EFFICIENCY AND HR
“There were big changes to the intranet and lots of how-to guides for the obvious things like recruitment and managing sickness.
“It was about building the ability and capability of our HR function as well as building the HR skills of managers in the organisation who’d need to work in a way where they wouldn’t have access to the same level of HR support that they might previously have had.
“They would have that access when we needed to intervene, but for the general day-to-day they’re able to get on with it on their own.”
The ‘transition workshops’ were widely praised, with 97% of people rating them ‘good’, ‘very good’, or ‘excellent’, and staff engagement scores within the department itself were up fi ve percentage points on their 2009 levels.
The CIPD People Management Awards judges praised the restructure and the corporate shared service centre as a bold “business-led programme” and noted that it will save the council £888,000 a year.
Feedback
Before those major changes to the HR services were implemented, Loderick won top-level support for the plans from the council’s management board to ensure she had support in high places, meaning those senior directors could reinforce the new message to their own directorate management teams, ensuring it wasn’t just about HR imposing its own will.
But the new service and approach was reviewed
after six months, and the feedback from staff was that HR at the council had improved, despite the reduction in posts.
Loderick told us: “With the restructure, our service became much more clearly defi ned and focused, with new operating protocols, a new suite of KPIs. It tidied up the service, meaning managers experienced a more consistent and professional service.
“Those in HR were clearer about their roles, which were linked to the CIPD professional map.”
The two heads of service under Loderick, one leading on HR delivery and one on employee relations and policy, sit down with the directors and their second line from across the council every month to discuss all HR issues.
“We’ve got better relations with our customers than ever before,” Loderick said.
The change programme is not over – and the “whole council operating model” is likely to change from 2016, Loderick said, to cope with an even harsher budget environment.
That could involve merging more back offi ce services – joining IT with HR, legal, facilities management – to create a single ‘fi rst line’ of support for council employees. PSE will keep readers abreast of changes.
A structured approach to transformation
The council has undergone major changes since Loderick arrived in 2010, starting with
her fi rst major project – changing the terms and conditions of council staff.
Six hundred posts have been cut, though only about half of those were actual redundancies (others were redeployments and voluntary redundancies).
Loderick said: “We’ve been very organised and structured in our approach to change.”
That structured and consultative approach has meant that by the end of the process of changing terms and conditions, there have not been formal challenges or employment tribunals – although clearly there was opposition to the move.
Because the council started early, it is “ahead of the game”, Loderick said. “Some councils are scrabbling around now for 2014/15 savings, and we’ve done that.
“We’ve had structure changes, service changes, new customer contact points, more digital engagement.
“The changes have made Waltham Forest a much more ‘change-able’ organisation.
“That will continue with the new challenges we’ve got coming.
“It’s about raising the ambitions of people working here and letting them see that we will support people – though we also have high expectations and will hold people to account.”
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