Minutes:
Richard Grice, Director of Customers, Transformation & Resources, gave a presentation at the meeting on future working arrangements update.
Discussion took place surrounding the proposed plans for staff coming back into the office and it was stated that it was not proposed to use a people to desk ratio going forward. Working through for each team. The Council previously worked to around 8 to 10 people in the office at any one time and it was expected that this would reduce to around half or less going forward. It was recognised that certain teams had different demands and pressures and that it was important to get the balance right between working from home and coming into the office, which would be determined by the needs of each individual team and service.
In response to concerns raised regarding potential inherent prejudice between those staff that chose to come into the office and those that chose to work from home, it was stated that it was important to focus on how to manage by outcomes and how managers could provide support for this. It was noted that hybrid working was the hardest to manage and that it was important to ensure that staff still felt engaged. It was reported that the feedback from the recent team days had been positive so far. It was suggested that the key learnings from working within the pandemic and team days could be brought back to a future meeting, to look at what’s worked well and best practice.
In response to a question regarding London weighting pay and whether this would continue, it was confirmed that Haringey did not have London weighting.
Richard Grice stressed the importance of the organisation being agile and responsive to the needs of staff and its residents. A system called Process Performance Plus was being implemented, which allowed teams to manage remotely in one place. This had been particularly effective within social work teams.
It was recognised that health and safety was a real issue and that staff had been issued with guidance and health and safety forms to complete whilst working from home. A number of staff had also taken equipment home. The Council had been investing in more universally versatile equipment, which would have some budget implications.
In response to a question regarding the percentage of staff that lived outside of London, it was stated that before the pandemic the Council had a good idea of where everyone lived, however since then a large number of staff had moved. Pre-Covid, around 75% of the workforce lived within 6 miles of the council offices. A piece of work was required to determine this. It was noted that even if staff had decided to move further away from the office, they would still be required to attend the office when needed.
It was confirmed that if a member of staff had relocated further away from work, there would be no payment for the additional travel as it was their choice to move further away from work.