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People Strategy A quality workforce moving beyond excellence. April 2010

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Page 1: YHN People Strategy

People StrategyPeople Strategy

A quality workforce moving beyond excellence.

April 2010

Page 2: YHN People Strategy

This information is about Your Homes Newcastle, who are responsible for managing council homes on behalf of Newcastle City Council, and how we are doing. If you need this in your language, or a different language phone 0191 278 8633. This information is also available in easy read, large print, Braille and audio tape. We can also arrange for you to see a British Sign Language intepreter.

Bengali

Информация о Your Homes Newcastle, которая отвечает за управление деламимуниципального жилья от имени Муниципалитета г. Ньюкасла и об общем состоянии дел. 0191 278 8633.

ChineseSimplified

ChineseTraditional

Farsi

French

Kurdish

Portuguese

Russian

Spanish

Page 3: YHN People Strategy

Version control table Version number: 1 Date current version produced: April 2010 Due date for next review: April 2011 Author: Lisa Ainscough, Business Strategy Team

[email protected]

Contact officers: Sandra Archbold- Organisational Development Manager, [email protected] 0191 2788724 Sandie Dickson-Human Resources Manager [email protected] 0191 278 8739

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Contents Page

Foreword 4

1. Introduction 5-6 1.1 Scope of strategy 5 1.2 Purpose of the strategy 6 1.3 Links with our organisational mission and strategic objectives 6 1.4 Our core values 6

2. Our People Strategy vision 7-8 2.1 Our vision 7

2.2 What will our vision look like? 7-8

3. Background 8-12 3.1 External review 9 3.2 Understanding our workforce profile and future challenges 9-11 3.3 Staff survey- what our people told us 11-12 3.4 Looking back: our achievements so far 12

4. Context 13-15 4.1 National drivers 13 4.2 Local drivers 14-15

5. Our People Priorities 15-35 5.1 Developing our people 16-21 5.2 Developing our leaders and managers 22-24 5.3. Health and Wellbeing: ‘Happy, Healthy and Here’ 24-27 5.4 A positive organisational culture 27-32 5.5 Rewarding and recognising our people 32-33 5.6 Attracting, recruiting and retaining a quality workforce 33-35

6. Impact of the Strategy 35-36 6.1 Our key indicators of success 36

7. Implementation and monitoring of the strategy 36-37 8. Responsibility for the People Strategy. 37

9. Review 37

Appendix A- Our current workforce profile 38-42 B- Our People Strategy Action Plan 43-54

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Foreword

Every member of staff and Board member has a part to play in the continuing success of Your Homes Newcastle. We have gone from strength to strength over the past six years and that is due, in no small part, to our people. This strategy steers the next phase of our evolution and establishes a people-based route map for the realisation of our mission.

The document reflects a two-way relationship; it sets out what people can expect from YHN and vice versa. Everyone should be able to find reference points to understand the commitments made and to see where they fit in.

John Lee, Chief Executive

The long term goals are challenging, but I believe they are achievable with the help and support of our people, who have risen to so many challenges already in the life of YHN.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all those who have contributed to the strategy to date and to those who are going to ensure its success in the future.

John Lee, Chief Executive, Your Homes Newcastle

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1. Introduction Our people are by far our most valuable resource here at YHN, without a quality

workforce we cannot hope to achieve success. In what is likely to become an increasingly competitive market with rising customer

expectations we will need to differentiate ourselves from other housing providers. We want to stand out as one of the best housing providers in the field and we firmly believe that the way to achieve this will be through the service we provide, ultimately this means through our people.

June 2008 marked an important time in our organisational history when we became

the first housing organisation in the North East to be recognised as a three star excellent organisation by the Audit Commission. In 2010 we achieved the bronze level Investors in People award which was a reflection of our people achievements to date

We now want to move beyond excellence and to do this we need to continue to build

a diverse quality workforce that is motivated and committed with the right knowledge, skills, capability and attitude to deliver high quality services to the communities that we serve. Our People Strategy sets out how we will achieve this.

One of the key drivers for the actions identified in our new People Strategy was the

results from an organisational wide staff survey. Our strategy has also been influenced by our review of internal and external factors that could affect YHN over the next few years, our current strengths and weaknesses and the opportunities and potential threats facing us.

Our strategy builds on our existing Human Resources and learning and development strategies and policies and identifies emerging priorities. It draws them together into a broader framework and maps out the main areas of work that will need to be taken forward so that we have the right people with the right capabilities to meet our business objectives now and into the future.

We are committed to getting the very best from our people and believe that we can

only achieve this through sustained investment.

1.1 Scope of strategy We have set our People Strategy over a four year period to coincide with the lifespan

of our current business strategy. It applies to all of our employees, both current and prospective and also our board members.

Although our new People Strategy replaces our previous Human Resources strategy

(known as our people plan) and supports our HR and Organisational Development policies and procedures this is much more than just what our HR and OD teams are going to do, our new People Strategy sets out what our whole organisation is going to do.

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1.2 Purpose of the strategy The purpose of our People Strategy is to set out how we will ensure that we have the

right people with the right skills at the right time together with the priorities and actions that will help us to achieve this.

Our strategy is not intended to document every single one of our people

management activities but instead focuses our attention on those priorities that will make the biggest difference to our people and ultimately the overall performance of our organisation and the customer experience.

1.3 Links with our organisational mission and strategic objectives

Our People Strategy outlines how we will meet out organisational strategic objectives

through effective people management and development. Our mission is to be the best housing provider in the North East. We will achieve this by investing in:

• Support and care to communities • Three star excellent services • A quality workforce • Refurbishing and building homes

1.4 Our core values

In November 2009, following consultation with staff, Board and customers, our new core values were agreed. They are:

• Accountability – acting openly and taking responsibility • Integrity – acting fairly and honestly • Passion – working positively with enthusiasm • Respect – treating everyone with care and professionalism • Forward thinking – proactively seeking improvements and solutions

Our core values are at the heart of the business, and are the principles and standards that influence the way we work and behave. They make a difference by giving us a sense of pride and belonging at work, and show we care and are committed to people and the work we do. Our core values are what will help us to achieve our organisational objectives. Over the life of this strategy we will be working hard to embed our core values into every thing that our people do. Our new core values mark an important change of emphasis from what is done, the tasks, to how it is done, the behaviours. We anticipate that this process will take at least the life of this strategy how we will do this is detailed later on.

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2. Our People Strategy vision 2.1 Our vision

We have set ourselves an overall vision for what we aim to have achieved through

this People Strategy by 2014. Our overall vision for the future of our people at YHN is: “A highly engaged, high performing workforce, equipped with the right skills

and attitude to deliver consistently excellent services”

2.2 What will our vision look like? To achieve our vision we have identified a number of key priorities. The following

scenarios depict what we think our vision will look like for our employees, our organisation and our customers.

Margaret is an income officer and also a member of our financial inclusion project group. Through her participation in the project group she has become very interested in this area of work and is keen to further develop her knowledge and understanding. As a result of our new secondment policy she applies for a 3 month opportunity that becomes available with an external partner as a Financial Inclusion Officer. On her return to YHN she is able to put this knowledge into practice and make a valuable contribution towards developing our Financial Inclusion Strategy.

Bill’s manager, Sandra has become concerned that he has been under-performing and she is keen to address this as soon as possible. Using our newly launched capability policy and toolkit as guidance, Sandra arranges an informal review meeting with Bill to discuss the issues concerning his performance. Bill accepts that a capability issue does exist resulting from the introduction of a number of new policies and processes which he is struggling to follow. Together they agree a detailed review action plan setting out clear and measurable objectives, with appropriate timescales and specific actions to be achieved. This is regularly monitored through further review meetings. As part of his action plan Bill is allocated a mentor who is able to provide additional support. Over the next few weeks there is a noticeable improvement in Bill’s performance.

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3. Background Before work began on developing our new People Strategy we needed to firstly gain

a clear understanding of where we are now as an organisation to help us identify our key priorities for the coming years. To help us achieve this we carried out a number of actions including carrying out an external review of our human resources and organisational development functions, analysis of current workforce profile and challenges and most importantly we carried out an organisational staff survey to find out what our people wanted.

Our strategy has also been informed by a number of key national and local drivers

which includes Investors in People and existing local plans and strategies and which are detailed further in the following section.

Mrs Marshall, a resident living in Byker approaches Gillian, the Housing Services Officer she regularly deals with, to talk at a young peoples’ group on the estate about her career. Gillian wanted to decline this opportunity as she lacked the confidence of talking to groups. However, through her 1:1 her manager identified this need and agreed the personal and customer benefits there would be from participating. Gillian’s manager has recently completed his Level 3 Award in Coaching and arranged three formal skills coaching sessions where he worked with Gillian to address her concerns and help develop personal strategies to achieve her goal of giving the talk. Mrs Marshall is over the moon that Gillian will speak to the young people, as she feels strongly that it will really start to help develop a community where young people begin to discover their aspirations.

Larry, a resident living in Walker, approaches Keith in Concierge to report a disturbance that happened in the flat next door during the night. Keith had previously drafted very brief incident reports which were quite often queried by the Housing Services Officer in their interpretation of the incident. Following his attendance on a report writing course with a literacy qualification Keith used questioning skills to identify the full details and was able to write out a full report with the tenant. He was also aware of his body language when communicating with the tenant so that they were comfortable with answering his questions. Keith feels more confident at work in writing reports and he now takes more care in writing reports to ensure there are no spelling mistakes or incorrect words which changed the whole meaning of the report. The course has also impacted on his personal life and his future job prospects.

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3.1 External review

In 2009 we appointed external consultants ‘Tribal Consultants’ to carry out a comprehensive review of our Human Resources and Organisational Development services. This included a detailed analysis of the fitness for purpose of our strategies, policies and procedures including:

• our previous HR Strategy • our learning and development strategy • the leadership and management development programme • selection and recruitment processes • discipline and grievance • absence management • the competency framework

We also asked that they looked at the service user experience and the joint working between both our HR and OD teams. Several recommendations resulted from the review many have which have been incorporated into this strategy. The key recommendations included:

• human and resources working more collaboratively and having greater impact upon one another’s strategies and areas of work

• staff policies and procedures need to be redrafted for YHN • Human Resources to adopt a business partner structure with more expertise

3.2 Understanding our workforce profile and future challenges So that we can accurately anticipate our future staffing needs it is essential that we

keep abreast of our workforce profile which includes numbers of staff employed, turnover, demographics and skill levels.

We currently employ around 8591 staff at YHN, a figure that has slowly increased

year on year as our business grows. As a result of the preliminary workforce planning exercise we carried out we have begun to identify some of the high level workforce issues and challenges that we are likely to face across each of our directorates over the coming years. A snapshot is provided in the table below:

Directorate Number of

staff employed Key medium term challenges

Tenancy Services Provide strategic and operational responsibility for all central, neighbourhood and citywide functions related to the day to day management and maintenance of homes and care and support of our customers

662

Uncertainty over future funding in relation to Supporting People Demographic issues within some services- e.g Majority of Housing Service Managers are similar age- 50’s plus Implementation of concierge service review will have impact upon ways

1 As of December 2009

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of working for large group of staff

Finance & Resources Incorporates all of the background services that work together to enable YHN frontline services to operate effectively, incorporates our Human Resources division

104

One of the key issues identified within our Finance and Resources Division is limited opportunities for career progression due to lack of movement at more senior levels. This poses the risk of talented, skilled people leaving the organisation to pursue development opportunities elsewhere.

Business Development Provide strategic and business leadership for the organisation, responsible for areas of new business including new build activity.

81

Across some sections of the directorate there are a high proportion of staff over 50 which could result in skills shortages when these people leave the organisation. New sector regulation- Tenant Services Authority may require us to develop different ways of working Difficulty recruiting to some specialist posts e.g. statisticians. Our Modern Homes programme will shortly be coming to an end which will result in need to ensure existing staff are skilled to possibly take up more generic roles. Increase in New Build and development activity requiring new skills and knowledge

Chief Executives office Provides support to the YHN Board and Management Team, champions equality and diversity good practice, is responsible for corporate communications activity and provides support at an organisational level to deliver executive projects.

12

Impact of new charitable subsidiary Leazes Homes and increased need for support. As the business grows there are increased demands upon corporate communications. Move towards paperless office may impact upon p/a admin resources

Total number of staff employed

859

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How we will develop our approach to workforce planning as part of this strategy is detailed further under priority 6.

3.3 Staff survey- what our people told us To enable us to articulate our vision and priorities, we consciously and actively

sought the involvement of all of our staff. To do this we commissioned an external organisation, Right Management, to design and deliver an organisational wide staff survey on our behalf. This was complemented by a series of focus groups. By using an external company this helped to ensure a fair, independent process and also helped to assure staff that their responses would be treated confidentially.

The purpose of the survey and focus groups was to give everyone the opportunity to

tell us how they feel about working at YHN. Every single member of staff received the survey and almost 70% responded. The survey measured employee engagement and covered a number of contributing themes including culture, job role and satisfaction, learning and development, communication, leadership, reward and recognition and health and wellbeing. The responses we received have shaped and informed the action plans which accompany this strategy.

A summary of the findings are highlighted below: In 2009 our average employee is……..

• Highly committed to YHN and doing what is required to help the organisation succeed • Clear about the mission, strategy and objectives of YHN • Feeling encouraged and supported • Clear about their role

But some people are…. • Feeling less satisfied about their job • Unsure that the right people are in the right jobs • Feeling like their opinions don’t always count • Sometimes unclear why some decisions are taken at YHN

The overall level of employee engagement at YHN in 2009 is 49%. We hope through

this People Strategy that we can improve the overall level of engagement and address the concerns that emerged from the staff survey as listed above. We will be carrying a bi-annual staff survey, using the same parameters during the life of this strategy to enable us to measure our progress.

3.3.1 So why does an engaged workforce matter?

Employee engagement can be described as:

“A positive attitude held by the employee towards the organisation and its values. An engaged employee is aware of the business context and works with colleagues to improve performance within the job for the benefit of the organisation. The organisation must work to develop and nurture engagement, which requires a two-way relationship between employee and employer” (Institute of Employment Studies 2009)

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Engagement is linked to organisational performance, because harnessing the discretionary effort of people improves performance. If individuals are performing at the top of their potential then their team, directorate and organisations will work more effectively. Customers will receive better service, efficiency will improve and waste will be reduced. Overall, performance will be enhanced.

We believe that an engaged workforce is paramount to the on-going success of our organisation. In light of this we have based our strategic priorities around those areas which our staff survey showed had the greatest impact upon employee engagement. We further believe that higher levels of employee engagement will result in a number of positive outcomes including:

• higher productivity and organisational performance • increased operating and net profit • improved customer focus • lower levels of absenteeism and higher levels of staff retention.

3.4 Looking back: our achievements so far Since starting in 2004 we have achieved a great deal in terms of people

management. We have outlined some of our key achievements below:

• Achieving 3 stars from the 2008 audit commission- would not have been possible without the commitment from our people

• Investor in People – Bronze award level • Better Health at Work award- bronze level awarded December 2009 • Continuous improvement of our Business and Financial Planning processes

• Awarded Employer of the Year 2009 by Newcastle City Learning

• Implementation of 360 feedback for managers

• Achievement of Charter Mark and Customer Service Excellence Awards

• Ranked in the top 100 employers in the Stonewall Equality Workplace Index

Through our People Strategy we hope to build upon these achievements.

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4. Context 4.1 National drivers

National driver

Investors in People

The Investors in People (IIP) standard is the national standard which sets a level of good practice for training and development of people to achieve business goals. The standard has 39 outcome-based evidence criteria which organisations must meet in order to be recognised as an Investor in People. This allows organisations to build up a complete picture of how their business is managing its people and where it can make improvements. In 2009 the Investors in People launched a new approach to working with the framework. The new customer choices approach is focused on identifying organisational priorities and applying the IIP framework towards meeting specific business need. The new approach allows organisations to go beyond The Standard, working towards further evidence requirements that are part of the extended framework and that are relevant to each organisation’s priorities and goals. This extended framework is designed to offer continuous development and stretch where it suits organisational needs. It enables organisations to choose the most relevant parts of the Investors in People framework to drive their business forward based on organisation’s priorities and goals. For those that go beyond the standard there will be additional recognition, Bronze, Silver and Gold scoring bands will now be awarded to organisations that meet additional achievement with the full framework. In February 2010 we were delighted to achieve the Investors in People (IiP) bronze level award. As we move forward we hope that the actions contained within this People Strategy will enable us to improve further on our bronze level achievement and contribute to our achievement of gold level status by 2014.

The Equality Framework for Local Government (EFLG)

The Equality Framework for Local Government (EFLG) is a performance improvement and benchmarking tool aimed at helping local government to mainstream and embed equality and diversity into all of their work. There are five key areas of performance which are:

• Knowing your communities and equality mapping

• Place shaping, leadership, partnership and organisational commitment

• Community engagement and satisfaction

• Responsive services and customer care

• A modern and diverse workforce

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4.2 Local drivers Our People Strategy has been informed by, and is intended to support, a number of local plans and strategies. In particular it underpins our business strategy as we recognise that if we don’t get the people part of our business right then we cannot hope to succeed in achieving our organisational objectives. It is also intended to be the overarching document for our suite of supporting Human Resources and Organisational Development policies and strategies however it is important to note that our People Strategy applies right across the organisation and responsibility is not limited to these specific sections.

Local drivers

Your Homes Newcastle Business Strategy 2009-2014 Our business strategy sets our medium term goals over the next few years. It provides our organisation and customers with an overview of our direction. This People Strategy underpins our business strategy as we recognise that our workforce is fundamental to the on-going success of our organisation.

Your Homes Newcastle’s Delivery Plan (2010-2011) Our annual delivery plan sets out how our key targets and actions for the year ahead that will contribute towards achieving our organisational objectives.

Support and Care to communities. Three Star Excellent Services. A Quality Workforce. Refurbishing and building Homes.

Your Homes Newcastle IT Strategy (2010-2014)

To achieve our organisational mission of being the best housing provider in the North East, our people need to be supported by secure, reliable and efficient IT systems and services. So that we can deliver excellent customer service, we need to be able to get the right information to the right people in the right way. Our IT strategy sets out how we will enable all our staff to access a full and consistent view of our customers and procedures to support the delivery of excellent customer service. Our customers will increasingly be able to meet their needs through online services delivered through our website, SMS and other electronic channels.

Every Customer Matters-YHN’s Customer Service Strategy (2010-2014-draft)

Our customer service strategy sets out how we will ensure that we deliver consistently excellent customer services to each and every one of our customers We can only achieve this through ensuring our workforce have the right knowledge

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An engaged workforce

A positive organisational

culture

Developing our people

Attracting, recruiting and

retaining a quality

workforce

Rewarding

and recognising our people

Developing leaders and managers

Health and Wellbeing

and skills, and demonstrate the right behaviours to deliver the best possible customer experience. We have a Customer Service Learning Framework to support this strategy, giving staff a wide range of learning and development opportunities to enhance their customer service delivery.

‘Skills to work’ - YHN’s Employability strategy (2009-2011) Our first employability strategy sets out how we will improve the employability of the local population. As part of this we hope to improve our own recruitment and selection processes to attract a greater number of locally unemployed people.

5. Our People Priorities Our vision for our People Strategy is: “A highly engaged, high performing workforce, equipped with the right skills

and attitude to deliver consistently excellent services”

In order to achieve this we have identified six overarching priorities which we believe will make the greatest contribution towards us achieving this goal. To varying degrees our priorities are interlocking and mutually reinforcing:

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5.1 Priority 1- Developing our people We want to ensure that our people are appropriately skilled and that they have the necessary knowledge and capability in order to carry out their assigned roles effectively. Ensuring that we have competent people achieving high performance is essential if we are to achieve our organisational objectives. To do this we will need to have an effective approach to performance management and combine this with a supportive environment that actively promotes personal learning and development.

5.1.1 Effective performance management We know that from time to time some people may experience difficulties that results in under performance. When this happens we need to ensure that our managers have appropriate mechanisms in place to deal with this swiftly. It is the responsibility of our managers to ensure that those who are not performing to the required levels receive the necessary support and guidance to enable them to improve. Our staff survey revealed that managing poor performance is an area for improvement and there is a perception amongst some that we are not always effective in managing poor performance and that is not dealt with consistently. We are keen to address this.

We recognise that a failure to deal with unsatisfactory performance adversely affects the quality of service delivered and has an impact on other employee’s morale and engagement. Furthermore, early intervention when poor performance is identified is essential, enabling a supportive approach to be taken. As such, performance issues should be given the highest priority by all involved in the process, within the constraints of workloads and other operational requirements. As part of this People Strategy we will be implementing our new capability policy and procedures which have been specifically developed to support those employees who are failing to meet the required level of performance within their role. Our new policy and procedures will ensure that managers deal with capability issues in a fair and consistent manner. The aim of the policy is to: Enable YHN to achieve its objectives, by managing performance issues

effectively and constructively; Encourage and support employees to achieve and maintain a high level of

performance; and Provide a framework of performance management that is fair and consistent

across the organisation. Ensure fairness and consistency.

The new policy and procedures contain a toolkit for managers to follow starting with informal interventions before progressing through a series of formal stages. As part of the procedure we have also developed a new capability action plan which managers will agree and complete with their member of staff. Importantly the policy also provides guidance on a range of support measures, including learning and

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development, redeployment, employee assistance scheme and more all of which are aimed at achieving improvement.

Our policy is not intended to prevent or replace the normal process of supervisory control where managers allocate work, draw attention to errors and poor quality, monitor performance and, importantly, highlight high standards of work. Such discussions will continue to be dealt with under our annual performance appraisal process and one to one supervision procedures.

To ensure that the policy is effective we will ensure that everyone in the organisation is made aware of this new policy, that our managers are well trained in its implications and most importantly that they adhere to it. The overall aim of our new capability policy and procedures will be to improve individual and team performance as part of YHN's continuous improvement in customer service.

5.1.2 A new competency framework We are in the process of developing our new staff competency framework which we will hope will further improve our organisational ability to effectively manage performance and our ability to measure the skills, abilities and personality traits that identify successful employees against defined roles within an organisation. Competence isn’t just demonstrated through technical ability to do our jobs, we also need to measure competence through behaviour and attitudes as these have a huge impact on customer experience. The importance of behaviour and its impact on the customer experience will become as important as achieving task oriented objectives and targets. Competencies perform two vital functions, they define our organisational value and requirements as expressed through our people and will form the cornerstone for the implementation of our systems such as recruitment and selection, appraisals and management development. Our new competency framework will provide us with a common language for the organisation and will mean that we all have a shared understanding of what each individual will be measured against. Through 1:1 supervision and the annual appraisal process all staff will be “measured” against core values and behavioural competencies and will be required to evidence how well they demonstrate their competence, quantifying outcomes for the organisation, colleagues and customers. Additionally, in 2010, our managers will be further assessed on how well they demonstrate the competencies by fellow colleagues and their staff through our new 360º feedback process. We will also be exploring the possibility of rolling out 360º feedback to all staff. Staff and customer charters will be developed and we’ll review our management charter; this will make sure everyone’s expectations are clear and properly managed. Every member of staff’s performance will be measured against agreed behaviour standards through annual appraisals and one-to-one supervision.

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Our new competencies are detailed below:

Personal Competence Focuses on the individual and their responsibilities for the way they operate at work.

Accountability – acts openly and takes responsibility V

Integrity – acts fairly and honestly V

Passion – works positively and with enthusiasm V

Drive for Achievement – actively contributes to achieving personal and organisational targets and objectives

Planning and Organising your work – uses time efficiently and works in a well structured way

People Competence This area focuses on the responsibilities each person has in dealing with others

Respect – treats everyone with care and professionalism V

Customer Focus – knows who their customers are and understands their needs and expectations

Communication – communicates accurately and clearly using the most appropriate method

Team Working – supports effective team working in all teams operated within

Business Competence This area focuses on how each individual contributes to the success of the business

Change positive – embraces change and supports the effective implementation of changes

Value for Money – recognises the financial implications of decisions and actions

Forward-thinking – proactively seeks improvements and solutions V

Management Competence This area focuses on the additional responsibilities of managers.

Business Focus – supports and understands the needs of the organisation at a local and wider level and communicates clear business goals

Leading by Example – operates professionally, and acts as a role model in demonstrating YHN competencies

Developing Others – helps realise the potential of others to build a successful team and addresses performance issues

(V = core value)

5.1.3 A flexible range of learning and development opportunities

We are committed to enabling our people to access a flexible range of learning and development opportunities. We will need to be clear to our employees about our future needs in order to enable them to assess their present state of knowledge and

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skills in the light of those needs. This should lead to individuals discovering and evaluating their personal work and career aspirations and then planning career development opportunities for themselves in conjunction with their managers and supported by our processes. To help them do this each year we will publish an annual Organisational Learning and Development plan which sets out our priorities for the coming year informed by the current and short-term needs of our business. This is complemented by our annual learning and development prospectus which details a wide range of available training opportunities both mandatory and optional and covers professional, management, equalities, skills development, health and safety training and much more. The prospectus is a useful tool that enables our people to work with their managers to plan their individual training for the year ahead. We will regularly review both our plan and prospectus to ensure they continue to meet the different learning and development needs of our people. Going forward we will also be developing a more flexible approach to learning and development by introducing more e-learning modules, we hope that this will enable allow our people to access learning at a time and in a format that best suits their needs. We will also increase access to external learning and development opportunities where it is cost effective to do so.

5.1.4 A coaching culture The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development defines coaching as developing a person’s skills and knowledge so that their job performance improves, hopefully leading to the achievement of organisational objectives. It targets high performance and improvement at work, although it may also have an impact on an individual’s private life. It usually lasts for a short period and focuses on specific skills and goals. We believe that coaching is a very important tool for supporting personal development and is one of a range of training and development interventions that we are keen to develop in order to meet identified learning and development needs. We want all our people to be able to readily access coaching. The benefits of coaching for the individual can be:

• increased motivation and commitment • improved decision making • clearer goals and objectives • greater self awareness • improved ability to deal with change • increased confidence and self-reliance • improved ability to work independently • greater sense of responsibility, e.g. for own development

As far as benefits for our organisation there are obvious advantages in having motivated employees, committed to achieving clear goals and improving performance. There should be greater productivity and more self – reliance amongst the employees, with less need for regular supervision by managers. We believe this will be particularly helpful in situations where employees are located over a number of offices or site and need to be able to work independently and to be self – motivating.

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During our recent Investors in People assessment a number of our managers were able to describe their experience of coaching and the benefits gained however coaching was not considered to be part of our organisational culture as it is not yet fully integrated and embedded. Going forward we need to work hard on raising organisational awareness of coaching and promote understanding of the benefits that coaching can offer. We want coaching to become a regular part of our everyday learning and development, a benefit accessed by the many rather than a few. To help achieve this we will develop a coaching handbook for both managers and staff which will detail what coaching is, the benefits it can bring and how to access it. We will complement this by carrying out staff awareness sessions and raising the profile of coaching through our intranet and other communication channels. We hope that this will result in coaching becoming a mainstreamed learning and development activity which is routinely considered as part of individual personal development plans. As more of our people begin to become aware of coaching and the benefits that it can bring we anticipate a much greater demand. Ultimately we want all of managers to be coaches, for some managers coaching is a natural ability but we do recognise this is not the case for all. In recognition of this and to also ensure a level of consistency across the organisation we will continue with our coaching programme which aims at training our managers to be qualified coaches.

5.1.5 Embedding core values into our culture In line with the development of this strategy we started the process of establishing a set of shared core values that will help guide the way in which we do things. After a long period of consultation with staff, board members and our customers we determined our core values as being:

• Accountability acting openly and taking responsibility • Integrity acting fairly and honestly • Passion working positively with enthusiasm • Respect treating everyone with care and professionalism • Forward thinking proactively seeking improvements and solutions

This marks a switch in focus for the organisation from concentrating on not only what we do but also the way in which we do it. As discovered as part of the Tenant Services Authority national conversation with tenants, it is often the way we do things that defines excellent customer service. Determining our core values has just been the start of a long process, over the next few years we will build upon this to truly embed our core values into the heart of our organisation. Over time our core values will be clearly demonstrated to our customers through the way we all behave on a daily basis and the way we carry out our actions will come to be positively recognised as ‘The YHN way’. In the future prospective employees will be expected to demonstrate commitment to our core values and asked to demonstrate this through the recruitment process. We will be embedding our core values into our new staff competency framework.

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5.1.6 A customer service learning framework To support our Customer Service Strategy- ‘Every Customer Matters’ in 2009 we introduced our new Customer Service Learning framework. The framework is designed to equip staff with the knowledge, skills and behaviours to achieve targets, exceed expectations and receive recognition for excellence. The framework allows for a joined up approach to Customer Service learning. It gives managers the tools they need to develop their staff and offers staff the opportunities they need to learn and develop, and in conjunction with the YHN Evaluation Framework provides a means to ensure all learning is relevant, has a positive impact on the way we work and in turn benefits our customers. Our staff and customers are directly involved in designing and delivering Customer Service learning. We will continue to source and develop new opportunities for staff, and move forward to further develop knowledge and skills. In 2010, we will build on our existing mandatory Customer Service training to offer “Customer Service - the next level”. This new course will look at social housing provision and the changing needs and expectations of our customers. We will focus on behaviours, embedding core values and attention to detail and individual service that moves the customer experience from satisfactory to excellent. Emphasis is also on individual staff to develop their own skills and knowledge. We will build on tools and techniques introduced during Customer Service Week in October 2009 enabling staff to access learning resources when they need them on a range of specialist themes such as communication, time management and effective writing.

5.1.7 Equipping our people with Skills for Life We want to ensure that all our staff have the opportunity to develop or refresh the skills which are essential in everyday life which includes reading, writing and maths. To help us do this, we signed the Government’s Skills Pledge, making an on-going commitment to provide opportunities for our staff to develop these skills and achieve at least their first full level 2 qualification. Following a skills audit in 2009 most of our staff were found to be up to Skills for Life level 2 though a small number were identified as still requiring further development in terms of numeracy and literacy. Working in partnership with Newcastle City Learning and Newcastle Skills for Life Service (and other providers where appropriate), we will continue to offer support to staff to improve or refresh their Maths and English skills and gain a nationally recognised level 2 certificate. We will also enable staff apply to complete an NVQ relevant to their job role subject to selection and funding criteria. Where possible we will incorporate Skills for Life training with existing training provision.

5.1.8 A dedicated training centre

To further support the learning and development of our people we will provide a new purpose built training centre demonstrating our commitment to the ongoing learning and development of our people. Plans are already underway to build this resource which we hope to also be able to offer to other organisations creating a new business opportunity to generate income and re-invest any revenue generated back into learning and development.

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5.2 Priority 2- Developing our leaders and managers

To enable our organisation to succeed into the future we will need to continue to invest time and resources to ensure that we have highly skilled, responsive leaders to support our business and our people through future development.

Our future success is dependant, in part, upon the breadth and depth of our leadership capability therefore we are committed to promoting a culture in which leadership skills are valued and encouraged, and are aligned with our organisation mission, core values and strategic objectives. We need to enable our current leaders to be the best that they can be whilst also being able to recognise and nurture the leaders of tomorrow.

Our leaders will need to be supported by competent, skilled managers who support the growth and effective performance of staff. Both our leaders and managers are faced with an increasing number of challenges some of which are outlined in our latest business strategy, therefore developing their capacity is fundamental to the on-going success of our organisation. In the years ahead they will be tasked with ensuring ever-higher standards of service in a climate of new sector regulation, diminishing budgets and even greater accountability to our customers. There will be an increasing need for partnership working and for creating a climate where employees are highly motivated, effective and able to deal positively with change. To rise to these challenges we will continue to invest in a range of inclusive options for Leadership and Management Development.

5.2.1 Leadership and Management development strategy

In 2008 we introduced a new three-year leadership and management strategy which brought together mandatory and optional development interventions into a consistent framework. The aim of this framework is to offer our leaders and managers, both current and aspiring, a comprehensive menu of options to enable them to manage their own development more fully and enable them to become more effective in their roles. We will continue to offer core training programmes which include courses such as health and safety, stress awareness, managing discipline and grievance. This will be complemented by accredited programmes which we are able to deliver internally due to our status as an Institute of leadership and Management (ILM) centre. As an ILM centre we are approved to offer accredited qualifications in team leading, management and coaching plus more. Our accredited programme is aimed at leaders and managers who wish to develop their skills and competence in either a generic or specific area. Additionally we recognise that there will be a need from time to time for specialist courses which are not routinely covered within our framework, where such a need is identified we will endeavor to meet this learning and development need either internally or externally.

Much of the work has now been completed on embedding professional qualifications for managers and the focus going forward will be to maintain this by offering a range of annual programmes aimed at different levels of management. A key focus for management development will be around developing coaching skills, which will support the development of a coaching culture.

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5.2.3 Competent managers So that our managers are clear about what is expected of them and likewise people

know what to expect from their managers, we will implement our new management competency framework. This will enable us to more easily measure manager’s capability and effectiveness within role. Our people have told us that there are some inconsistencies around the way in which managers carry out their role, we hope that introducing management competencies will help to address this. From 2010 onwards new management competencies will be integrated into our annual appraisal process and also into our manager’s 360° feedback process.

As we move forward we also want to increase our manager’s competence in

managing relationships with their staff. We want to increase our manager’s understanding on how to deal with effectively with difficult personal circumstances

We recently introduced our new training

5.2.4 A management charter

Our management charter was first developed back in 2004 when our organisation was set up. The purpose of the charter was to set out the minimum standards that all managers are expected to achieve within their role. In recognition of the fact that our business has come on a long way since then and to reflect the introduction of our new core values and new management competencies we will develop a new charter. Our wider management team will take the lead on its development.

5.2.5 Encouraging shared learning through action learning sets Often the best form of learning comes from sharing experiences and good practice with fellow colleagues. Action learning is a process that brings people together in small groups to work together through important individual and organisational issues. In working on issues or problems with others the individual manager moves forward what otherwise may be intractable problems. To facilitate this we will introduce action learning sets initially for our managers and supervisors. If the pilot proves to be successful we will then roll this out to other employees across the organisation.

5.2.6 Developing a representative board Our Board is responsible for directing the vision and strategic direction of Your

Homes Newcastle. The Board is made up of six tenants, six independent people, six council nominees and a Chair, together they need to be able to work collaboratively as a team in order to successfully lead our organisation. To achieve this it is essential that board members are equipped with the right skills, knowledge and behaviours.

All new board members undergo a comprehensive induction programme that

includes personal development in their roles and responsibilities as company directors. They also attend the same two day corporate induction training which all new members of staff undergo to give them a detailed overview of the company.

In addition to a comprehensive induction we will ensure that our board members

receive appropriate learning and development to enable them to effectively carry out their role. We will do this by encouraging the professional development of our board members by supporting them to achieve accredited governance qualifications. Many

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board members have already been supported through the intermediate qualification with a number now progressing onto the advanced qualification. We will also be moving towards a more tailored approach towards meeting the individual learning and development needs of each board member by undertaking an annual formal appraisal which will incorporate a review of performance and identification of any training and development needs.

We believe that it is important for our board to be representative of the community

which they serve. A recent demographic survey of our board revealed that certain groups are currently under-represented including women, younger people, and Lesbian Gay Bi-sexual Transgender (LGBT) groups, to try and address this we will raise the profile of our board in the community by carrying out targeted promotional campaigns which hopefully will attract greater interest from these groups. We also want to ensure that anyone interested in joining the board has an equal opportunity to do so. To do this we have recently moved away from the old election process by introducing interviews last year, we will go one step further by introducing the use of application forms which will bring the recruitment of board members in line with the rest of the organisation. We hope that this will give a greater, more diverse, number of people the opportunity to apply to become part of our board.

We are confident that the actions we propose to take, detailed further in our board

succession plan, will help to ensure effective and representative leadership for our organisation now and into the future. We will commit to reviewing the plan each year so that we can assure that when we recruit new board members we know what the requirements are.

5.3 Priority 3- Health and Wellbeing: ‘Happy, Healthy and

Here’ To achieve our organisational objectives and maximise our performance we

recognise the importance of maintaining and improving the physical, mental and emotional wellbeing of our employees. We are committed to encouraging a happy healthy workforce.

We believe that well-being encompasses a positive and healthy experience for people who work at our organisation. Its scope is wide and takes in health and safety, the mental and physical health of our staff and the provision of a professional and high-quality working environment. All this is underpinned by a continuing commitment to the principles of equality and diversity.

We firmly believe that successful workplace well-being will include improved engagement and commitment from individuals, reduce risks to occupational health and safety and result in higher levels of staff satisfaction and reduced absenteeism.

Analysis of our staff survey revealed that for our organisation, health and well-being does have a high impact upon employee engagement. Currently this is an area of strength for us demonstrated by the fact that the majority of our staff feel that as an organisation we do actively promote health and wellbeing in the workplace. Despite this we cannot afford to become complacent and there is even more that we can do over the life of this strategy.

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5.3.1 Promoting Better Health at Work

To enable us to continue improving the health and wellbeing of all staff, we established our ‘Wellbeing at Work’ group in early 2009. The work of the group is geared towards meeting the criteria set out in the Better Health at Work award.

The Better Health at Work award has been developed to give recognition to workplaces in the North East region that actively promote workplace health. It entails a partnership between workplaces, the local Primary Care Trust Public Health department and other health improvement specialists

In December 2009, the work of our wellbeing group to date was recognised when we were awarded the Bronze Award. To achieve this we successfully met all of the application criteria and were able to demonstrate the many initiatives we have implemented to make a healthier workplace for example healthy eating campaigns, ensuring the workplace is conducive to health e.g. heating, ventilation, cleanliness and making healthy food options available for staff by introducing fruit and vegetable deliveries. Assessors were highly impressed by our application and classed us as “excellent”.

During the life of this People Strategy we will be working towards achieving the Silver and then the Gold Award which will require us to further develop our approach to health and wellbeing and truly embed this into our organisation. To establish what further initiatives would be of benefit to our people we will carry out an organisational wide health assessment in 2010. This will involve every member of staff being given the opportunity to complete a confidential survey about their current health and well-being. Using the findings from this survey we will then be able to take a more targeted approach towards any future initiatives to ensure maximum benefit. All of the actions are detailed further in our separate wellbeing at work action plans.

5.3.2 Enabling a work/life balance

Flexibility in the workplace is about developing modern working practices to fit the needs of the 21st century. We believe that both our organisation and our employees benefit from flexible working opportunities as both parties have the flexibility to organise their working arrangements in a way that suits them. This enables our organisation to adapt to changing business conditions and individual employees to better balance their work and family life. Flexible working can help retain staff – and holding onto experienced and skilled staff is important in maintaining quality and containing costs. Offering flexible working conditions widens the talent pool hopefully attracting more people to the organisation with more skills; it can also increase commitment and loyalty of staff members. This can in turn translates into improved productivity and by extension improved profitability. For our people flexible working allows them to better balance their home life with their responsibilities at work. We are committed to maintaining the range of policies that enable our people to achieve this balance. Over the life of this strategy we will carry out a comprehensive review of all our existing policies to ensure that they continue to be fit for purpose. This review will also entail the redrafting of all staff policies so that they are specifically for YHN as currently many of them are Newcastle City Councils’ a recommendation that resulted from our recent external review. We will also carry out a gap analysis to help us

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identify any other areas where we might be able to provide additional support to facilitate a work/life balance.

5.3.3 An attendance culture We hope that our approach to health and well-being as outlined above will help to ensure that absence through sickness and ill health is kept to a minimum however where we it does occur we will ensure robust mechanisms are in place to manage it. We want to promote an attendance culture and our managers are central to achieving this, they are the key to managing sickness effectively therefore this must be viewed as an integral part of their responsibilities. We also need to ensure that sickness is managed consistently across the organisation and appropriate support is in place for those affected by sickness and ill health, failure to do so can result in disengaged staff and ultimately impact on organisational performance. To help support our managers to achieve this we have introduced a number of tools. These include a sickness management toolkit, absence management board and sickness absence surgeries. Additionally we have a sickness management policy and procedures however going forward to we need to review and update these. In doing so, we will provide clearer direction for our managers on how to progress sickness cases. As part of our review of how we manage sickness we will also explore new ways of accommodating those who may be fit to carry out aspects of their work but unable to physically come into their workplace. An example of this might be facilitating home-working for an employee with a physical injury. We welcome the recent replacement of ‘sick’ notes with ‘fit’ notes and hope that this national change in approach will better enable us to work with our employees to help them return to work, in some capacity, as quickly as possible. We will continue to provide a range of support services for staff. In 2008 we employed the services of Diagnostic Health Solutions (DHS) to introduce a new and easier way of reporting and monitoring. Every member of staff also has 24 hour access to an employee assistance programme provided by Positive People Company (PPC). We introduced this service to provide free access to expert advice, information, specialist counselling and support to help prepare for and cope successfully with all life events that could potentially cause anxiety and stress e.g. buying a new home, starting a family, coping with bereavement and much more. Going forward we will need to review these services, in conjunction with our people, on an annual basis to ensure that they continue to be of benefit and provide value for money. Of course our employees also have an important role to play in managing their own sickness and ill health. We expect everyone to attend work unless unfit to do so and must take reasonable steps to minimise absence when sick and raise concerns with their manager if they believe that their job is making them ill or contributing to illness. The result of the improvements made to date has been gradually reducing sickness levels. As of March 2010 our sickness levels were an average 10.1 days lost per employee which is a reduction on previous years however we are hope that the measures outlined above will enable us to reduce this even further and we aim to achieve an average of 8 days lost per employee by 2014.

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We hope that by improving the health and well-being of our people we will achieve:

Improved workplace health Improved corporate image Increased productivity Improved staff morale and loyalty Reduced absenteeism Networking with other partners

5.4 Priority 4- A positive organisational culture The culture of our workplace is extremely important as this can directly affect employee motivation and as a result can have a huge impact on levels of engagement and our overall performance. Our workplace culture represents the way that we do things and therefore it is important that it is an attractive and focused environment to get the best out of our people. If the workplace culture results in a negative environment then it can be particularly damaging to morale and performance which ultimately can be very damaging for our organisation. We aim to achieve a positive workplace culture one where diversity is clearly valued and people are encouraged to be themselves and where everyone is treated with the dignity and respect that they deserve. A positive workplace culture ensures a proactive and productive workforce by consisting of well motivated employees who are willing to go the extra mile for our organisation. We know that for our organisation culture has a high impact upon employee engagement. In the challenging times ahead it is essential that we foster the best working environment in which our staff can prosper. In our recent staff survey 58% of employees responded positively to questions within the theme of culture however it was generally felt there were aspects about our organisation culture which would benefit from further development. There are several factors which combine together to create a positive organisational culture. Factors include how effectively we manage change, how well we all work together, how we value and promote diversity and how we ensure dignity and respect in the workplace. The areas of culture which we will be focusing on over the coming years are highlighted below.

5.4.1 A workplace culture that promotes diversity

We believe that there is a strong relationship between employee engagement and an

organisations commitment to ensure that the workforce reflects the diversity of the wider community. Ensuring fairness and equal opportunities at work for all employees lies at the heart of engagement. Failure to achieve this will without doubt impact on our future success. We are committed to creating an enriching workplace that embraces equality and diversity and one in which our people can be themselves without fear of prejudice and discrimination due to differences.

To help us to achieve this we will be working towards the Equality Framework for

Local Government (EFLG), this is a national standard that assesses local government progress against equality and diversity. It aims to mainstream equality and diversity and covers five distinct areas including a modern and diverse workforce. This area of the equality framework looks at ensuring:

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relevant equality objectives are built into workforce strategies an understanding of the local labour market and the barriers equality groups

face informs the setting of equality employment objectives all major employment policies are equality assessed plans are in place to improve representation at senior levels of women and

Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) officers training and development programmes address equality issues there is effective action to address equal pay a workplace culture in which staff are treated with dignity and respect.

Performance against the framework is assessed as either developing, achieving or excellent. We are currently working towards meeting the standard set out at level 2- ‘achieving’ however our ultimate aim is to be recognised as an organisation performing at level 3- ‘excellent’ standard by 2014 at the latest. We are being assessed in June 2010 against our progress so far, following this assessment we will then incorporate any specific recommendations relating to the modern and diverse workforce theme, into our People Strategy action plan.

We will actively promote inclusion in the workplace by raising awareness of groups and responding to their needs. We will facilitate and encourage access to staff network groups to enable individuals to come together and talk about issues important to them. Staff network groups are beneficial to both staff and the organisation. They are an excellent way to raise awareness, provide support to staff and to proactively contribute to the development of YHN's policies and procedures. We want to create an inclusive and supportive environment for our staff to work in and believe that staff network groups are an important part of this.

We will launch a new Equalities and Diversity training plan which will provide a range of new Equality and Diversity training , learning and development opportunities at different levels to raise awareness, promote positive behaviour, encourage appropriate challenge and motivate and inspire staff to embrace and actively promote equality and diversity. We will be offering staff the opportunity to acquire an external qualification in Equalities and Diversity with Newcastle Colleage. We recently launched our ‘Diversity Challenge’ which is an e-learning resource with information, interviews, videos and a quiz on the business benefits of valuing diversity. All staff are being encouraged to complete the programme.

As well as recognising the six equality strands (age, disability, gender, sexual orientation, race, and religion or belief) we will focus on other aspects of equality and diversity in learning and development

Learning styles – making sure we offer training, learning and development in a variety of ways because people learn in different ways

Skills for Life – improving literacy, numeracy and IT skills which can be used in and out of work

Accessible learning – taking account of work locations, shift patterns, out of work responsibilities and wellbeing to enable everyone to access learning that suits their needs

We will also improve the information we collect about learning that takes place so that we can monitor more effectively. This will enable us to demonstrate that learning and development provision is consistent, open and meets the needs of all our staff.

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YHN holds the Investors in People bronze level award demonstrating we are a people focused organisation. We are “positive about disabled people”. Displaying the two ticks symbol shows that we will encourage people with disabilities to apply for jobs, and where they meet the job requirements will be guaranteed an interview.

One of the ways we are promoting equality and diversity in the workplace is through

our participation in the Stonewall Workplace Equality Index. The index is a national benchmarking exercise that showcases Britain’s top employers for lesbian, gay and bisexual staff. Participating in the index provides us with valuable feedback and allows us to measure their continued improvement against a national standard and against other employers.

In 2010 we achieved 90th position on the index which marked a dramatic

improvement on our previous year’s position. However, we know that there is still a long way to way to go. The Stonewall Working Group is acting on recommendations and feedback from our assessment, putting improvements in place.

Our ultimate aim is to ensure that our commitment to equality and diversity is rooted

into everything that we do.

5.4.2 Dignity and respect at work

We are committed to ensuring that all our staff are treated with dignity and respect and sincerely hope that people do not experience discrimination, bullying or harassment. However if this does happen then we will ensure we have robust mechanisms in place to ensure that it is dealt with quickly. To help us achieve this we will promote a positive working environment where the dignity and respect, to which all employees are entitled, is not undermined.

We operate a zero tolerance approach to any form of bullying, harassment,

discrimination, victimisation or unacceptable behaviour towards an individual or group which is detailed in our dignity at work policies and procedures. Though reported cases of bullying and harassment are very rate some members of staff indicated in the staff survey that they might not feel confident in reporting bullying and harassment to their managers. Going forward we want to ensure that all members of staff do feel confident to report bullying and harassment and that if they do then swift action will be taken. We want to ensure that we make reporting as easy and comfortable as possible and will review and update our policies and procedures, in conjunction with our people to achieve this. Alongside this we will also improve the way in which we monitor bullying and harassment cases and will develop a means in which we can internally report on numbers of cases and any relevant actions the organisation has taken. By doing so we hope that will help to increase confidence in our people that we do take this issue very seriously.

When people leave our organisation we need to ascertain their reasons for leaving to

ensure that it is not due to ill treatment in the workplace, only by knowing that a problem exists can we take action to prevent it happening again. One of the ways in which we currently do this is by carrying out exit surveys however only a very small

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number of staff complete them. To address this we will review our approach and introduce face to face exit interviews to be carried out with every member of staff prior to their departure.

5.4.3 Encouraging creativity and innovation

As demonstrated in our core values, being forward thinking and proactively seeking

improvements and solutions is considered to be of key importance to our organisation therefore we need to facilitate a workplace culture that actively encourages and promotes this behaviour.

We know that our people often have great ideas on how to improve the way we do

things so we need to ensure we have sufficient measures in place to capture this. We want to create an environment where people are routinely encouraged to make service improvement suggestions and when they do that they are given the consideration they deserve. We already have some existing mechanisms in place to facilitate this including team brief feedback and through view-point, where a selection of staff from across the organisation are invited to a round the table discussion with our Chief Executive, however it is felt by some that we still need to do more to encourage and capture staff suggestions and most importantly feedback outcomes to our people.

Going forward we will work with our staff and seek out good practice from other

organisations to establish more ways to encourage creativity and innovation. As part of this process we will investigate whether or not there are any organisational barriers which might currently exist that might be stifling creativity and innovation. Additionally we will develop a means for letting our people know what has happened as a result of their suggestions.

5.4.4 Managing change effectively The way in which an organisation manages change can have a large impact upon an

employees perception of workplace culture. When organisation change is handled poorly this can result in de-motivated staff, reduced productivity and ultimately reduced customer service. Organisational change is inevitable however we need to ensure that when it does happen that is handled well.

There are many factors which are likely to result in the need for us to make

organisational changes over the coming years. These include:

• challenge of the current economic downturn and increased pressure on funding streams and the growing need to do more with less

• changes in business strategy- e.g. new areas of business such as building new homes

• technological changes and advances e.g. customer relationship management (CRM) and call centre technologies

• competitive pressures • customer needs and rising expectations • to learn new organisation behaviour and skills • new legislation/initiatives e.g. launch of the Tenant Services Authority

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As highlighted by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development2 organisations are undergoing major change approximately once every three years, whilst smaller changes occur almost continually. There are no signs that this pace of change will slow down.

The responsibility for effectively managing change lies with our leaders and managers. In this context our managers need to be able to introduce and manage change to ensure that the organisational objectives of the change are met. They also need to be able to ensure that they gain the commitment of our people, both during and after implementation in addition to ensuring that business continues as usual. Because of this change management entails thoughtful planning and sensitive implementation and relies heavily on the skills and abilities of our leaders and managers.

To date we acknowledge that we have sometimes lacked a well planned out approach to change management and recognise the detrimental effect that this might have upon both our people and the overall effectiveness of our organisation so this is an area in which we are keen to improve. To help us do this we will develop a change management toolkit complemented by change management awareness training which will mark a change in our approach to one that is pro-active rather than re-active. Through increased awareness and understanding we hope that this will help our managers to improve the way in which change is handled. In developing our approach we will look to good practice from other organisations and of course input from our people.

5.4.5 Effective communication

How well we communicate as an organisation and how we empower and involve our

people in decision making forms a fundamental part of our organisational culture. When communication mechanisms breakdown this can have a detrimental effect upon employee motivation and ultimately levels of engagement. The ‘Sunday Times Top 100 companies to Work for’ found that feeling listened to was the most important factor in determining how much employees value their organisation. Being heard reinforces a sense of belonging within an organisation and a belief that your actions can have an impact.

Results from our staff survey revealed that the majority of people felt as an

organisation whilst we communicate well and offer a range of ways to receive and respond to communication we are not always so good at fully explaining reasons behind decisions and making people feel like their opinions count. We will ensure that we share knowledge and information and we will take time to ensure that people understand it. We will increase opportunities for employees to feed their views upwards and ensure that they are well informed about what is happening in our organisation.

As a growing organisation made up of different directorates and numerous services,

it is sometimes difficult to ensure that communication between the different areas remains effective but this is essential if we are to deliver excellent services to our customers. A lack of awareness and understanding about what other teams in the organisation is often the root cause of communication breakdown therefore we will be exploring new ways to increase across departmental information and awareness

2 www.cipd.co.uk –Change Management

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as we firmly believe this contributes to greater organisational effectiveness. All of these actions will be detailed further in our new Communications Strategy which is currently being developed alongside our People Strategy.

Additionally during the life of this strategy we will commit to commission a further two

staff surveys in 2011 and 2013 as we believe this offers staff an invaluable means of expressing their views and opinions about organisation and will also enable us to assess our progress against this strategy.

5.5 Priority 5- Rewarding and recognising our people When asked what one thing they would change about working for our organisation

reward and recognition emerged as a key area for development. As reward and recognition is commonly seen as a key factor in motivating staff, engaging and retaining staff we know that we need to make improvements in this area if we are to achieve our vision of a fully engaged workforce. It is crucial that our people know that the contributions they make to the on-going success of this organisation’s are recognised and appreciated.

5.5.1 A corporate approach to reward and recognition We have already made good progress towards rewarding and recognising our

people. In 2009 we introduced our first All Star staff awards which formally recognised, through an awards ceremony, the achievements of teams and individuals. We have also introduced wee wows where we regularly publicise our individual and team achievements on our website. On a more day to day basis our managers are encouraged and trained to give regular feedback to their staff on a job well done. However we recognise that we need to bring existing mechanisms together with new initiatives in order to develop a more strategic approach toward reward and recognition.

During our recent Investors in People assessment the majority of employees

interviewed confirmed that do they do feel valued and recognised for their efforts and were able to provide some examples of the organisational approach to reward and recognition however there was little to evidence that this is a cohesive and strategic approach which is well understood and valued by staff.

To help address the gaps our Human Resources team will take the lead on

producing a new reward and recognition strategy that is aligned with our strategic objectives. The strategy will bring existing rewards and recognition provisions and mechanisms into a more integrated approach in addition to setting out the new initiatives we hope to implement over the coming years. In developing the strategy we will be looking to blend both formal and informal approaches together with financial and non financial rewards. We will seek out best practice by benchmarking against other organisations and crucially involve our people in its development. Alongside the strategy we will also develop a recognition toolkit that will give anagers useful guidance on how and when to reward and recognise their staff. Our guiding principle will be to ensure that our reward and recognition strategy is fair, clear, consistent and applies to everyone.

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5.5.2 A fair and equal pay structure We recognise the importance of a fair and equal pay structure that appropriately

rewards our employees for the work which they do. In line with all other local authorities in the country we are currently undergoing a salary review process referred to as single status. The single status process involves measuring all jobs and salaries within the same organisation against each other, to ensure that everyone is getting paid fairly for the job that they do.

Through the staff survey and team brief feedback many people have expressed their fears and concerns over the outcome. The single status process is a complicated one however we are committed to minimising the impact of this across the organisation and as much as possible ensuring a smooth implementation. Our people are our biggest asset and we are therefore committed to protecting staff as far as we can through this process in recognition of the hard work that has been demonstrated since our inception five years ago. Our management team are working closely with both trade union representatives and external legal representatives to ensure that we arrive at a settlement which is fair for staff and minimises upheaval. Our Chief Executive will continue to ensure we provide regular updates as information becomes available.

Within our staff survey a number of staff expressed that they felt that their pay was

not competitive when compared to similar jobs within the organisation. It is hoped that the single status process will help to eliminate some of these concerns.

5.6 Priority 6- Attracting, recruiting and retaining a quality

workforce The key to achieving a quality workforce lies in recruiting the right people from the

outset. With increasing pressure on budgets there is an even greater need for us to focus on attracting, recruiting and retaining the right people with the right skills and attitudes which we need in order to achieve our strategic objectives and our organisational needs not only now but in the future. To achieve this we will need to operate best practices that attract, optimise and retain top talent and our recruiting managers will need to be supported centrally by a skilled Human Resources team.

5.6.1 Effective workforce planning As an organisation we need to have a firm understanding of the challenges and

issues we are likely to face over the coming years this will enable us more accurately forecast our future resourcing needs and ensure that we have the right people with the right skills at the right time. Over the life of this strategy we will develop our approach to workforce planning so that we are better able to forecast our future resourcing needs. We hope this enable us to make better informed recruiting decisions which saves time and resources in the long term.

We readily acknowledge that until now effective workforce planning has not been an

area of strength for us, where workforce planning has been carried out it has lacked a corporate, consistent and outcome based approach. In developing this People Strategy we have begun to formalise workforce planning by piloting workforce planning at directorate level, we will now work to embed workforce planning across

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the organisation by embedding workforce planning into our annual business and financial planning processes.

To support our managers to effectively carry out workforce planning we will develop

guidance. We hope that will this will enable better informed flexible and effective resourcing solutions that support YHN and departmental business objectives both in the short and medium term.

5.6.2 Efficient and fair recruitment and selection processes

We will ensure that our selection procedures for any recruited post are fair, relevant and fit for purpose, we want all applicants to feel that they have benefited from the experience of applying for a post with our organisation even if they are not successful. We will ensure that the process of appointment and job offer is timely, accurate and comprehensive with everyone who is involved fully understanding the reasons for the outcome. To help achieve this, in 2010/11, our Human Resources team will be conducting a comprehensive review of all our recruitment and selection policies and processes to ensure that they continue to be accessible, effective and fair. This review will cut right across all aspects of the process including how we advertise positions, the paperwork we use, the behavioural event interview process and the role of Human Resources and recruiting managers. As part of the review we will also be introducing more robust monitoring processes so that we are better able to evaluate the impact of our processes, from beginning to end, on the six equality strands and we will carry out Equality Impact Needs Assessments on all revised processes. On completing this review we will then develop new recruitment and selection policy and procedures to reflect the improvements we have made and supplement any changes with appropriate training for managers.

5.6.3 A representative workforce

We are committed to attracting a wide range of applicants from diverse backgrounds as we firmly believe that a diverse workforce enables us to draw upon the widest possible range of views, experiences and opinions. This in turn enables us to better meet and understand the needs of the diverse communities which we serve. We will encourage diversity in our workforce by promoting career opportunities in publications and in locations that reach minority groups. We have recently started advertising our employment opportunities through Equality Britain, an organisation which focuses on promoting opportunities for everyone regardless of race, age, disability, religion or belief, sexual orientation, gender or transgender status. We will implement more routine and robust means of monitoring the progression of minority groups into and through our organisation from application right through to exit and produce an annual report of these findings. We will update all personal HR information records for all existing staff including demographic information. We hope this will enable us to more readily identify any areas where we might need to take further action to facilitate opportunities or remove any barriers that might be preventing minority groups from progressing.

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5.6.4 Introduction of job competencies It is essential that every new person we recruit has the required level of competency

and skills for the role for which they are applying. If we fail to get this right from the start then this can prove costly and can ultimately affect the success of our organisation. We need to move away from generic job descriptions and person specifications and introduce new job based (technical) competencies for each role. This will enable us to set out quite clearly, from the start, our expectations of what is required within each post so that applicants and employees can gain a better understanding of what the job entails. Competency based job descriptions will then be developed as part of our overall review of the recruitment and selection framework.

5.6.5 Retaining and managing talent

There is a strong relationship between engagement and how well we maximise the opportunities and effectiveness of our existing employees. We are keen to explore new ways to ‘grow our own’ talent and maximise partnership opportunities to provide more cost-effective ways of making this happen. Through our staff survey it was expressed that YHN is perceived positively by potential applicants however some felt that there is an issue with regard to the retaining and development of talented individuals and that in some areas there are limited opportunities to progress. This may result in talented individuals leaving our organisation to pursue career development elsewhere. We recognise that across our organisation there will always be people who have greater potential than their current job requires therefore we are keen to increase opportunities for staff to develop and extend their skills and knowledge to benefit both themselves and the organisation. In addition to offering a range of learning and development opportunities we will seek to develop a strategic approach to talent management. Its purpose will be to assure that the supply of talent is available to align the right people with the right jobs at the right time based on our strategic business objectives. Our approach will need to provide a planned and managed programme of development for talented individuals, using training, work placements, coaching mentoring and similar techniques. In addition to a talent management programme we are also keen to offer more opportunities for people to take up secondments as we recognise that that this can offer not only valuable individual development through the gaining of new knowledge and skills but that it also can bring benefits to the wider organisation. To facilitate this we will revisit and refresh our secondment policy and we will seek to develop increased partnerships outside of our organisation that will enable us to offer our people more cross-organisation opportunities.

6. Impact of the Strategy

We are confident that the implementation of this People Strategy will have a positive impact upon our people and ultimately lead to higher engagement and improved organisational performance.

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For our people increased satisfaction with their jobs improved engagement and increased willingness to go the extra mile feel more valued and appropriately rewarded and recognised knowing that their opinions do count and greater understanding of why decisions

are made clear about what behaviour is expected from them

For our organisation

• higher productivity and organisational performance • increased operating and net profit • improved customer focus • lower levels of absenteeism and higher levels of staff retention.

For our customers an improved customer experience increased customer satisfaction

6.1 Our key indicators of success By 2014 we hope to have successfully implemented all of the actions which are contained within our People Strategy action plan. In addition we have also identified six key measurable medium term targets to be achieved over the lifespan of this strategy: By 2014 we will:

Achieve 65% employee engagement Achieve Investors in People- Gold Level award 65% of all managers will have a coaching qualification Reduce absence levels to 8 average days lost per employee Achieve Level 3 of the Equality Framework for Local Government Achieve Better Health at work- Gold award

7. Implementation and monitoring of the strategy. We have established governance arrangements to provide leadership and clear direction to all our people activities and to oversee implementation of this strategy. We recognise that we need to have a designated individual/s responsible for leading on and unifying our People Strategy activities across our organisation, to raise the profile of our strategy and to co-ordinate the completion of the many tasks that we will need to complete over the coming years. Our Human Resources and Organisational Development teams will take share joint responsibility for the overall implementation of this strategy. We hope that this will mark the start of a more collaborative and effective working partnership between these two teams which until

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now have largely operated independently of one another. The key groups and individuals that will be involved in the implementation of this strategy are outlined below:- Director of Finance and Resources

Strategic lead for Your Homes

Newcastle’s People Strategy

Organisational Development Manager/Human Resources Manager

Overall responsibility for ensuring

the People Strategy action plan is delivered.

Your Homes Newcastle ‘Improving on Excellence’ service improvement’ People Strategy project

Members of the People Strategy

project are jointly responsible for delivering the People Strategy action plan.

We have identified a series of high level actions in the accompanying People Strategy action plan however we recognise that there will be many more components involved in completing these actions. To ensure that these components are captured and monitored our people strategy project group will also develop mini action plans to accompany each of the priority areas. Progress will then be reported on a monthly basis to the Programme Board chaired by the Chief Executive and which is subject to external scrutiny.

In developing this strategy we used the findings of the 2009 staff survey to formulate our baseline and to identify our priorities going forward. Therefore we intend to repeat the staff survey, using the same methodology to enable us to assess the impact of the strategy on our people.

8. Responsibility for the People Strategy. Each and every member of staff will have responsibility for making this strategy and

ultimately our organisation a success. Overall responsibility for ensuring that the action plan is carried out and tasks successfully completed lies with our Director of Finance and Resources.

9. Review We will formally review this strategy in April 2011 however as it is a living document it will be amended and reviewed in the interim period as becomes necessary. In particular we will update the action plan on an annual basis to ensure it remains valid and up to date.

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Appendix 1- Your Homes Newcastle workforce profile Staff by grade by division @ 10/12/09

Grade Business Finance & Resources

Tenancy Services

Chief Exec’s Office

CX 1 SMG 1 1 1 SME SMC SMB 2 1 3 SMA 1 1 2 POC 5 5 7 2 PO9 2 1 5

PO6 20 7 27 1 PO3 4 2 5 1 PO1 5 8 7 2 SO2 6 13 SO1 11 4 26

SC6 11 15 98 3

SC5 4 7 55 SC4 1 12 92 2 SC3 4

Grade D 11 37 120 2 Grade C 1 152 Trainee 3 9

Total 78 111 656 14 Staff by gender by division @ 10/12/2009

Gender Business Finance & Resources

Tenancy Services

Chief Exec’s Office

Female 57 58 303 11

Male 21 53 353 3

Total 78 111 656 14

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Staff by gender by grade @ 10/12/2009

Grade Male Female

CX 1

DR6

SMG 2 1

SME

SMC

SMB 1 3

SMA 4

POC 11 8

PO9 4 4

PO6 24 31

PO3 31 11

PO1 12 10

SO2 8 11

SO1 12 29

SC6 50 77

SC5 20 46

SC4 40 67

SC3 1 3

Grade D 71 99

Grade C 129 24

Trainee 7 5

Total 430 429

Staff by age by division @ 10/12/2009

Age in years Business Finance & Resources

Tenancy Services

Chief Exec’s Office

< 25 3 13 41 1

25-29 10 22 83 3

30-34 12 12 54 2

35-39 8 13 64 1

40-44 11 20 95 1

45-49 13 14 100 1

50-54 14 12 121 3

55-59 5 5 64 1

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60-66> 2 34 1

Total 78 111 656 14 Staff by BME group @ 10/12/2009

Ethnic Business Finance & Resources

Tenancy Services

Chief Exec’s Office

Asian

Bangladeshi 2

Indian 1 2

Pakistani 2

Black African 2

Black Caribbean 1

Chinese 1 2

White Irish 1 6

White & Asian 1

White & Black African

1

Other Asian background

1

Other mixed background

1

Other white background

3 2 3

Total 4 4 22 2

BME staff by gender @ 10/12/2009

Gender Business Finance & Resources

Tenancy Services

Chief Exec’s Office

Female 3 3 10 2

Male 1 1 12

Total 4 4 22 2

BME staff by age by division @ 10/12/2009

Age in years Business Finance & Resources

Tenancy Services

Chief Exec’s Office

< 25 1

25-29 1 1 7

30-34 1 1 4

35-39 2 2

40-44 1 2

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45-49 1

50-54 5 1

55-59

60-64> 1

Total 4 4 22 2

BME staff by grade by division @ 10/12/2009

Grade Business Finance & Resources

Tenancy Services

Chief Exec’s Office

SMA 1

POC 1 1

PO6 2 1

SO2 1

SO1 1

SC6 5

SC 5

SC4 1 6

SC 3 1

Grade D 1 6

Grade C 1 1

Total 4 4 22 1

Disabled staff by age by gender @ 10/12/2009

Gender < 25 25-29 30-34 35-39 40-44 45-49 50-54 55-59 60-64>

Male 1 3 3 2

Female 1 1 2 2 3

Total 1 1 4 2 5 5

Breakdown of days lost through absence

Summary 2004/05 2005/06 2006/07 2008/09

Actual days lost 8654.55 8729 9823.73 8923Days lost per FTE* 14.53 13.2 13.78 11.45

* FTE-=Full Time Employee

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Breakdown of staff turnover

Year (period)

Average total no. of staff employed over a period

Total no. of leavers over this period Turnover (%)

01/04/2004 - 31/03/2005 598 39 6.52 01/04/2005 - 31/03/2006 665 62 9.32 01/04/2006 - 31/03/2007 748 70 9.36 01/04/2007 - 31/03/2008 796 99 12.44 01/04/2008 - 31/03/2009 820.5 119 14.5

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Appendix 2- The People Strategy Action Plan 2010-2014

Priority 1- Developing our people

Ref What we want to achieve How we will do this Responsibility By when 1.1

Capable, high performing staff

Implement our new capability policy and procedures to support employees failing to meet the required level of performance in their role. We will do this by:

Launching our capability policy and procedures ensuring all staff know about them.

Briefing all managers across the

organisation to ensure that they are aware of, and are clear about how to implement the capability policies and procedures.

Implementing a method for annually

reviewing and monitoring the capability policy and procedures to ensure that they are being effectively adhered to.

Human Resources Manager/Organisational Development Manager

July 2010

1.2

A competent workforce

Implement our new competency framework. We will do this by: Revising our performance management processes to incorporate the new staff

Organisational Development Manager

April 2010

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competencies. We will update all paperwork, policies and procedural guidance in relation to:

Appraisals 360º feedback 1:1 supervision process

Launch new paperwork, revised policies and guidelines, and cascade to all staff via Intranet, John’s blog and SMT’s Following roll out of new competency based 360º feedback process to managers in 2010, investigate the benefits and feasibility of rolling out to all staff across the organisation. Produce a report for Management Team highlighting recommendations Review and revise our corporate appraiser and appraisee training to reflect the new competency framework Pilot new mandatory Customer Service training programme: ‘Customer Service the next level’ to incorporate the new competencies and focus on the changing needs and expectations of our customers, behaviours and core values. If successful roll out across organisation.

Organisational Development Manager Human Resources Manager/ Organisational Development Manager Human Resources Manager Organisational Development Officer

May 2010 October 2010 June 2010 May 2010

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1.3

An accessible range of flexible learning and development opportunities for all staff

On an annual basis publish a learning and development plan and prospectus to include a range of mandatory and optional learning opportunities Ensure there is equality of opportunity and equal access to learning and development by implementing means of monitoring the demographic take up of all training opportunities and produce an annual summary. Introduce and implement E-Learning toolkits to support flexible learning for staff and increase access to learning and development opportunities. Provide a purpose built training centre for staff and offer this resource to other organisations to generate additional income to be reinvested back into learning and development. Explore joint skills development programmes that will support and reinforce integrated working practices across regional and national partners to develop shared approaches to learning to maximise opportunities for development and ensure value for money. Actively support the development of Skills for Life across our workforce by continuing to offer access to training in basic literacy, numeracy and IT skills.

Organisational Development Manager Organisational Development Manager Organisational Development Manager Organisational Development Manager Organisational Development Manager Organisational Development Manager

Annually by April August 2010 May 2010 January 2011 December 2010 March 2014

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Programme of targeted promotions about training opportunities, including regular features on the Organisational Development webpage and staff notice board. To include promotion aimed at specific minority groups across the organisation.

Organisational Development Manager

March 2011

1.4 A coaching culture

Continue with current coaching programme to achieve target of 65% of all managers with a coaching qualification by 2014 Raise organisational awareness about coaching and the benefits that it can offer by developing a coaching handbook for staff and delivering organisational team brief or staff briefing sessions.

Organisational Development Manager Organisational Development Manager

March 2014 June 2011

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Priority 2- Developing our leaders and managers

Ref What we want to achieve How we will do this Responsibility By when

2.1

A range of leadership and management development opportunities

Review and update our Leadership and Management Development strategy Produce and publish an annual Leadership and Management core and accredited programme Pilot a series of manager action learning sets. If successful offer more widely across the organisation to wider groups of staff.

Organisational Development Manager Organisational Development Manager Organisational Development Manager

November 2010 Annually by March January 2011

2.2 Competent leaders and managers

Incorporate management competencies into the YHN appraisal process and into the 360º feedback process to measure effectiveness and identify areas for improvement Produce and implement a new manager’s charter to reflect new competency framework and core values.

Organisational Development Manager/Human Resources Manager Organisational Development Manager

May 2010 December 2010

2.4 A skilled and representative board

Produce and deliver an annual Board succession plan.

Company Administrator

Annually by April

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Priority 3: Health and Wellbeing: ‘Happy, Healthy and Here’ Ref What we want to achieve How we will do this Responsibility By when 1.1

Better health and wellbeing at work

Fully implement all of the actions contained within our separate Better Health at Work Silver Award action plan to achieve the Silver Award Fully implement all of the actions contained within our separate Better Health at Work Gold Award action plan to achieve the Gold award

Organisational Development Manager Organisational Development Manager

December 2010 December 2011

1.2

A work/life balance for our people

Carry out a full review of all existing staff policies and procedures which have an impact upon work/life balance. As part of this review we will:

Conduct gap analysis to identify any other areas where YHN could provide additional support to help staff achieve a work life balance.

Carry out EINA’s on all staff policies and procedures to ensure equal access.

Ensure that all policies reflect relevant

employment and equality legislation

Re-badge as YHN any NCC policies and procedures that apply to our staff which have not yet been adapted.

Communicate any changes to all staff

Human Resources Manager

December 2010

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Develop a suite of bespoke HR information, including all HR policies and procedures, on a dedicated webpage

Human Resources Manager

March 2011

An attendance culture Carry out a comprehensive review, in conjunction with staff, of Diagnostic Health Solutions and Employee Assistance Programme to ensure that both services continue to meet the needs of our people and business. Carry out review of the existing service level agreement with Newcastle City Council’s Occupational Health Produce a new sickness policy and accompanying procedures to include:

Revised guidance for managers on the progression of sickness cases.

Human Resources Manager/Organisational Development Manager Human Resources Manager Human Resources Manager

June 2011 June 2011 October 2010

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Priority 4- A positive organisational culture Ref What we want to achieve How we will do this Responsibility By when 4.1

Manage organisational change more effectively

Develop and implement a change management policy and toolkit publicising to all staff. Provide in-house training or briefing sessions for all managers to raise awareness of effective change management .

Organisational Development manager Organisational Development manager

March 2011 June 2011

4.2

A culture that encourages creativity and innovation

Benchmark against other housing sector and private sector organisations to seek out good practice in this area. Conduct a focus group/s with staff to explore new ways in which we can facilitate opportunities for innovation and creativity. Explore any barriers that might currently exist which prevent staff from making service improvement suggestions.

Organisational Development/Human Resources Organisational Development/Human Resources

October 2010 October 2010

4.3

Ensure that our people are well informed, seeking their views by informing, consulting, listening and encouraging feedback.

Develop and implement a new communications strategy Conduct two further organisational wide staff surveys in 2011 and 2013

Communications Manager Organisational Development Manager

August 2010

August 2011/ August 2013

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4.4

Ensure that all staff are treated with dignity and respect at work

Review and update our Dignity and Respect at Work policies and procedures to include increased options for staff to report bullying and harassment cases. Review to include a role for LGBT network group to support staff in bullying and harassment/grievance cases Introduce comprehensive and regular reporting/scrutiny by Finance and Resources Committee of staff related issues by demographic groups e.g. grievances, bullying and harassment, whistle blowing, internal promotion, starters and leavers and overall staff makeup Produce new exit survey guidance and procedures and publicise to all staff. Collate results from exit surveys and produce annual summary on reasons why people have left the organisation. Launch new Equalities and Diversity Training Plan – to include Manager’s challenging behaviour, Evolving role of the manager, NCFE E&D course, e-learning options, and aspirational / inspirational training

Human Resources Manager/Equality and Diversity Manager Human Resources Manager Human Resources Manager Human Resources Manager/Diversity Manager

March 2011 January 2011 December 2010 June 2010

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Priority 5- Rewarding and recognising our people Ref What we want to achieve How we will do this Responsibility By when 5.1

Staff are appropriately rewarded and recognised for their achievements

Develop a reward and recognition strategy. In doing so we will:

Consult with staff to determine priorities

for reward and recognition measures Benchmark against other housing sector

and private sector organisations to seek out good practice

Produce an options paper based on the

outcome of review, consultation and benchmarking exercises setting out different possibilities for a reward and recognition.

Human Resources Manager

December 2010

Priority 6- Recruitment and Selection: Attracting, recruiting and retaining a quality workforce Ref What we want to achieve How we will do this Responsibility By when 6.1

Fair, effective and efficient recruitment selection processes.

Carry out a comprehensive review of all existing recruitment and selection processes. In doing so carry out an Equality Impact Needs Assessment.

Human Resources Manager

November 2010

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6.2

People know exactly what is expected from them in the role.

Develop job (technical) competency framework and incorporate into job descriptions/person specifications.

Human Resources Manager

October 2010

6.3

Talented individuals are recognised, developed and retained.

Develop and implement a corporate talent management scheme Develop a more robust approach to monitoring annual turnover and reasons for leaving so that we can address any corporate issues that may be causing talented individuals to leave. Update our secondment policy and seek to establish agreements with external organisations that will enable us to provide more secondment opportunities outside of our own organisation.

Organisational Development Manager Human Resources Manager Human Resources Manager

March 2013 December 2010 February 2011

6.4

Systematically identify our future resource requirements

Incorporate workforce planning into our annual business and financial planning process.

Human Resources Manager

May 2010

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6.5

A representative workforce

Introduce additional SAP monitoring of demographic information for all new staff Update personal HR information records for all existing staff to include demographic information Advertise YHN vacancies in a range of media

Human Resources Manager Human Resources Manager

April 2010 August 2010