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Shortlisted team for Award for HR Strategy: Personnel Today Awards 2000
Worcestershire County Council has only existed for two years, following local government reorganisation and the splitting of Hereford & Worcester. From the start it decided to have a strategy as an organisation and to integrate the human resources function within the strategy.
This may seem an obvious course to take but developing a vision is rarely done in local government, because political control is up for grabs every four years, rendering the possibility that the vision could be changed. This is unlikely in Worcestershire, where the vision is phrased in a manner designed to appeal to all political parties. The aim is to provide a voice for citizens, ensure quality services, communicate with all communities and be a good employer.
Rob Sykes, the chief executive, has begun a culture change from a traditional, rather bureaucratic approach to one based around innovation and serving the customer. He particularly emphasises the importance of departments working together.
He argues that change is constant, not least due to the continual "best value" reviews of performance that the Government has brought in. Worcestershire has few recruitment problems, because it is an attractive place to live, but it can mean the "death of ambition" says Sykes, as people move to stay and retire.
Human resources priorities are based on the objectives of the organisation. The key competencies for management were defined only after the strategy was set and were geared towards trying to achieve the objectives.
HR director Dilys Winn has introduced more consistency in approach, for example by ensuring there are the same appraisal process for all employees, and that the process is geared towards helping the business objectives, but also personal development requirements.
Though there are some common standards across the organisation, Winn has retained separate personnel teams for the service departments, which some councils have dispensed with. This helps ensure some policies can be tailored to the diverse needs of the respective departments.
For example, recruitment does not need to be a corporate priority, but the social services depar
