People and Culture Strategy 2024 to 2028

Our values and behaviours define not only how we deliver the services that the people of Perth and Kinross need, the expectations we have of our employees and how we can support them, but they also underpin the fact that people are at the heart of what we do.

Our One Perth and Kinross approach will flourish through teamwork, connecting with each other and our communities, by thinking yes, putting people before processes, and by having business heads and social hearts.

Ambition

We have an ambitious Corporate Plan and set of Priorities to deliver; adopting a mindset of continuous improvement requires everyone to generate and be open to the creative ideas and opportunities needed to realise this. Everything we do must contribute to taking forward the design and delivery of our services to maintain a focus on positive outcomes for the people we serve. To ensure sustainability and the targeting of our resources to where and when they are most needed in the delivery of our services to communities. We do this most effectively by focusing our efforts where they are needed and avoiding unnecessary bureaucracy, by working together across teams and by thinking yes.

Our leadership will work together and across service areas to deliver the actions required to achieve the priorities we have set out. They will be required to be innovative and take responsibility for their own performance and that of their teams. Considering new ways of working, maximising existing and new technology to make processes as efficient as possible for our customers and our employees and working with partners, ALEOs and other local authorities to deliver effectively will be key aspects of the work of our leaders. We will do this through the identification and development of future leaders at an early stage in their careers using our competency model and values and behaviours as the basis for the model of their development, career grade structures including apprenticeship and graduate programmes and complimenting these through the opportunities offered by external networks to provide a different focus to their thinking.

Ambitious for our people

Our Values and Behaviour Framework, and Leadership Competency Framework clearly demonstrate the attitudes, behaviours and skills that are needed in our employees to enable them to be successful in their roles. The requirement is to emphasise these in our recruitment process under the banner of a "One PKC Employee" and to generate an expectation in applicants of the need to be flexible in what, where and how they deliver to serve the people of Perth and Kinross as well as creating the opportunities for their own ambition to be achieved.

In addition, our managers and employees have access to a suite of supporting tools to improve the design and delivery of our services including:

• Job Families Framework
• Framework for Managing Workforce Change
• internal-only vacancy opportunities
• leadership and management development opportunities
• career grade structures
• Flexible Working Framework
• vocational training and development

In a large and diverse organisation, it is appropriate that different teams will make use of tools that best meet their needs. Our aim is to review and refresh the application of tools to optimise their use to align with future business needs. Embedding workforce planning and development into operational activity will support the delivery of our Priorities. We will share best practice across services and with partners ensuring that the contribution of our employees is considered at every stage of service delivery.

Our Digital Strategy also provides direction for the way that we deliver these services and the need for our workforce to be open to change, adapt processes and develop skills to ensure that we maximise the benefits that can be harnessed from technology. It mirrors the ambition of growing a culture of "One Council" and recognises that digital transformation is as much about cultural and organisational change as it is about technical change, the input of our employees is key. That employee investment in innovation, automation, streamlining and sharing frees them up to do what they do best, such as it creates capacity to work compassionately with the people who need our services.

Our Financial Strategy principles highlight the importance of ongoing, meaningful communication and engagement with our communities, partners and employees to ensure that we can effectively prioritise the delivery of services which we must provide by law and deliver services in the most efficient and cost-effective manner.

Tackling climate change is a priority for the Council. Our Climate Change Strategy and associated Action Plan have been developed to address the necessary action to make both the Perth and Kinross Council area and the Council itself net zero and climate resilient. The Climate Action Plan has been divided into eight thematic areas each requiring contribution from our employees and the development of related skills and knowledge to achieve the targets, for example, our mechanics developing the skills to manage our EV fleet, our property team developing understanding of approaches such as Passivhaus standards.

Compassion

Supporting our employees is of the highest priority as they are our most valuable resource and critical to delivery of our services. Understanding the balance that differing aspects of their lives can place upon them and doing all we can to support them to be at work, be engaged, and the best they can be by providing them with clarity on the roles they are expected to deliver and feel comfortable being their authentic self while doing this. This will support the mental and physical health and all aspects of employee wellbeing and, in return, develop the commitment that will result in high-performing, compassionate service delivery.

Moving forward with compassion

The need for agility and the importance of this for the organisation to thrive and be productive requires employees to adopt a flexible, resilient and creative mindset equipping them for change. Focusing delivery of the Corporate Plan priorities and outcomes will necessitate deployment and use of resources to best meet needs of the Council.

We have tools to support flexibility in role and working practices, such as job design, job families, the flexible working framework including the use of hybrid working and differing working patterns, and the framework for managing workforce change, and these will continue to be used and developed. Reviewing our processes to ensure agility and freedom from unnecessary bureaucracy will further support our speed of response to business need.  The application of these tools will assist our employees to take the initiative and examine options for their own wellbeing and development during change.

We are developing the tools that we have in place to support the wellbeing of our employees, such as the development of a Trauma Informed Workplace, the provision and promotion of an Employee Assistance Programme.

Pro-active work to develop resilience and reduce our sickness absence levels is being further developed to optimise attendance and support, not only those who have been absent but also their colleagues who are at work. From both an employee wellbeing and financial perspective this is therefore one of the most impactful actions we can take.

We also have well-established staff networks (LGBTi+, disABILITY, Belong, Carers and Women and Men's Health Groups) which provide peer support and a sounding board in the development of policies and practice (and who participated in the development of this strategy). In the face of changing attendance and work patterns of those attending these groups we need to ensure that the support mechanisms and information that are provided meet the needs of all employees optimising opportunities for access and effective voice. We will continue to work with the members of these groups, our trade unions and employees to promote the continued value and ensure the ongoing effectiveness of the groups.

Integrity

Being honest and transparent with our communities, partners and workforce is a key element of how we operate. Behaving in a fair and consistent manner contributes to building trust in our workforce which supports effective long-term workforce planning, engagement, productivity and development activities.

Working with integrity

The move to a longer-term budgeting cycle has allowed us to understand our workforce requirements over a longer period and share our expectations on demand, transformation and service delivery with external and internal stakeholders earlier. To support the development of a more flexible workforce as a result of internal and external drivers we know that numbers in some areas of work will reduce whilst other areas will need an increased or different type of resource. Being open about these changes now and taking a longer-term approach to resource planning allows managers and employees to engage proactively to explore opportunities and consider future business and skills needs for those impacted by change. This contributes to the development of a culture which instils confidence and trust in the messages being shared. Gathering and acting, where appropriate, upon employee and other stakeholder feedback will contribute to that culture. Trust between leaders and their teams requires to be fostered to support this change in environment. Managers will be provided with the necessary tools and skills to deliver difficult messages to customers, trade unions and employees.

As the holder of several accreditations including Living Wage, Disability Confident (Leader), Developing the Young Workforce, Carer Positive, Equally Safe at Work (Developing) and the Armed Forces Covenant (Gold) we have made public commitments to adhere to the principles of each accreditation and deliver specific actions. Continuing to deliver these commitments is essential to build on the existing trust and relationships that exist in these areas not only with our employees but also with our communities.

Operating in a truthful and open manner is fundamental to being able to progress our corporate objectives and actions.