11 - People Strategy 2021-26 - Council Workforce Demographics and People Metrics

Renfrewshire Council · 13 February 2025
Back to Finance, Resources and Customer Services Policy Board — 13 February 2025 and its agenda

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___________________________________________________________________
To:  Finance, Resources and Customer Services Policy Board
On:  13 February 2025
___________________________________________________________________
Report by: Director of Finance and Resources
___________________________________________________________________
Heading: People Strategy 2021-2026 – Council Workforce Demographics
and People Metrics. 
___________________________________________________________________
1. Summary
1.1 The purpose of this report is to provide members with information on the
Council’s Workforce demographics and people metrics for the period 1 April
2024 to 31 December 2024.     
1.2 This report provides an overview of the current workforce profile and highlights
the importance of utilising people metrics for effective evidence-based decision-
making within the Council.  A clear understanding of our workforce is crucial for
workforce planning and future operational service delivery. 
1.3 The Council’s Equality, Diversity and Inclusion metrics and Health and Safety
metrics are not included in this report as they are reported separately to
members of the board. 
___________________________________________________________________
2 Recommendations
2.1 The board is asked to note: 
 The contents of this report.
 This report will be reported bi-annually for monitoring purposes.
 The next report will be submitted on 12 June 2025. This will detail quarter
by quarter comparison data, with targeted interventions to drive
improvements where necessary. 
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3 Background
3.1 The Council recognises the importance of monitoring workforce data to inform
on decisions that drive organisational performance, resilience and future
strategic planning success.  Our workforce data supports the Council with
workforce planning, optimising efficient- allocation of resources, and supports
employee development, leading to a more efficient and competent workforce. 
People metrics data identifies trends and informs new, innovative service
delivery models. 
 
3.2 Data-driven insights will help identify areas of high demand and ensures that
the right skills are aligned with the right projects, enhancing overall efficiency. 
Regular analysis of workforce demographic information can also support the
Council to drive its equality, diversity and inclusion agenda and monitoring,
ensuring specific and targeted initiatives promote a supportive and inclusive
working environment.   
 
3.3 The diagram below is an extract from the Council’s people metrics data and
provides an overview of the Council’s workforce profile as at December 2024.
 
3.4 Of the 8511 employees, around 70% live within the Renfrewshire area.  The
largest proportion of our workforce have permanent contracts of employment
with an average length of service of 10 years, which indicates we have an
experienced, committed, and talented workforce. 
3.5 As the data highlights, our workforce is predominately female, with an average
age of around 45 years.  However, data highlights we have an aging workforce
with 40% aged 50 or above.

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This presents the Council with future succession planning challenges around
retaining key knowledge and skills, but also creates new opportunities to attract
new and wider skills for the future in new and emerging disciplines, ensuring
the Council remains competitive in the recruitment market and continues to
proactively adapt to emerging trends. 
3.6 To ensure the Council attracts and retains key talent, and remains competitive
in the labour market, members will recall approving a revision to the Council’s
pay and grading model back in 2021 for approximately 6500 local government
employees.  The revised model consolidated the Scottish Local Government
Living Wage into the Council’s pay structure as the minimum hourly rate of pay. 
It restored the pay differentials between grades within the pay structure that
had been eroded by recent increases in the level of the Living Wage.  It
removed all overlaps from the pay scales of adjacent grades in the structure, in
accordance with best practice.  It reduced the overall length of each pay scale,
to a maximum of five incremental steps by year 2025.  Since implementation,
the Council’s Gender Pay Gap has reduced to 0.4% in favour of male. 
3.7 A healthy balance of the Council’s workforce, around 41% work part time.  As
a result of the implementation of the Council’s revised Flexible Working Policy
in June 2023, we have continued to increase our offering and balance of flexible
working arrangements across the Council, which supports the health and
wellbeing of our workforce and continues to promote a family-friendly and
inclusive working culture. This growing pattern evidences our requirement to
ensure we continue reviewing and implementing bold, modern, supportive, and
inclusive HR & OD policies. 
3.8 The Council’s retention rate for this reporting period ending December 2024 is
a healthy 92.7%.  During this reporting period, 634 people joined the Council
and 614 employees left, with the main reasons for leaving being career
advancement and normal age retirement.  Continuing to closely monitor this
data helps us better understand the reasons why people leave the Council’s
employment, providing opportunities to listen to the workforce and implement
any findings to improve our workplace experience. 
4 Employee Relations (Absence, Disciplines, Grievances, Overtime and
Training) 
4.1 Absence 
4.2 In line with the reporting requirements for Scottish Councils, absence is
expressed as a number of workdays lost per full time equivalent (FTE)
employee. The absence rate for the reporting period 1 April to 31 December
was 9.78 days per FTE. The table below provides a breakdown of absence by
each Council service, by quarter, with both Environmental, Housing and
Infrastructure and Renfrewshire Health and Social Care Partnership
experiencing higher levels of absence than the Council targets.

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Absence trends highlight that this has been a common pattern for a number of
years due to the exposure our front-line service employees experience, in their
daily operational roles. 
4.3 The number of Council FTE days lost due to absence for the period 1 April to
31 December was 69,949.21 FTE days.  The table below provides a breakdown
of FTE absence days lost by each Council service, by quarter. 
4.4 The 3 main reasons for our sickness absence throughout the reporting period
continues to be Psychological, Musculoskeletal and Joint Disorders, and
Stomach/Bowel/Blood and Metabolic Disorders, which are consistent with
national trends.   
4.5 To support employees with psychological and physical absences, the Council
provides a range of supportive policies and services that employees can access
or be referred to at an early stage for assistance, such as the Council’s
Occupational Health Service Provider, People Asset Management Ltd (PAM).
During the reporting period there were 2,236 appointments made, 35% were
for mental health conditions and 25% were for musculoskeletal conditions and
treatment. In the same reporting period, the Council’s employee assistance
provider, Time for Talking (TFT) have offered 356 appointments, supporting
mental health issues such as, anxiety, depression, self-worth, relationship/
family difficulties, and bereavement. 
4.6 Members will also be aware that this board recently approved a revised
Absence Policy and Health and Wellbeing Plan to support attendance at work,
which continues to be implemented.  The People & OD team are working with
our 91 mental health first aiders (MHFA) across the Council to support our
workforce by initially providing a safe space to discuss mental health concerns
and available specialist support in areas such as financial or psychological
wellbeing.

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4.7 The direct salary cost of absence (which is statutory sick pay and occupational
sick pay) for the period 1 April to 31 December 2024, is £10.5m.  £8.8m (84%)
of this cost is relating to employees with long term absences (28 calendar days
or more).  The table below provides a breakdown by Council Service, by
quarter. 
4.8 Our data also suggests that absences continue to be impacted due to lengthier
NHS treatment, medical intervention and specialist report waiting times. 
4.9 Overtime Working 
4.10 Overtime plays a critical role in the Council’s Day to day business operations,
which offers several advantages, such as meeting ad-hoc increased service
demands, seasonal peaks, short term projects like event planning, avoiding
permanent recruitment costs.  It can also support operational continuity in
emergency situations where specialist skills are required.  With careful
workforce planning, the Council can use overtime to leverage these benefits
while minimising risks such as employee fatigue and higher resourcing costs. 
4.11 The table below highlights the level of overtime working across the Council and
associated costs for the period 1 April to 31 December.  Categories of overtime
claimed are in line with conditions of service and include plain time, time and a
half, and double time.  The number of overtime hours claimed within the period
1 April to 31 December 2024 has reduced quarter on quarter.  The direct salary
cost is approximately £4.4m, which has also reduced quarter on quarter
throughout the period.  The table highlights that Environmental, Housing and
Infrastructure and Renfrewshire Health and Social Care Partnership are
experiencing higher levels of overtime claims than other services.

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4.12 On further analysis of our data, 63% of the hours are used for reasons such as,
holiday absence cover, demand in workload, vacancies, and sickness cover. 
People and OD have been exploring differing ways to reduce the costs
generated by overtime through workforce planning, provision of a suite of
management information and dashboards to managers and reviewing the
public holiday arrangements. 
4.13 Disciplinary Investigations 
4.14 The table below highlights by Council service the number of live disciplinary
investigations being carried out under the Council’s Disciplinary Policy for each
quarter within the period 1 April to 31 December 2024.  Within the full reporting
period, there was a maximum of 51 cases being progressed across the Council
at any one time, in line with Council policy (0.06% of the Council’s overall
workforce). 18 of these cases (35%) required a precautionary suspension. 
4.15 All disciplinary cases are supported and progressed as quickly as possible in
line with Council Policy.  Members approved a revised Disciplinary Policy in
June 2024, which provides a framework for supporting and progressing cases
fairly and consistently, towards a resolution as quickly as possible.  The People
& OD team will continue to work with services and trade union colleagues to
reduce the number of live cases.   
4.16 Grievance Cases 
4.17 The table below highlights by service, the number of live Council Grievance
cases for each quarter within the period 1 April to 31 December 2024.  Within
the full reporting period, there was a maximum of 16 grievance cases being
progressed across the Council at any one time, in line with Council policy
(0.02% of the Council’s overall workforce). Similar to the disciplinary process,
all grievances are fully investigated in the strictest of confidence using the
Council’s fair, inclusive and consistent processes.

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4.18 Where appropriate, the Council will use its ACAS trained and accredited
mediators to support the grievance process using early intervention
approaches.  Mediation provides informal resolution solutions to matters that
may otherwise would have resulted in the need to use formal grievance or
disciplinary processes.  In addition to the number of grievances reported below,
our trained and accredited mediators successfully resolved 5 other cases
informally which mitigated or avoided the potential for these cases to progress
to a formal grievance.   
4.19 Mandatory Training   
4.20 Members will be aware that one of the Council’s core values is learning. 
Investing in the development of our workforce is a key thread throughout the
Council’s People Strategy, promoting a collaborative learning environment.   
Ongoing continuous development is crucial for the Council’s ongoing success,
delivering best value outcomes.  Investing in our workforce through training can
provide the Council with many benefits such as: enhanced employee
performance, consistency in work quality, increased employee satisfaction and
retention levels, risk mitigation, compliance, increased innovation and
adaptability and enhanced employer reputation. 
4.21 The Council has 5 mandatory training courses for all employees, which the table
below details.  Highlighted within the table are completion rates by service for
each of these courses as of 31 December 2024.  Data shows that overall the
Council has an average course completion rate of just under 60%, with the
Chief Executive’s and Finance, Resources and Customer Services
experiencing higher completion rates, mainly due to accessibility.   
4.22 In addition, the Council has 3 mandatory courses for employees who use the
Council’s ICT network.  Highlighted within the table are completion rates by
service for each of these courses as of 31 December 2024.  Data shows that
overall the Council has an average course completion rate of 55%, with the
Chief Executive’s and Finance, Resources and Customer Services once again
experiencing higher completion rates than other services.

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4.23 To improve mandatory training completions over the next quarter, a series of
targeted inventions has been agreed which include the following: 
 Continued close monitoring of course completion rates by the Council’s
Corporate Management Team.
 Continued provision of service course completion data to Senior
Management Teams for review and scrutiny.
 Introduce service specific campaigns to employees encouraging
participation.
 Converting all training courses into toolbox talks for frontline service
employees which allows greater flexibility in our approach. 
5 Next Steps 
5.1 This report will continue to evolve for members, providing performance data
comparisons quarter by quarter for scrutiny.  It will also support the Council to
better utilise resources in the areas where our performance requires to improve. 
5.2 The Council’s managers already have access to a range of workforce data in
real time through the Council’s Business World ERP system.  Council officers
are currently exploring opportunities to provide real time information on the
Council’s workforce demographics and people metrics to members.  An update
on progress will be provided to members within the next report.     
___________________________________________________________________
Implications of the Report
1. Financial – The Council’s costs in relation to workforce planning are
detailed throughout this report and are met within existing service and
Council budget lines.  Council Officers will continue to monitor data and
take appropriate actions to improve performance levels.   
2. HR & Organisational Development – People and Organisational
Development Practitioners will continue to work with service managers
and consult with the Trade Unions to improve performance.  
3. Community/Council Planning – None as the report is for noting.  
4. Legal- None as the report is for noting.   
5. Property/Assets- None. 
6. Information Technology- As noted in the report.
7. Equality & Human Rights

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The Recommendations contained within this report have been
assessed in relation to their impact on equalities and human rights. No
negative impacts on equality groups or potential for infringement of
individuals’ human rights have been identified arising from the
recommendations contained in the report because it is for noting only.  
If required following implementation, the actual impact of the
recommendations and the mitigating actions will be reviewed and
monitored, and the results of the assessment will be published on the
Council’s website. 
8. Health & Safety - Effective workforce planning can ensure legal
compliance and support the well-being of our people. 
9. Procurement – None. 
10. Risk - Without a continued effective focus on workforce planning, there
is a risk that may impact on the Council both financially and in terms of
service delivery. 
11. Privacy Impact- None. 
12. Climate Risk- None. 
13. Children’s Rights – None. 
14. Cosla Policy Position – None. 
_______________________________________________________
List of Background Papers - None
___________________________________________________________________ 
Authors: Steven Fanning, steven.fanning@renfrewshire.gov.uk