People and Culture Strategy 2024 to 2028
People and Culture Strategy: Action plan
Our identified actions are summarised in the following tables where those responsible for delivery and the indicators of success are included. More details and individual actions will be contained in individual service plans.
Working in a changing environment means priorities in our four-year plan will shift and there may be things outside of our control that will change in this period. We have newly appointed senior leadership roles with reconfigured portfolios that we are transitioning as a workforce into. Our culture is evolving, and we will require to continue to embed this throughout the employee life cycle to ensure that we have the right people in the right place who are thriving, engaged, performing and developing. This is the beginning of this process and regular review and reporting will ensure continued relevance and provide the opportunity to change related actions to reflect shifting priorities. Consequently, the actions below are those planned for the first two years of this strategy and, although some will continue through to 2028, the timescales for their delivery are noted for this period only.
We will monitor our performance for each action, reporting progress on an annual basis to the Finance and Resources Committee.
Ambition
Area of focus | Key actions | Responsible | Timescale (indicative, to be advised by Strategic Leadership Team) | Measures of success |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Promote the opportunities that Perth and Kinross Council offer to potential employees in the most positive way, highlighting the importance of a "One PKC Employee" approach to their Perth and Kinross Council career. | Continue with building a strong Perth and Kinross Council brand promoting the ethos of being a public servant that delivers strong and diverse candidate pools ensuring we have the right people with the right attitudes and behaviours, creating a more agile, flexible and effective workforce. | Strategic Lead - Strategic Planning, People and Performance (SPPP), Service Managers | 2024 to 2025 Quarter 4 | Reduce the proportion of advertised vacancies which remain unfilled and require re-advertisement. Reduced staff turnover in first year of employment (2023 = 23%). |
| Develop a specific offer to attract and retain young people beyond entry roles including apprenticeships, and personal and career development opportunities maximising enhanced connections with Further and Higher Education establishments and other organisations such as local DYW support. | Strategic Lead - SPPP, Service Managers | 2025 to 2026 Quarter 1 | Launch of a structured programme of development opportunities aimed at those aged under 30 years. Increased retention of those aged under 30 years (currently 18% of leavers). Increased proportion of employees aged under 30 years (2023 - 12%). |
Develop an integrated set of flexible tools that will allow managers and employees to identify and address opportunities and challenges for our workforce and access the development and support required to give them the best opportunity to achieve and thrive in those opportunities. | Identify how different tools and technology can be developed and used by managers to facilitate necessary changes from small changes in team structure to complete service redesign exercises and ensure managers understand how this can be achieved. | Strategic Lead - SPPP | 2024 to 2025 Quarter 4 | Demonstrate the effectiveness of reskilling and redeployment processes through the reduced number of voluntary and compulsory redundancy processes. Increased proportion of the workforce are aged under 30 years (12% - May 2024). |
Develop a strengthened approach to workforce planning that enables proactive workforce planning across Services and external partners, reflects our revised delivery model and links to our corporate priorities to ensure that learning and best practice identified in one area can be adapted and implemented in other Services or with different occupational groups. | Create workforce plans for service and occupational areas identifying likely future gaps and challenges and developing responses to these. | Service Managers | 2024 to 2025 Quarter 3 | Implementation of workforce plans in Strategic Lead areas including the use of succession planning. Launch of structured leadership development programme. Participation in national development initiatives. |
| Establish a Workforce Planning Forum bringing together service and occupational group representatives, those with related expertise to ensure delivery of actions, raise awareness of planned workforce changes, inform the development of tools and initiatives and share best practice. | Strategic Lead - SPPP, Strategic Leads | 2024 to 2025 Quarter 2 | Bi-annual review of workforce plans and initiatives. Annual Workforce Planning Report to appropriate committee. |
| Use the output from the Workforce Planning forum to inform workforce discussions at Senior Leadership Team, Corporate Priority Thematic Meetings and planning meetings with external partners. | Corporate Priority Leads, Strategic Leads | 2024 to 2025 Quarter 2 | Reduced likelihood and overall risk of workforce issues on Corporate Risk Register. Cross-service workforce planning initiatives bringing resources together to deliver Corporate Priorities. |
Continue to harness the potential of technology to free up employee time to support our communities in the best way possible | Include workforce implication considerations in the evaluation of proposed digital projects. | Strategic Lead - Customer and Digital Services | 2024 to 2025 Quarter 3 | Revised process to allow Workforce Planning Group contribution to Digital Board decision-making. |
| Continue to develop our Flexible Working Framework to reflect the needs of our Services, developments in technology and in light of the changing Council estate profile. | Strategic Lead - SPPP | 2024 to 2025 Quarter 4 | Implementation of updated Flexible Working Framework. |
Compassion
Area of focus | Key actions | Responsible | Timescale (indicative, to be advised by Strategic Leadership Team) | Measures of success |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Develop ways of working and programmes to further support the wellbeing of our employees individually and as a collective, maximise our levels of attendance and facilitate excellent performance whilst at work. | Using our operational health and wellbeing plan create a health and wellbeing pathway for change across Perth and Kinross Council and the Perth and Kinross Health and Social Care Partnership which identifies the elements of a healthy workforce, and the specific steps required to achieve this. | Strategic Lead - SPPP | 2024 to 2025 Quarter 4 | Creation and implementation of the Health and Wellbeing Pathway. |
| Review our policies, supporting information and services to ensure that managers are confident in their use and that our employees are supported while at work and during all types of period of absence. | Strategic Lead - SPPP, Service Managers | 2024 to 2025 Quarter 4 | Reduced absence levels reported annually to the Local Government Benchmarking Framework (2023 Teachers - 8.9 days, LGES - 13 days). |
Review and enhance the measures which allow employees to feel safe, physically and psychologically, and supported at their work. | Work with trade unions and employees to develop reporting mechanisms to further develop understanding and responses to instances of violence and aggression at work across all roles. | Strategic Leads | 2025 to 2026 Quarter 2 | Reduced numbers of reports of violence and aggression. |
| Continue to promote the support available through existing staff networks and wellbeing information and undertake activity to increase accessibility of these resources to all employees. | Strategic Lead - SPPP, Service Managers | 2024 to 2025 Quarter 4 | Increased awareness and participation in staff networks. Increased use of Employee Assistance Programme resources. Reduced absence levels attributable to mental health. Increased levels of protected characteristics disclosure through MyView. |
Develop understanding to allow us to move to a place where we develop, not manage, performance and where this is viewed positively by those involved. | Review existing policies and practices designed to address performance issues such as the capability procedure, PDD and one-to-ones/supervision meetings and ensure that employees and managers understand how these support the development of performance. | Strategic Lead - SPPP, Service Managers | 2024 to 2025 Quarter 4 | Increased PDD completion levels. |
Integrity
Area of focus | Key actions | Responsible | Timescale (indicative, to be advised by Strategic Leadership Team) | Measures of success |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Recruit and develop employees and leaders who will operate in a way that is true to our values and act as role models for all colleagues. | Review our recruitment tools and guidance to include an enhanced focus on our values and behaviours, and incorporate this in the recruitment, induction and ongoing development of managers and leaders. | Strategic Lead - SPPP, Strategic Leads | 2024 to 2025 Quarter 3 | Increased positive feedback in employee survey (2024 baseline to be established). |
Explain proposed changes to our recognised trade unions and workforce in a timely manner that allows their participation in long-term planning and responding effectively to the change. | Use the Fair Work principles to underpin our trade union relationships, particularly Effective Voice, to facilitate open discussion and partnership working. | Strategic Leads and Service Managers | Ongoing | Continued positive trade union relationships. |
| Provide clear and regular communication to employees using methods that are accessible to everyone. | Strategic Leads and Service Managers | Ongoing | Improved awareness among employees who do not routinely access Eric (intranet). |
Engage with our employees regularly to gather their views and implement actions arising from this at organisational, Service and team levels. | Create and deliver action plans arising from the 2024 employee survey. | Strategic Leads and Service Managers | 2024 to 2025 Quarter 4 | Year-on-year increased employee participation level (2024 baseline to be established). Improved results to successive surveys (2024 baseline to be established). Sharing and implementation of action plans. |
Ensure that our reward and recognition mechanisms are fit for purpose. | Ensure that national agreements are implemented quickly and effectively. | Strategic Lead - SPPP | Ongoing | Implementation of nationally agreed pay awards/changes to terms and conditions in a timely manner. Proactive consideration of structures and policies ensuring continued appropriate application of agreements. Delivery of at least 4 employee recognition events at Chief Executive and Director/Strategic Lead level per year. |
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