Implementation of the Outcome of the Hr Review (V4)

IMPLEMENTATION OF THE OUTCOME OF THE HR REVIEW (V4)

1. Background

The Edinburgh Institute completed their review of the HR function in February 2014. This was subject to consultation, and it was determined that the outcome of the review would not be implemented until the wider organisational arrangements were known. Given that these arrangements are now being put in place, it is appropriate to begin to implement the outcome of the review. This paper describes the proposed organisational structure to support the outcome of the review, and outlines the next steps.

2.  Organisational Structure

The main proposal of the report of the Edinburgh Institute is that the organisation would have a central common HR service handling transactional work and a small number of common specialist/expert functions, to enhance effectiveness and ensure greater consistency.

HR Business Partners (Heads of HR) would be aligned to the Sector/Directorate/HSCP structure to provide local governance on people management, commission specialist support, and lead change projects. The implications of this would be that line managers would take greater accountability for day to day people management issues, with the role of Business Partners providing specialist support, and provide a route to or commission specialist work from the central functions, as well as ensuring that transactional work was undertaken effectively to meet the needs of their Sector/Directorate/HSCP. To support this, the Institute recommended that it would be appropriate to establish:-

• A range of skilled generalists in the Sectors/Directorates/HSCP’s

• A structure which encourages interdependence and cross team learning

• Strong central leadership from the Director of HR, and central colleagues

• The use of HR IT (eESS) and better HR performance metrics

The Health and Social Care Partnerships HR Business Partner roles will either be employer specific or be responsible for the provision of HR support across both the NHS, and their respective local authority.

3.  Further Development

The senior HR team met to discuss organisational structure issues associated with the HR review on 28 October and 11 December. The main issues that arose were:

-  the importance of Service Level Agreements, ensuring that the central/specialist services are responsive to the needs of the Heads of HR.

-  that new ways of working will be as important as the organisational arrangements

-  the meeting structure will require to reviewed to ensure that the organisational arrangements work effectively, and the correct people are coming together with appropriate agendas

-  the employee relations function should be as small expert team supporting Heads of HR, on complex cases, but will also have a performance management function to ensure consistency in application of policies and that timescales for cases are being achieved

-  a proxy split of resources between the administrative/transactional, would be allocating those on Band 4 and below, to the administrative/ transactional activity and those on Band 5 and above to the HR teams.

-  The job description for the HR Business Partner to be completed, and resource allocation agreed based on the size of the workforce for which they are responsible.

-  The Staff Governance, Policy Development, and Equalities work to be retained as discrete functions, including support to the Staff Governance Committee and Area Partnership Forum.

-  The partnership structures require to be reviewed e.g. one over-arching Partnership forum for the retained services of the Board.

-  Need to retain capacity to support the Remuneration Sub Committee’s role – Executive and Senior Managers performance and pay arrangements

-  Corporate HR to be retained to look after system wide functions

-  Triaging of enquiries/help desk approach to be further explored

-  Workforce Planning and Development to include all support for workforce information, workforce data quality assurance and workforce systems

-  Explore further the synergy between workforce employability/sustainability and equality and development

-  Explore further the synergy between learning and development, change management consultancy, commissioning of leadership, and clinical practice development

4. Next Iteration of Organisational Arrangements

The proposed structure as further developed is attached at Appendix One . The key points to note are:-

a)  Each Health and Social Care Partnership is proposing their own HR Business Partner structure, which will relate to both employing organisations. These posts would report directly through their respective senior management structures, with a dotted line to the Director of Human Resources.

b)  Each Acute Sector/Directorate will have a Business Partner (Head of HR) who will report directly to the Director responsible for the sector or directorate with a dotted line to the Deputy Director of HR. There will also be a Head of HR to support organisation wide functions

c)  The proposed split of reporting between the Director and Deputy Director will assist in lessening the span of control for the Director of Human Resources. The Deputy post will ensure continuity in the absence of the Director over operational matters in the Acute Division and in HSCP’s.

d)  One of the concerns over the existing structure has been the lack of consistent and high level advice on complex employee relations issues. It is therefore proposed that a small specialist/expert employee relations function is managed by the Deputy Director of HR. Although employee relations will be handled by Heads of HR they will have the ability to call on more specialised expertise in more complex cases which will ensure greater consistency. Similarly for HSCP’s the Director of HR will be able to refer complex cases. The employee relations function will also have a performance management role to improve consistency and ensure cases are managed to appropriate timescales

e)  In relation to Central Services, this will include the existing recruitment and staff bank teams, which will retain their current range of functions. Pay and conditions will also fall under central services, with the focus being on AfC job evaluation. A new Administration and Support section focussed on efficient and effective processing of a range of transactional HR activities will be key to the operation of the re-structured department. The resources associated with this require to be determined, and the functions closely defined. It is clear that this new area will require more effective IT support, through the implementation of eESS

f)  Following discussion, it was confirmed that the recruitment element of medical staffing will operate as part of the overall recruitment function. In relation to the other elements it was recognised that, due to the complexity of some aspects of medical staffing it would be desirable to retain this as a discrete section, reporting to the Deputy Director of HR. This may be reviewed at some point in the future to address concerns that retaining medical staffing as a separate function perpetuates an organisational reliance on specialised staff in this area.

g) The Staff Governance function will continue in order to support policy development. The Remuneration Sub-Committee will continue to require support as will the Staff Governance Committee. The Staff Governance function could be enhanced to take responsibility for Equalities and potentially, employability/sustainability.

h) Occupational Health will continue as a discrete service, reporting to the Director of Human Resources.

i)  Corporate HR will continue as a discrete section, reporting directly to the Deputy Director of Human Resources.

j) It was agreed that given its cross cutting nature and significance Workforce Sustainability/Employability should be separately identified as an activity within the overall organisational structure.

k) The Edinburgh Institute recommended an enhanced Workforce Planning function. Given the increasing accountability of the Nurse Director and Medical Director for effective workforce planning and deployment this function needs to work collectively with their respective functions.

l) The relationship between the HR Business Partners and the central functions will be managed through Service Level Agreements, with these being supported through a Service Delivery Board to ensure effective allocation of resources, responsiveness of service and appropriate monitoring.

5. Workstreams

In order to take forward the new arrangements five workstreams have been established as follows: -

a) Organisational Design

• To further refine the organisational structure, considering job

descriptions and grades.

b) Capability and Resources

• To assess current skills within the HR function and align these to the future structure, and develop the line manager support toolkits and training requirements.

c) Systems & Infrastructure

• Continue to the implementation of eESS as the IT platform to support the new working arrangements.

d) Service and Processes

• To develop the terms of reference for the service delivery board and design the service level agreements.

e) Communications

• To put in place a communications plan to ensure HR staff, line

managers and wider stakeholders are engaged in the process of change.

6. Next Steps

The post of Director of Human Resources and Organisational Development is being advertised in January 2015. The job descriptions and selections process for the Deputy and Heads of HR will be finalised by the end of February, with matching/selection taking place in March 2015. The workstreams will continue their work during the period and determining when best to make the other changes to support the new working arrangements.

Ian Reid

Director of Human Resources

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