As a starting point for the development of our five year Workforce Strategy it was necessary for us to create a workforce profile.
Workforce profile
This is essentially a snapshot detailing the makeup of our workforce and was taken as at 1 July 2022. The profile includes our headcount and employee information on:
- age
- gender
- ethnicity
- disability
- pay
- turnover of staff
- reasons for absence
This provided us with key information for developing our workforce projections and will inform the formulation of our Workforce Strategy Action Plan.
Taking this approach also allowed us to identify the essential workforce groups where we need stability, growth or where they have been identified through an appropriate business case as supporting early intervention and how we can plan to ensure we have the required number of people with the correct skills to deliver our services of the future.
Engagement with stakeholders
Engagement of key stakeholders was also important.
This included engagement and feedback from all Council services, through our Council Management Team (CMT) meetings, Trade Unions meetings, and with our employees through a number of surveys.
The specific views of internal stakeholders such as the Council Management Team and our established Workforce Planning Board incorporating Health and Social Care, on an ongoing basis, will continue to help to shape key actions and themes for the Workforce Strategy 2022–27 in the years ahead.
There has also been engagement with external partners through the following:
- Community Wealth Building — Fair Work Pillar
- Society of Personnel & Development Scotland (SPDS) — Workforce Planning group
- Department for Work and Pensions (DWP)
- other employability partners
- internally through our Equalities and Apprenticeship Forums
- various project groups
Equality monitoring
Equality monitoring of our workforce is essential to ensure our workforce is reflective of the wider communities we serve as well as to ensure we are compliant with our equality duty.
Also by looking at the age, gender makeup and ethnicity we can identify workforce areas that we need to focus on in terms of recruitment, support while in employment and career development as well as any barriers being faced by particular groups, prior to employment and while in employment.
It also helps us to monitor Gender, Ethnicity and Disability Pay Gaps and focus specific work in these areas.
Future requirements
Key to identifying future workforce requirements will also be identifying turnover levels for each service and carrying out projection work of what each service needs to remain stable and to identify those areas where there will be growth or reduction in the future.
Taking consideration that the traditional working age (16-64) population of East Ayrshire will reduce by approximately 15% by 2028, as a result the Workforce Strategy will require to look at alternatives ways of recruiting and retaining staff from a reducing and changing labour market profile. This might include what policies, benefits and work styles we need to consider to retain some of our older workforce while at the same time, building new and innovative career pathways and employee benefits which will attract young people from local schools and colleges.
To gain an understanding of strategic intent in respect of workforce an initial survey was issued to all Heads of Service in relation to what they saw as the key areas for workforce planning and development within their service in the short and medium/long term.
A summary of the results of this survey is incorporated within our Workforce Strategy.
Strategies and plans
Comments and suggestions
Get in touch if you have any comments or suggestions on the Council Strategic Framework and its strategies:
Comments and suggestions