Slough councillors have called for better wellbeing strategies to prevent staff from leaving the local authority.
On Monday, Slough Borough Council’s employment committee heard updates about the borough’s workforce strategy, which is part of its corporate plan for 2023-2027.
It has four priorities: getting the basics right; empowering our people; fostering a healthy and inclusive environment; and building a positive and transformative culture.
At the meeting at Observatory House, members heard that the council is over-reliant on interim staff, but improvements are being made.
During the committee’s last meeting in June, concerns were raised about this issue and about the council’s culture.
In Monday’s meeting, Slough Council’s HR Director Bal Toor said: “I totally understand that we have a number of interim staff on our books.
“Whilst we will always have a reliance on interim staff it’s the over-reliance that we need to support our managers to address.”
A report presented to councillors showed that, from May to July this year, the number of interim staff has decreased but departments like regeneration, housing and environment still have 117 temporary employees.
A report on the workforce strategy also showed the council’s sickness absence is above the Local Government’s Association (LGA) average.
The main reasons staff are leaving their jobs or requesting long-term absences remained culture and high stress levels.
Councillors said that both issues can be addressed through better wellbeing strategies.
Councillor Martin Carter (Lab, Northborough and Lynch Hill Valley) said that one-to-one meetings seem insignificant, but these can be ‘the thing that makes a difference’ if they are done frequently.
Cllr Carter said: “When you take all of the categories together that looks really significant. Leavers due to culture I think is really significant within the report.
“What I can see here is if people were capturing earlier how an employee is feeling, capturing earlier where culture perhaps is causing them some complications, to me this could be the way to pre-empt both of those problems.”
Ms Toor said that one-to-one meetings focus on the employee’s wellbeing, their progress against objectives and further learning.
Ms Toor said: “The take-up is lower than what we would like.
“What we’re finding is people are doing their one-to-ones, but they are reporting that … they are doing them recorded on a piece of paper or a conversation.”
Cllr Zafar Satti (Con, Chalvey) wanted to know how residents are benefiting from this workforce strategy.
Cllr Satti said: “Are you making some sort of strategies to change the ground reality [in Slough]? How are public services being boosted?”
Ms Toor said that if the council’s workforce feels supported, public services should subsequently improve.
She said: “The workforce strategy is primarily dedicated to supporting our people and we know if our people are in a culture where they can thrive, they feel like they belong it should manifest itself through good services for residents.”
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