Agenda item

To consider a report on the health and wellbeing of the Council workforce and the impact of Covid-19 on productivity.

The Interim Director – HR provide the Board with an update in relation to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on employee’s productivity and well-being. 

Since the announcement of the first lockdown, the Government ordered people to stay at home and for a significant part of our workforce, this had meant that people had to work from home. There were also several employees providing essential services who continued to fulfil those roles. This meant that there was a significant change in the way that work was undertaken by all of our employees and the organisation had to adapt to that change. 

To better understand the impact of the pandemic on employees, two surveys were conducted in September 2020 and a pulse survey in May 2021. The response from staff was that they considered isolation from their work colleagues and mental health as the biggest barrier to working from home.

In respect of the September survey, the results revealed that stress, mental health had increased by 8.6% compared to the previous year.

The results of the pulse survey aimed to collect information on how employees felt about working from home.Overall, the results had shown that employees felt positive about working from home and would like to continue to work in this fashion for the foreseeable future.

There were no significant differences between responses made by part time and full-time staff, although employees would like to be engaged more about the council’s future working arrangements/plans, particularly for those employees who did not manage staff and those employees who were aged between 16-34. The survey also revealed that the vast majority of employees would like to come occasionally into the office.

In relation to cumulative sickness figures for Q2 (2021), compared to the previous financial years data to see the impact of Covid-19 on overall absence levels, it was revealed that sickness absence levels currently were very similar to pre-pandemic levels which was felt was due to the positive impact that working from home had on absenteeism against the increase of Covid-19 cases and mental and stress levels amongst employees.

In recognition of the feedback received from employees from the surveys, the Council had continued to develop support mechanisms such as creating the ‘My Wellbeing Hub’ which signposted employees to a range of mental health and wellbeing support interventions. Advice and guidance was shared weekly via staff communications, this included advice on physical wellbeing with our physiotherapist through virtual sessions, Talking Life (talking therapy sessions), EAP promotion and team Wellbeing presentations.

Surveys had also been conducted of managers about the way in which services were organised to understand how buildings would be utilised going forward.  Feedback from employees who were currently working from home was gathered regarding attendance in buildings. The occupancy survey completed in April-June 2021 by service managers reported that across all the employees working from home, 102 colleagues had wellbeing needs which could benefit from either a hybrid or fuller return to working from an office rather than continued working from home.

To support this, the collaboration zone was opened earlier in October 2021, to offer an alternative to remote working and conduct face to face meetings. Agile fixed drop-down desks were also bookable with prioritisation offered to colleagues with Wellbeing requirements, to date the take up of these had been low but it was still relatively new. Bookings for the collaboration zone have steadily increased.

As the refurbishment of Oldbury Council House neared completion from March 2022, focal fixed home zones would be available to each Directorate further supporting hybrid ways of working by offering more choice for colleague’s work-styles and therefore wellbeing.

The feedback from the surveys conducted suggested people were more engaged and preferred working from home especially as they could manage their work life balance needs better (so they were using their time more effectively) and this had made them more productive with outputs either increasing or remaining the same) while current sickness levels had remained the same as pre-pandemic levels.  

In relation to questions raised by the Board, the Interim Director – HR confirmed that:-

·               incidents of violence and aggression had decreased by 52%compared to the previous year and related to threats via social media etc due to not enough face to face contact with staff or not wearing PPE etc. This was continuing to be monitored by the Council;

·               workers could get in touch with the Council’s counselling service which was confidential, and a referral did not need to be made by the manager;

·               the Council’s Reset and Recovery Board were making decisions in relation appropriate risk assessments being undertaken to ensure staff were safe to return to work.  There were currently challenges with all staff returning back to the workplace due to the Council’s property portfolio reducing since Covid-19 and customers using services changing during that time. The Council was continuing to bring back services in a managed way and not put staff at risk; whilst balancing the use of staffing resource in the best way possible;

·               there continued to be support in managing staff remotely with one to ones and regular keeping in touch with staff;

·               lessons had been learnt from 2020 to now including how resilient staff were.

The Board thanked the Director for the presentation and acknowledged the enormous contribution made by employees both during the height of the pandemic to now. Members noted the work being undertaken to manage a safe return to the workplace and looked forward to all frontline areas opening back up to respond to the needs of Sandwell residents.