Council warned its hybrid policy must be fair to retain staff

Alec Doyle Local Democracy Reporter

A Welsh council has been warned that its new hybrid policy for staff must be fair or staff may leave after initial recommendations were put before scrutiny.

Leader of the Labour group Cllr Dana Davies addressed Wrexham County Borough Council’s Customers, Performance, Resources and Governance Scrutiny Committee and warned officers and councillors that they must not have double standards for staff and elected members.

The initial draft report – compiled from responses to a staff survey last month -showed a clear preference for council staff to work three days in the office and two days remotely – a 60/40 hybrid working pattern.

But staff were only given two choices – 60/40 or 80/20 – one day remote. As a result there was a significant amount of feedback outlining a 50/50 split or full flexibility with managers’ discretion.

Meanwhile elected members are able to work remotely with more freedom.

Trust

Cllr Davies, who is not member of the committee, warned that retaining the trust of employees was vital and fairness was at the heart of that.

“Elected members are making the decision on how staff are potentially going to work,” she said. “We need to be acting fairly.

“If we as elected members can hybrid work – half your committee is on screen at the moment – why are we restricting our staff to 60/40? Potentially we can have elected members working 100% of the time at home.

“How fair is that? We need to look at ourselves.”

The consultation, which ran through February and March, saw around 900 eligible staff respond – 46%. Not every role within the council is sutable for hybrid working.

HR business partner for Wrexham Council  Andrea Stevenson said that the recommendation of a 60/40 split would include additional flexibility depending on the job requirements.

“The 60/40 model represents the average that we currently work with here in Wrexham,” she said. “We wrote the consultation document in such a way so we had something to consult staff on.

“We would expect this to be a guideline not a rule – a framework for managers to manage staff in line with.”

Policy

Wrexham council has allowed staff to work in a hybrid fashion since Covid, but until now had not fully formalised a policy around it.

Coedpoeth Cllr Anthony Wedlake said he was concerned that by being too prescriptive, Wrexham may see staff leave for jobs in the private sector which offer higher pay and similar flexibility.

“Local authorities are not the best payers in most areas,” he said. “The ability to attract people based on flexibility is a gamechanger when you can’t compete on price.

“There seems to be an agenda from some politicians to get public employees back into the office which is massively unhelpful. ”

It was a concern shared by Cllr Davies, who added: “We’re a service-based sector and we’re reliant on the goodwill of our staff.

“We can’t deliver for the people of Wrexham without our staff. This consultation shows we need to listen to them and we also need to trust them.”

Risk

Ms Stevenson said that the consultation did indicate a risk staff may leave if a new hybrid working policy proved restrictive.

“What we see from our data is that flexibility is appreciated,” she said. “With regard recruitment and retention people did indicate they may rethink their position if that flexibility changes.”

Deputy chairman of the committee Cllr Jerry Wellens urged officers to reflect the passion of the respondents in their report to executive board, who will decide on the introduction of the policy in the coming months.

“Can you make sure in the final report that that level of passion and detail is reflected because it stood out for me,” he said. “It shows how important this is for people, through parenthood, gender rights in the workplace, recruitment and retention.

“This is a real watershed for this council. This committee has considered issues around office accommodation and recruitment and retention in the past. Hybrid working was stated as one of the pillars of both of those things.”