Agenda item

The purpose of this report is to provide the Employment Committee with an update on employee recognition.

The Employment Committee requested an annual report to update on the employee recognition in place and any new initiatives.  This was introduced by the Cabinet Member for People and Safer Communities who informed the Committee that at South Kesteven, it was important to ensure all employees felt valued, inspired and proud of their contributions and to create a great company culture by focusing on positively rewarding the right behaviours and celebrating the positive things happening more.

South Kesteven District Council’s recognition strategy had been reviewed with feedback sought from the People Panel and colleagues.  Examples included:

#TeamSK Thank You - Peer to peer nominations to say ‘thank you’ to a colleague and give a reason why. This was introduced in August and the first month attracted more than 50 nominations, followed by 47 in September. A draw was made of all the nominees and the winners received an additional day’s annual leave.

Revised long service awards - These were previously awarded when colleagues leave SKDC. The new process means colleagues are rewarded when the anniversary takes place making long service recognition more meaningful and timely. Amounts given were also reviewed and benchmarked.

The Cabinet Member for People and Safer Communities informed the Committee that thankyou cards had been made for the purpose of sending to staff and invited Members to take some if they wished.  The cards were supplied by the HR Team if requested.

An Employee Awards Ceremony was planned for 1 December to recognise contributions and great achievements throughout the year and had received a lot of very positive feedback.

The Chairman stated that the Committee was extremely grateful for the hard work and resilience of the staff, particularly during challenging times.

During discussion, Members raised the following points:

·       Were staff removed from the draw once they had won a day’s annual leave, to prevent staff winning multiple times?

·       It was recognised that a ‘thank you’ increased motivation and productivity amongst staff.  It was hoped that the system was maintained and that nominations didn’t reduce over time due to complacency.

·       Some Members weren’t previously aware of the thank you cards.  How was this idea going to be communicated to all Members along with how to ensure staff receive their cards?  There used to be a monthly online magazine called ‘Evolve’ that briefed Councillors.

·       A Member welcomed the recent Planning Tour of Grantham as a great way of communicating to Members what part they were playing and how their decisions had a positive effect within the area of South Kesteven.

·       Internal communications had to be largely positive but balanced also.

·       It was important to be mindful that front-facing staff are more likely to be recognised.  All staff need to be remembered.

The HR Manager confirmed that staff could only win the ‘thank you’ draw once a year and names were removed once a staff member had won the day’s leave.  Nominations were shared with staff so they could see who had been nominated.

The Cabinet Member for People and Safer Communities informed Members that it was not known why the monthly online magazine was stopped.  Currently, there was a Members briefing emailed but this offered no confirmation of who was able to read it.  It was considered that perhaps the HR Team could carry out a survey amongst Members to confirm what communication needs there were.

ACTION 1:

That all Members were to be surveyed for their input on communication needs.

AGREED:

a)    That the Employment Committee noted the update on South Kesteven’s recognition strategy.