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Talking with Janet Cox (& Patrick John) of Rochford District Council (7th June 2011)
Janet Cox is People and Personnel Manager for Rochford District Council. A little while back we produced an article, “The Making of News” in which we said how we’d like to know more about the process that brought about the award of Gold Investors in People for RDC. Janet and Patrick offered to educate us. Let’s see how well they did.
Rochford Life: Janet, may we ask how long you’ve been doing this job?
Janet: I’ve been here about four or five years of working through the restructuring, for this is a new team that’s just come together, so this post used to be the human Resources Post, dealing with a lot of the training and development issues.
Janet Cox is People and Personnel Manager for Rochford District Council. A little while back we produced an article, “The Making of News” in which we said how we’d like to know more about the process that brought about the award of Gold Investors in People for RDC. Janet and Patrick offered to educate us. Let’s see how well they did.
Rochford Life: Janet, may we ask how long you’ve been doing this job?
Janet: I’ve been here about four or five years of working through the restructuring, for this is a new team that’s just come together, so this post used to be the human Resources Post, dealing with a lot of the training and development issues.
RL: What is it that drives policy?
Janet: Policy is driven by the council’s overall strategy and that is articulated in the corporate plan which is just being refreshed and that’s where they talk about the vision and overarching objectives and what each service will be focusing on as key priorities.
RL: When did you first get linked up with Investors in People?
Janet: We are an investor in people and we have been an investor in people since 2005. There is a three year plan of things that you will do to maintain that. We were re-awarded that in 2007 and at that point the assessor had said we were doing some fantastic stuff – he said, I can’t recognise that in the standard and can only give you the standard but I’m telling you are an exemplar in certain areas, and that for us was excellent. I have to say that it is our people, our staff, who have got this award for us; it’s actually the staff who have done this and we’re so proud of them.
Janet: Policy is driven by the council’s overall strategy and that is articulated in the corporate plan which is just being refreshed and that’s where they talk about the vision and overarching objectives and what each service will be focusing on as key priorities.
RL: When did you first get linked up with Investors in People?
Janet: We are an investor in people and we have been an investor in people since 2005. There is a three year plan of things that you will do to maintain that. We were re-
RL: It’s been said to me that you have had to conform to well over 100 standards to achieve gold.
Janet: When IIP changed and they could give recognition for bronze and silver and gold, there are set pieces of evidence at those stages, which they look for. There is a wheel that they use - around “plan, do, and review”. Around those are the things that you would look for. Those are the overarching themes and underneath that are the things the assessor will look for, for example, you will look to see if you have a community strategy, to see if you have a social responsibility strategy, so there are lots of plans that they would be looking for, how you organize yourself to be an investor.
RL: So you will have a strategy for every one of the ‘Plan’ things on this circle.
Janet: Absolutely! We are able to show evidence that that is what we do, and the absolute aim is to improve, and what is our learning around that and how can we improve and deliver those services for Rochford residents. It does all come back to services because the investment is in the right people in post, their skills, and that enhances our service delivery.
RL: Is there a clear distinction between the documents that are public and those that are working?
Janet: The policies and strategies are public documents; the internal training development plans are things that we work with, with internal heads, and those are quite specific, for they are how we must manage the delivery of those services.
RL: Are those policies on the website?
Janet: They should be.
RL: If we may be personal for a moment or two, may we ask your background, what brings you to do this particular job?
Janet: My background is very much human resources. Part of my role was based at county with heads of HR from across the county authorities. One of the things we’ve been able to do at Rochford is work very closely with other authorities and share expertise and knowledge. It has grown over time and my passion is ensuring that staff are confident and developed in their roles. I am enabling them to get the skills that they need to be confident in the delivery of services and to see them grow. At Rochford we will have a clear career pathway so if I develop in this area or this area, I can now do this, so for the individual member of staff they feel supported and very well managed, and there is a management development programme. All of that is a robust package that really ensures that we support our staff.
Janet: When IIP changed and they could give recognition for bronze and silver and gold, there are set pieces of evidence at those stages, which they look for. There is a wheel that they use -
RL: So you will have a strategy for every one of the ‘Plan’ things on this circle.
Janet: Absolutely! We are able to show evidence that that is what we do, and the absolute aim is to improve, and what is our learning around that and how can we improve and deliver those services for Rochford residents. It does all come back to services because the investment is in the right people in post, their skills, and that enhances our service delivery.
RL: Is there a clear distinction between the documents that are public and those that are working?
Janet: The policies and strategies are public documents; the internal training development plans are things that we work with, with internal heads, and those are quite specific, for they are how we must manage the delivery of those services.
RL: Are those policies on the website?
Janet: They should be.
RL: If we may be personal for a moment or two, may we ask your background, what brings you to do this particular job?
Janet: My background is very much human resources. Part of my role was based at county with heads of HR from across the county authorities. One of the things we’ve been able to do at Rochford is work very closely with other authorities and share expertise and knowledge. It has grown over time and my passion is ensuring that staff are confident and developed in their roles. I am enabling them to get the skills that they need to be confident in the delivery of services and to see them grow. At Rochford we will have a clear career pathway so if I develop in this area or this area, I can now do this, so for the individual member of staff they feel supported and very well managed, and there is a management development programme. All of that is a robust package that really ensures that we support our staff.
The Investors in People framework has three core principles:
· Plan: Develop strategies to improve performance.
· Do: Take action to improve performance.
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Review: Evaluate and improve performance.
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The three principles breakdown into ten indicators, as you can see in the wheel diagram. 'Plan' has four strategies, starting with Business Strategy. There are then four action-focused indicators to help you 'Do' what’s in your plan. And finally 'Review' encourages you to evaluate results and feed them into continuous improvement for the future.
RL: Patrick, previously you said you had a small part in this?
Patrick: You know my role here is communications and facilitating communications. It is not just externally but also internally, making sure that Rochford as a council has good communications, and we have all sorts of avenues and different ways of communicating, whether it is internally with our internal staff website which is one channel of communication that we have, or bathroom posters that will be put out conveying information, this is part of the IIP process, to meet the IIP standards, so that we are sure there is, for want of a better term, a conversation. The breadth of services that we provide is huge and it is a large authority. We wanted to make sure that staff knew that what they did on a personal level and professional level fitted with the authority as a whole but not just that; we wanted everyone to gain an understanding of what other departments do and how they fit and how we are all working towards a single aim and the outcome is that we have a gold standard. We have achieved an awful lot of those aims. My role in that was to enable the conversation to exist and to facilitate it.
Janet: And that facilitating of conversation and communication got staff thinking about their own role and how they fitted in. The assessor came in and interviewed a whole range of staff, randomly selected by him from the staffing list, and they were able to individually talk about how they fitted in, and the report that came back was that he was very impressed and talked about us being an exemplar, so that’s coming from the staff.
RL: If we may back track to the process presumably in 2005 in respect of IIP, somebody said, we’re going to do this?
Janet: Well 2005 was before my time; I was involved in the renewal from 2007, but that was about, and always has been about, ensuring that we can say, hands on heart, that we are on the right track, and there is a confirmation that we are on the right track, and we’ve got everything in place. What we’re left with then at the assessment of 2007 is that you could do more around staff engagement, you could do more around well being, you could do more around career matrices, so that gave us the kind of framework for heads of service to think about what they might want to get from their people. For us if here it’s a very real, tangible benefit in that you may think about these themes and enhancing those skills, so that you can deliver those services at the end of the day. That makes it very real and not something you to as an add-on; it is really embed here.
RL: Very often in this sort of thing the emphasis is upon what management can get out of staff. May I ask about the wellbeing of the staff in this process? Do they feel good about it?
Janet: The last staff survey was carried out - we do an annual survey - the staff survey feedback was around involvement, engagement, having a voice, having a say, and the staff forum was a direct result of that, so representation comes from whoever wants involvement, and that’s led by the chief executive. If need be we will make provision to help individuals through any difficulties, juggling home commitments and that sort of thing. Our policies reflect that of course, having a flexible approach, and the feedback that we are getting indicates that we are very much on the right track. Certainly the assessor saw a lot of that through the interviews, and that he is telling us that we are very much doing the right thing, and staff are feeling the benefit.
RL: Well thank you very much. I realise you are very busy and I appreciate the time you’ve given us. Thank you again. You’ve shed quite a lot of light, given us a lot of food for thought and a further incentive to go digging in the depths of the RDC website. I may be back!
Patrick: You know my role here is communications and facilitating communications. It is not just externally but also internally, making sure that Rochford as a council has good communications, and we have all sorts of avenues and different ways of communicating, whether it is internally with our internal staff website which is one channel of communication that we have, or bathroom posters that will be put out conveying information, this is part of the IIP process, to meet the IIP standards, so that we are sure there is, for want of a better term, a conversation. The breadth of services that we provide is huge and it is a large authority. We wanted to make sure that staff knew that what they did on a personal level and professional level fitted with the authority as a whole but not just that; we wanted everyone to gain an understanding of what other departments do and how they fit and how we are all working towards a single aim and the outcome is that we have a gold standard. We have achieved an awful lot of those aims. My role in that was to enable the conversation to exist and to facilitate it.
Janet: And that facilitating of conversation and communication got staff thinking about their own role and how they fitted in. The assessor came in and interviewed a whole range of staff, randomly selected by him from the staffing list, and they were able to individually talk about how they fitted in, and the report that came back was that he was very impressed and talked about us being an exemplar, so that’s coming from the staff.
RL: If we may back track to the process presumably in 2005 in respect of IIP, somebody said, we’re going to do this?
Janet: Well 2005 was before my time; I was involved in the renewal from 2007, but that was about, and always has been about, ensuring that we can say, hands on heart, that we are on the right track, and there is a confirmation that we are on the right track, and we’ve got everything in place. What we’re left with then at the assessment of 2007 is that you could do more around staff engagement, you could do more around well being, you could do more around career matrices, so that gave us the kind of framework for heads of service to think about what they might want to get from their people. For us if here it’s a very real, tangible benefit in that you may think about these themes and enhancing those skills, so that you can deliver those services at the end of the day. That makes it very real and not something you to as an add-
RL: Very often in this sort of thing the emphasis is upon what management can get out of staff. May I ask about the wellbeing of the staff in this process? Do they feel good about it?
Janet: The last staff survey was carried out -
RL: Well thank you very much. I realise you are very busy and I appreciate the time you’ve given us. Thank you again. You’ve shed quite a lot of light, given us a lot of food for thought and a further incentive to go digging in the depths of the RDC website. I may be back!
Useful Links:
Investors in People Framework: CLICK HERE Investors in People front page: CLICK HERE
RDC Corporate Plan 2010 -
Extract from the Corporate Plan 2010 – 2015 : Our Vision for Rochford
The Council’s vision is shared with that of the Local Strategic Partnership:
To make Rochford District a place which provides opportunities for the best possible quality of life for all who live, work and visit here.
The Council cannot deliver all services and improvements without its partners. To that end we are involved in a range of partnerships. The overarching partnership for Rochford is the Rochford Local Strategic Partnership (LSP) which includes a range of partners. The LSP is responsible for delivering the Sustainable Communities Strategy 2009 – 2021 which identifies shared priorities for the District.
The LSP also links the partners to the broader county Local Area Agreement. This is an agreement between central and local government. It includes a number of performance targets that the partnership works towards.
To support this, the Council has four main corporate objectives for 2010 – 2015, these are:
- Making a difference to our people
- Making a difference to our community
- Making a difference to our environment
- Making a difference to our local economy