5. Corporate and shared services
Human Resources
Strategy
291. The Department’s workforce is a key enabler of the achievement of its objectives. To support delivery of the Department’s ambitious work agenda and realise the benefits of modernisation investment, the overall business strategy for 2005–06 included a move towards a smaller workforce which is: more highly skilled; better motivated and rewarded; delivering improved levels of customer service, and at a lower unit cost.
292. The Department’s people strategy has therefore been to put in place the programmes and initiatives to deliver this goal, through developing capability, managing the workforce, developing new performance and attendance management systems and ensuring that all staff have an opportunity to contribute to our goals. In addition the Department has continued modernising the Human Resources (HR) function to meet business needs and implemented a new approach to delivering HR services.
293. The strategic goal in HR for 2005–06 was, and remains, to enable managers to achieve their business goals through their people, and to help their people to achieve their potential to deliver business results and lead fulfilling working lives.
Priorities in 2005–06
294. Within this overall strategy, the key priorities were to:
- enable the Department to meet its performance and customer service goals by continually developing the expertise and capability of all staff and recruiting the right people;
- improve the well-being and motivation of staff, based on a policy framework which is fair, flexible, accessible and business-focused;
- help the Department meet its modernisation goals by delivering a workforce management process that enables it to match its staff numbers to its business needs;
- help the Department to meet its people and organisational goals by providing the high quality and efficient HR services needed for today and becoming a strategic enabler for tomorrow’s changes; and
- integrate and improve the HR service to the Department through delivery of the HR Modernisation Programme.
Developments in 2005–06
Building capability
295. The Department’s Skills Strategy, strongly aligned with the Civil Service-wide Professional Skills for Government initiative86, has six steps:
- an understanding of the capabilities the Department needs in order to achieve its goals, now and in the future;
- clarity about the capability requirements for job roles, expressed through skills/competences, and where appropriate, experience and accreditation;
- a common language and framework for all capability requirements, providing transparency for lateral and vertical progression;
- line managers and individual members of staff taking responsibility, through the Performance and Development System, for identifying individual development needs and reviewing progress towards achieving them;
- a flexible and responsive learning and development system, providing access through portals to a cost-effective mix of training opportunities and learning materials to meet individual needs; and
- continuing evaluation of the Department’s capability requirements and the effectiveness of investment in learning and development.
296. Work to build the infrastructure necessary to support implementation of the Skills Strategy has included development of capability requirements, including role profile templates, plans for a Dictionary of Competencies, and a new competency framework for Grades 7 and above, based on Professional Skills for Government. Self assessment against this framework took place for all Grades 7 and above at mid-year review.
297. Modernisation of learning and development has continued with the establishment of a blended learning content fund, of which £9 million was allocated to specific projects on a return on investment basis. The Department spent an estimated £175 million on learning and development in 2005–06.
As part of its strategy to evaluate the impact of this expenditure, each business has identified a single high-level Learning and Development priority and a senior sponsor will certify the business aims that it will support, the success criteria to be applied, and whether these criteria have been met. The Department is an accredited Investor in People and will be reassessed for accreditation at the end of 2006.
298. This year saw the first Department-wide review of senior talent, which was conducted to assess the capacity of the Department’s senior leaders, and identify and develop those Senior Civil Servants (SCS) with high potential. An initiative to do the same for people in feeder grades to the SCS was also piloted. Developmental provision for leaders is through the Leadership Excellence Action Programme and this has proved very successful, with over 70 per cent of the target audience using the programme.
299. A bespoke accelerated development programme was delivered to high potential SCS members.
300. The Leadership and Management Portal (LaMP) provides online access to learning. Over 50,000 visits were made to the site during the year and businesses are increasingly incorporating LaMP products into their development plans.
301. The training in IT applications, which was made available online last year, has proved popular, with over 14,000 people undertaking at least one course.
Workforce management
302. The Department is putting in place a modern, efficient organisation that will need fewer staff. Building on significant levels of modernisation investment, efficiency plans are based on a net reduction of 30,000 staff from March 2004 through to March 2008.
303. A central aim in taking forward the efficiency programme is the deployment of a workforce strategy, which seeks to ensure security of employment for as many appropriately skilled staff as possible who want to remain with the Department. The workforce strategy is underpinned by an agreement with Departmental trade unions, which seeks to avoid compulsory redundancy through a number of agreed measures.
304. Cross-business regional planning networks are actively managing the redeployment of surplus staff. The Department is also working closely with Cabinet Office and other departments to maximise re-deployment opportunities across the Civil Service. To date, around 50 per cent of surplus staff have been redeployed either to other jobs in the Department (42 per cent) or to other departments (8 per cent).
305. The Department is also running a number of voluntary early release/retirement schemes where this is proved to be cost effective. Volunteers for early release leave the Department on early severance or retirement under agreed Civil Service-wide conditions.
Improving selection processes
306. The Department has continued to maintain tight controls on external recruitment, but has recruited externally where specific skills are not already available internally, or turnover is high due to a competitive market in specific locations.
307. The Department continues to improve its selection process. In October 2005 the system was reviewed to assess people’s skills and abilities, and incorporate the new Departmental competencies, putting the emphasis on selecting people for the Department’s future needs. It remains a flexible, inclusive system, encouraging applications from all groups in society. A full review of the system has started and is due to be completed early in 2006–07.
308. Work is underway to integrate the new Professional Skills for Government framework into external selection. This will affect all grades AA-G6 and the changes will be introduced during the coming year.
309. The Department’s selection system is subject to rigorous internal audit and its recruitment practices are also assessed by the Civil Service Commissioners. This year saw the introduction of the new compliance monitoring process introduced by the Commissioners. This takes the form of self-assessment by the Department of the risk of its recruitment policy and practices not complying with the Recruitment Code. The Commissioners review the self assessment and provide their view on the Department’s recruitment system. The Department has been assessed as low risk.
The Department as a New Deal Employer
310. As the Department has responsibility for New Deal, it seeks to be the lead public sector employer of New Deal participants.
311. The Department’s New Deal Employment Option is open to applicants from any New Deal programme. The programme’s aim is to give the individual the skills, confidence and competencies to gain permanent employment, either within the Department or with another employer.
312. The controls on external recruitment at Administrative Assistant/Officer (the levels at which the Department takes people onto the New Deal programme) have had an impact on recruitment to the programme. In 2004–05 the number had fallen to 29 people employed on the programme, with a similar number in 2005–06. However, arrangements are in place to increase the Department’s New Deal intake in line with any increases in external recruitment activity.
Managing attendance
313. The Department has made considerable progress in reducing its sickness absence levels. In the 12 months up to February 2005, the average number of days lost due to ill health was 12.5 days per employee year. For the 12 months up to February 2006 this reduced to 10.4 days, a 17 per cent reduction over the period. The in-month figure in February 2006 was 9.1, compared to 12.7 in February 2005, which illustrates the continuing improvement in this area.
314. The Department has achieved this success by taking a range of steps in line with the recommendations in the report from the Ministerial Task Force for Health, Safety and Productivity, Managing Sickness Absence in the Public Sector, published in November 2004.87 These included:
- raising employee awareness of the senior management team’s commitment to reducing sickness absences, by launching a revised attendance management policy in July 2005;
- enabling managers to intervene before absence levels cause concern, by giving them online access to individual employees’ attendance records;
- rolling out a new IT system to provide managers (from office to Departmental level) with quicker and better data about absence levels, and the action being taken;
- ensuring line managers complied fully with the processes for managing cases of poor attendance; and
- taking action within the operational businesses to bring to a conclusion the worst cases of long term absence.
Health and safety
315. The Department aspires to the highest standards in health and safety performance. It does this through the application of a robust risk management framework to ensure resources are appropriately targeted at areas of significant risk. During 2005-06, work continued to modernise health and safety systems, increase line manager capability and improve compliance with the Department’s health and safety policies. Measures introduced include:
- the appointment of dedicated health and safety co-ordinators in each of the businesses to improve policy compliance and the monitoring of performance;
- the setting up of a co-ordinators group to enable good practice to be shared across the Department;
- closer working between the business health and safety leads at board level, to ensure health and safety issues are taken into account in business strategies;
- the introduction of new health and safety training for all line managers;
- the piloting of self service online e-learning for Display Screen Equipment training; and
- the establishment of an extensive network of health and safety committees to enable full consultation and discussion of health and safety issues between the Department and the trade unions.
Diversity and equality
316. Diversity and Equality aims and objectives are central to the Department’s mission of independence and equality for all. There are four key goals:
- To provide the best possible services to all the Department’s customers, reflecting their diverse range of requirements.
- To build a workforce that reflects, and is part of, the wider community, and be an employer of choice in a diverse market place.
- To enable all staff to maximise their potential to contribute to business objectives.
- To enable the Department’s external partners to provide services to the same high standard.
Key achievements in 2005–06 include:
- publication of ‘Realising Equality in the Department for Work and Pensions’ on 1 August88, which was the first time the Department had reported on all aspects of diversity in one publication;
- development of Disability Confident, an interactive learning package which provides information on the best way to interact with disabled customers and employees;
- a gold award in the Race for Opportunity benchmarking, coming third in the top 10 public sector performers;
- achieving third place in the Stonewall Equality Index of top 100 employers for lesbian, gay and bisexual staff; and
- the provision of high quality guidance to all the Department’s employees, including a video Getting it Right which supports them in handling sexual orientation issues and civil partnerships.
317. Figure 30 below illustrates the Department’s progress towards its targets for a diverse workforce.
Figure 30: Progress against equality targets
| Ethnicity Targets – percentage of minority groups by grade | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade | March 2008 target | Position at 30 September 2003 | Position at 30 September 2004 | Position at September 2005 |
| SCS | 5% | 2.2% | 3.3% | 3.7% |
| G6/G7 | 4% | 2.0% | 2.8% | 3.2% |
| SEO | 4% | 2.0% | 3.2% | 3.6% |
| HEO | 5.5% | 3.2% | 4.4% | 4.9% |
| Disability Targets – percentage of disabled people by grade | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade | March 2008 target | Position at 30 September 2003 | Position at 30 September 2004 | Position at September 2005 |
| SCS | 6% | 4.8% | 5.0% | 4.8% |
| G6/G7/SEO | 4% | 4.0% | 3.8% | 4.0% |
| HEO/EO | 7% | 6.4% | 6.1% | 6.5% |
| AO/AA | 6% | 4.7% | 4.5% | 4.6% |
| Gender Targets – percentage of women by grade | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade | March 2008 target | Position at 30 September 2003 | Position at 30 September 2004 | Position at September 2005 |
| SCS | 38% | 33.3% | 33.5% | 32.7% |
| G6 | 45% | 40.3% | 40.3% | 42% |
| G7 | 45% | 42.7% | 43.7% | 44.7% |
Link to long description for Figure 30: Progress against equality targets [D]
Pay and reward
318. The Department successfully implemented the second year of the three-year pay deal agreed with the unions in 2004. This has provided greater certainty for staff and, at the same time, enabled the Department to continue to make real progress towards its reward strategy:
- pay scales are continuing to be shortened and pay scale minima are becoming more competitive in the market;
- the system introduced in 2003-04 for assessing the performance of individuals has been improved and consolidated;
- individual performance bonuses have continued to be paid at the higher levels established in 2004, with clear links to the performance management system;
- for the first time some line managers have been given discretion in the award of bonuses; and
- there are four different pay zones to reflect different market conditions across the country.
319. The Department has started work on a review of the existing Reward Strategy.
Employee relations
320. In 2005–06 the Department reviewed its arrangements for consulting and keeping the trade unions up to date on developments. The unions were fully engaged in the review process and discussions on the outcomes continue.
In addition, the Department has consulted its trade unions extensively on a wide range of major issues including its workforce planning programme, HR modernisation and efficiency challenges.
321. The early part of 2006 was marked by industrial action by one of the three trade unions, over the Department’s modernisation programme and workforce planning strategy. The Department is ready to continue discussions with the unions on implementation of its modernisation programme and to engage them on day-to-day business, actively seeking to build a better working relationship with them.
HR modernisation
322. The HR Modernisation Programme harnesses industry best practice and investment in technology to improve the way HR services are delivered across the Department and to help make significant efficiencies. Activities in 2005-06 included:
- implementation of key elements of the HR Service Delivery Model, including HR Business Partners taking on a more strategic role;
- good progress on the rationalisation of the network of HR Service Centres (ultimately in 2006-07 to two sites) delivering a more effective and efficient service to line managers and staff, with key performance indicators for timeliness, quality and customer satisfaction in place;
- piloting a new HR Customer Support Service;
- full implementation of the staff information system, delivering self service functionality for sickness absence and booking learning; and
- simplified and improved HR policies making them more business- and customer-focused, accessible and viable.