Letter - INF and ENV ministers to CSP - People and Culture Follow up Review - Department specific response - 21 August 2023

Maritime House St Helier Jersey

JE2 3NW

Deputy Sam Mézec

Chair

Corporate Services Scrutiny Panel Morier House

St Helier

JE1 1DD

21 August 2023

Corporate Services Scrutiny Panel

People and Culture Follow-up Review – Infrastructure and Environment

Thank you for your letter dated 2 August 2023. As requested, please see below responses to the Panel’s queries with specific reference to the Infrastructure and Environment Department (I&E).

1. The internal processes and procedures in your department which can be used by employees to address complaints and grievances including for inappropriate behaviour, bullying and harassment. We are aware that there are set States of Jersey policies relating to these matters, however we would like to know the specific process that would be followed by employees within your department.

All employees are encouraged to speak to their line manager or senior manager about workplace issues. As specified in the People and Culture Plan (also known as the Strategic Workforce Plan) for the department, communication is a high priority, including team meetings and 1:1 meetings with colleagues.

Many members of staff, particularly manual worker employees, are members of a trade union. I&E recognises the value of working in partnership with our union colleagues, who provide an option for employees to have informal discussions about issues, without escalation to a formal policy status. I&E hold quarterly meetings with the trade unions to ensure they are informed of actions and issues and can support colleagues appropriately.

In addition, the responses to the 2020 Be Heard survey identified key points relating to health and wellbeing, which have initiated a plan of action within the People and Culture Plan.

2. Whether any internal employee processes and procedures followed in your department differ from those within other departments and, if so, how and why. For example, we note that there is a Freedom to Speak Up Guardian in the Health and Community Services Department to ensure that the voices and concerns of staff are heard and acted upon.  

The department has ‘StRaW’ (Sustaining Resilience at Work) and ‘Trim’ (Trauma Risk Management) practitioners who are trained to help improve the mental health of colleagues suffering from psychological distress, through planning, guidance, signposting and, where appropriate, effective mentoring. They are available to employees as a first point of contact to raise concerns or grievances if an employee is not comfortable to raise an issue with their line manager, of if they are not available.

3. The relevant officer(s) in your department available to employees as a first point of contact to raise concerns or grievances.  

The line manager or the line manager’s manager or a member of People and Corporate   Services. If the employee does not wish to raise their concerns with their line manager,   they can contact HR Case Management or contact the dedicated speak-up line.

4. What management information is available to your senior leadership team to enable you to gauge or measure the numbers of informal or formal concerns, grievances or disciplinary actions and how your management information is gathered and recorded.  

Heads of Service and the Senior Leadership Team are provided with data that can be used to inform decisions. Monthly dashboards are created to give an overview of staff absence and turnover. These are supported by a weekly HR team meeting, where active cases are discussed to supply best support to managers.

Currently there are challenges with the accuracy of data due to the limitations of our systems. For example, absence data is not considered to be a true reflection of actual absence as managers are expected to enter the details and are not always able to do this given their workload pressures. This task cannot be delegated to administrators currently.

Data is often reported at a high level for I&E and more granular detail is needed at the service level to enable managers to access data more easily. The new Connect system will enable managers to delegate inputting of absence data to a support officer, which will improve the reliability of the data.

Moving forward, the HR team will be sharing more detailed monthly absence information to Directorate SMTs, and ensuring regular HR surgeries on key sites for line managers to discuss current cases, areas of concern etc.

5. The challenges, if any, within your department in improving and maintaining a satisfactory workplace culture.

I&E is made up of four directorates and a central Head Office, that all have very different workplace cultures, with a wide variety of professional groups represented. These directorates tend to adapt new solutions and implementation plans to suit their working practices.

The size of the department and the fact that it is located over multiple sites often presents challenges in communication and employee engagement, especially as many colleagues are not desk-based and do not have easy or regular access to online communications.

The 2023 People and Culture Plan sets out key actions to impact on performance and culture of the department.

The Property directorate has been, and remains, under particular pressure. It operates in a highly political sphere with projects that are often high profile and controversial, and this creates an additional demand. In the current Government there is a strong drive to progress major capital projects which requires the focus of this team. However, the Property team has had an extended period of understaffing and underfunding. In addition, it is responsible for a portfolio worth more than £1 billion but does not have a budget necessary to maintain the ageing Government estate. The inability to maintain high standards and complete projects quickly has an impact on the professional team.

While good progress is being made to appoint to positions, the latest vacancy rate was estimated at 20% and this has an impact on the overall resilience, wellbeing and morale of existing

staff. While there is now a good blend of new as well as experienced colleagues, succession planning is a key priority to mitigate skills shortages in the future.  

It should be noted that the team has a key role in responding to unforeseen community emergencies, which further divert staff resources. There is also ongoing uncertainty about IT challenges that relate to property-specific systems that underpin their work.

Results from Be Heard surveys indicate that the workplace culture is improving. The Be Heard BCI Index was 456 in 2020, rising to 528 in a Pulse survey in 2022, and in the most recent survey it was 590.

The Infrastructure Minister would like to emphasise his determination to ensure that the team has the personnel and financial resources to meet the demands it currently faces.

The Natural Environment directorate has had a strong focus on culture since 2021 following changes in the Senior Leadership Group (SLG) at Natural Environment. The destabilising effects of turnover within the SLG, so soon after a structural reorganisation through the Target Operating Model (TOM) process was however less of a reflection on the restructure and linked more to personal circumstances post covid. It has been challenging to create a stable culture post restructure without stability in the team, however, good progress has been made in 2023.

6. Whether your department has any trade union shop stewards or representatives and, if so, the type of relationship held with those people to assist with resolving employee matters that are brought to the department’s attention.  

I&E continues to have good relationships with the relevant trade union representatives for civil servants and manual workers. There are trade union shop stewards in the Operations & Transport team. Employee matters are generally resolved informally with line management and there are few matters that have escalated to the point of requiring trade union involvement.

The meetings take place as follows;

• Quarterly trade union meeting with the Senior Leadership Team, chaired by the Chief Officer, Andy Scate. Agendas are developed and the trade unions can request additional items. Packs are sent out following these meetings, which cover people data, people and culture updates, health and safety. More recently, Andy Scate presented the departmental Be Heard survey results.

• Trade unions attend the I&E induction event for all new starters to promote membership and advise on support available.

• Trade union colleagues are invited to health and safety quarterly meetings in Operations & Transport.

7. Specific actions taken within your department to improve staff wellbeing and morale.  

Mental health support and wellbeing is a key component of the department’s People and Culture Plan. Extensive work is under way to embed this as part of our culture to ensure every member of

the teams understand the initiatives that are in place and that line managers are trained to ensure that they can provide appropriate support.

The Head Office team work in conjunction with HR, Senior Leadership Team and the People and Culture Steering Group to embed mental health and wellbeing practices.

The department has chosen to use an organisation called ‘March on Stress’ and has adopted two approaches. The first is training a peer network in the skills to support colleagues and signpost them accordingly. 14 colleagues have recently been trained and there is a network to support those colleagues who are leads.

The second approach involves training a smaller number of colleagues to support peers after a traumatic event. This is called TRIM training. There are 12 colleagues trained to deliver TRIM support in I&E.

Work is under way to ensure literature is available to explain about the programme, as well as information packs for colleagues to take away after a meeting. All the documentation is being reviewed to ensure it is consistent and set up appropriately for the department’s needs. The team has been working with colleagues across the Government to set up the I&E network and ensure appropriate management of the support network.

Quotes are being sought for more mental health training, including REACT, which is a three-hour session for managers to ensure greater coverage of skills across the department.

In quarter 4 of 2023, the focus will be on developing a departmental Mental Health and Wellbeing Plan. This will signpost support available but also have details about the various initiatives that will be developed for the next year.

Recently, Andy Scate has taken on the role of Executive Sponsor for a new network called Heads Up, which aims to support men with mental health and psychological wellbeing across the Government.

Directorate specific information

In the Regulation directorate, specific objectives have been developed to ensure wellbeing is prioritised and is embedded as part of the team’s organisational culture. This includes the following:

• Management responsibility to communicate the ‘Breathe’ magazine to colleagues. The team highlights the AXA support programmes and has referred colleagues for additional support when requested.

• The Regulation team operates a flex positive work / life balance, and supports, as often as possible, alternative options for flexible working (reduced hours, work a couple of days off- island each month if family connections elsewhere, term-time only, condensed hours). (This is also supported in other directorates.)

• Specific training for situations of physical conflict (Maybo) and dedicated training for handling conflict and aggression in the workplace.

• Regulation Ops Board – a decision making group with non-Head of Service representation from each team across the directorate. It is empowered and accountable for the delivery and oversight of operational change projects, process improvements and for creating a positive workplace culture.

• Social and Wellbeing Group – the group take responsibility for organising events and wellbeing initiatives in Regulation. Examples include the Swimarathon team from Regulation who, alongside taking part, raised £578.00 for Jersey’s Foodbanks. They are also going to take part in a Marathon Relay, ‘It’s a Knockout’ and the Park Run in forthcoming months, not only bringing members of the directorate together but also raising money for a good cause. Other initiatives include a photography club, running club (with different levels depending on your ability) and meditation sessions during the working day for those that are interested in participating. The Group also organises social events and has recently been paintballing and is looking at karting in St Malo.

• An Annual Staff Conference brings the Directorate together as a team to share vision and purpose. A mid-year event was also organised. Last year 42 members of the teams (plus 2 dogs) collected 24.7kg of marine debris that had washed up onto Ouaisne Beach in conjunction with Littlefeet Environmental which supplied the buckets and safety

kit. Despite the weather, Jersey Sport supplied games equipment and the teams enjoyed

time on the beach as a well-deserved reward for their efforts.

• Resilience Programme – this was led by the Resilience Development Company and was open to all team members in the Regulation Directorate. Their training programmes deliver performance and growth alongside wellbeing. It has been well received and the shared skillset and language is spreading through the directorate. It has provided a personal toolkit meaning the teams can own their resilience as an individual, team, leader or organisation.

• Mediation CPD Programme – Regulation is working with a partner organisation to design a skills-based programme to learn, reflect and practice restorative approaches, supporting our trained and accredited mediators in increasing opportunities to utilise informal approaches both internally and externally.

• Group Regulation Director Vlogs – the Group Director records a Vlog every two weeks and some of the content comes from events she is attending at the time and a lot of the content centres around the wellbeing of the team. An example of this is the ‘courage to be you’ conference held earlier in the year. Gareth Thomas who was the guest speaker was kind enough to record a personal message for Regulation around being your authentic self.

The Property directorate has co-located its various teams, and several events have taken place to improve team building, defining interdependencies and direction of the department. For example, there is an informal monthly gathering, with bacon rolls, to provide an informal question and answer session with the Senior Leadership Team.

The Natural Environment directorate has been focussing on creating a new team from the new Senior Leaders Group, rather than a collection of professionals going about their business, and then widening this approach throughout Natural Environment. It was recognised that a holistic culture programme was required. This has resulted, through a workshop approach, in a consolidated Senior Leadership team, who support one another in their various common areas of business and support the Group Director. Follow on workshops with all Natural Environment colleagues have taken place to engender a better teamwork philosophy. This has resulted in the creation of a Natural Environment “Culture Club” with its own terms of reference and workstreams. This is a group who willingly represent their teams in discussions together and with the Senior Leadership team to ensure a continuous improvement in Natural Environment culture.

The Operations and Transport directorate have been focussing on the following initiatives:

• Promotion of volunteering opportunities, which have included beach cleaning and gorse clearance.

• There are ongoing out-of-hours activities, such as lawn bowling, yoga and boxercise. Staff also have use of an on-site gym and shower facilities to encourage cycling to work

• Participation in the summer in the 5km Cannord Cup runs.

• Using our ‘Thank you’ cards to say well done and show appreciation.

In addition, Operations and Transport have ensured that Ministers visit the facilities which has also provided the opportunity for Ministers to meet colleagues. The Senior Management Team plan frequent meetings and have away days.

Andy Scate, the I&E Chief Officer, holds regular ‘Brief with the Chief’ sessions to update colleagues and can answer their questions. In addition, the Chief Officer undertakes Health and Safety Walkabouts to various sites. In the coming weeks there will be roadshows to ensure colleagues are fully briefed about the recent Be Heard survey. Regular internal communications are published, including a monthly email from Andy Scate and a newsletter for the

department. Additionally, all colleagues are encouraged to use the OurGov communications page to share interesting stories and information.

On a quarterly basis, Head Office invites the department’s senior managers to a development event to learn about new initiatives or share best practice. The focus has been on the People and Culture Plan including diversity and inclusion, the Connect IT system, key performance indicators, Flex positive, the customer strategy launch, and a mindfulness session. In addition, the March on Stress company provided an overview of resilience approaches (TRIM/StRaW) and succession planning.

All new starters to the department are invited to an induction event that provides an overview of each of the directorates, information about the customer strategy, the People and Culture Plan and diversity, equity and inclusion.

8. The creation or improvements of strategy, policy, and procedures in your department for the benefit of employee welfare and workplace culture implemented since the start of the new States Assembly term.

I&E first developed a People Culture Plan in 2021. This was based on feedback from the 2020 Be Heard Survey. The 2023 plan was launched, and steady progress is being made in all the main components: learning and development, talent (which includes succession planning), diversity inclusion and equity and mental health.

Key performance indicators are currently being introduced and will be fully implemented in 2024 to ensure that progress can be assessed and regularly evaluated. Resources and time constraints are some of the challenges in ensuring that data is collated and representative of all the areas of the department.

The 15 KPIs for mental health and wellbeing are as follows and there are also indicators for recruitment, learning and development, talent development and diversity, equity, and inclusion:

1. % of absence due to stress, anxiety, and depression
2. Be Heard survey results – on pride in working for Government of Jersey
3. % colleagues that are having a regular 1:1 with their line manager
4. No. of additional STRAW practitioners

5. No. of additional TRIM practitioners
6. No. of site visits Heads of Service and Directors undertake to their areas
7. No. of Blogs, Vlogs, newsletter articles published internally
8. Average no of hits of blogs and engagement scores
9. No. of away days
10. Be Heard Survey results – % of employees that perceive we have visible leadership
11. Be Heard – overall MC3 score for management in each directorate
12. Be Heard % of employees feeling confident to response to change
13. No of positive stories on Our Gov about people
14. No of our Stars nominations
15. No of people who receive Thank you Fridays

Procedures

The mental health network, as detailed above, is in place and being used across the department appropriately.

As part of normal business as usual, one to one meetings between line managers and their direct reports take place regularly. Managers are encouraged to check in with staff monthly and this would normally cover managers asking how their teams are performing. Investment in REACT training for managers is also supporting this. In the past year, 29 colleagues have been trained and we are planning on setting up sufficient sessions by the end of the year so that a further 60 colleagues will receive this training.

Colleagues who have been absent from work and require further support are referred to the Occupational Health service.

In addition, flexible working, including working from home, is embedded in the department and used effectively. It is acknowledged that not all the functions have the same opportunity to work from home, so the department needs to ensure equal access if possible.

9. Whether any routine internal department-specific surveys or polls are

undertaken regarding people and workplace culture and the frequency and impact thereof.  

There are department-specific employee surveys in place in some of the directorates. In the Regulation directorate each year colleagues are surveyed, and results are reported at their annual conference, which all colleagues are invited to attend. The Regulation team also takes temperature checks; going forward, the intention is to run these monthly. In 2023 there have been four temperature check surveys. The results and comments provide the opportunity to make meaningful improvements and these results will also be incorporated in the Action Planning process associated with the Be Heard Survey.

The Property directorate ran a Pulse survey in quarter 4 of 2022 and a Culture Club is being developed.

Natural Environment used a workshop-based approach which provided free and objective commentary to be made on culture (and operational) issues. The Natural Environment Culture Club is now established and is well placed to drive cultural change through regular discussions with their peers and senior leaders, with a regular schedule of meetings expected.

 

10. Whether when an employee leaves the department, they are automatically offered an exit interview and, if not, why.  

An exit interview is offered at the point of leaving by the People Hub. Leavers may choose to speak with their line manager or senior manager. Any concerns raised on a leaver form are sent to the HR Business Partner who follows this up with the Director of the area in the first instance to identify the issues and actively try to improve the work experience where possible.

11. Whether there are any emerging themes that can be taken from previous exit interviews?

An example of this is where we have identified that a 1:1 meeting is not being held across the board. It has become a key point in the departmental People & Culture Plan to increase communication, engagement, performance management and visibility.

12. Whether the Minister or Chief Officer works with the HR Business Partner to resolve concerns, the process that is followed and whether you have identified any challenges or concerns with the process that you have identified.

The Head Office team provides a performance pack each quarter. This includes relevant HR data.

13. Any historic concerns or issues in relation to any of the above within your department.  

The impact of the recent organisational restructures has had a significant impact on many colleagues in terms of their morale and well-being.

It should be recognised that while it is beneficial to adopt a top-down approach across the Government to improve culture in the public service, it is equally necessary to nurture micro cultures, support and most importantly take the time to understand staff. The ability to recognise these cultures is critical if credibility of leadership is to be maintained. This flexible approach from leadership enables cultural change.

14. Any other issues that the Panel should consider as part of its review in line with the Terms of Reference for the review, which can be found on the review page.

The I&E People and Culture Plan does not have any specific allocated budget. If funds are allocated in 2024 to the Plan this would have a positive impact particularly in support of mental health and wellbeing.

I&E’s HR colleagues work hard to provide quality services to the department and our embedded business partner, and two consultants have a detailed knowledge of I&E. However, there is some discussion about how best the department can be served and whether an in-department HR model would be more focused and effective.

With the launch of Connect People, I&E would like to adopt the HCS model for the resourcing and onboarding service. This would entail dedicated HR professionals, embedded in I&E, to manage the resourcing function. The hiring manager model that has been proposed will potentially take managers further away from managing critical services.

Yours sincerely,

 

Deputy Tom Binet   Deputy Jonathan Renouf Infrastructure Minister  Minister for the Environment