered excellent results; sustaining this impetus and outcome in the short term is essential while looking at alternative approaches to the organisation of service delivery in the longer term.

We will continue to engage with national initiatives regarding specific targeted occupational recruitment and retention campaigns such as the recent national pilot of Modern Apprenticeships in Building Standards. Our participation resulted in the recruitment of two Modern Apprentices in these roles and the incorporation of these roles in the related career pathway and future succession planning.

We will build on existing tools and previous experience through internal redeployment, for example, Learn to Teach initiative to develop our existing talent, enhancing the values and behaviours which exist within our current workforce with new knowledge and skill sets required to deliver the services needed by our communities.

In addition to the redesign of our senior leadership model and implementation of the competency framework in 2023 to 2024, there is a budget saving of £1.6 million to be delivered across our leadership and management grades over the next 3 financial years. In reviewing our middle management group, we need to balance the need for stability drawing on experience and expertise of our existing staff whilst establishing a framework for the identification and development of our next cohort of leaders. It is important that we transition to the new operating model in a safe, structured and planned way. The existing age profile of middle management/leaders (those in Team Leader and Service Manager positions) indicates that 72% are aged 50 years and over, and 13% are over aged 60 years and over. Identifying future talent is also important to ensure that we continue to have the right skills, values and behaviours needed to lead across our organisation in future. Services will continue to ensure that effective resource planning is embedded into operational activity to maintain effective service delivery and mitigate any risk arising from potential loss of skills, knowledge and experience in key roles.