Dear Member,
I have today written to HR Director Graham White and Chief Executive Mike More to express our concerns over the railroading of staff through the upcoming slection process. Through the Westminster UNISON Steering Group, it has become clear that members feel as though they are being rushed through the selection process without fully understanding it.
Whilst I have heard that point of view loud and clear from our steering group, I would like to hear from the wider membership on how they are feeling prior to going through selection. To that aim I have created the following (very short) survey so that I can gauge members views.
Filling in this survey will give us a more accurate picture of feeling and allow us to make representations to HR on postponing the process to allow for better communications with staff.
Please also be aware that the council have issued a further Staff Survey and it is important that members fill this in too as it goes a long way to substantiating our arguments.
Below is the letter sent to Graham and Mike.
Dear Graham and Mike,
The UNISON steering group met this morning and one of the clear issues to come out is that members from across the council feel confused and ill-informed about the upcoming selection process.
There seems to be conflicting messages coming out both about the nature of the interview questions and the personal statements.
Members are unclear as to what exactly they will be questioned on and how these answers will impact on their selection for a particular role.
There seems to be a worrying communications ‘dead zone' between the messages delivered corporately to managers and the ones staff on the ground are receiving. Whilst I recognise that a lot of work is being done centrally to keep members informed it is obvious that not all of this information is coming through and in some cases it is simply inaccurate.
I have heard this morning of one case where members were informed of vacancies in their unit (at a higher band) on Wednesday and told to submit personal statements in application by Monday morning. This is simply not enough notice for someone to prepare an application for a high level post. Not to mention the fact that according to corporate guidance this application should be made on an internal application form and not via a personal statement. Additional 5 members from Street Management were told yesterday that they could expect to be interviewed on Tuesday.
Staff are due to receive today notification of whether they have been accepted for voluntary redundancy and this will obviously have an impact on the amount of staff who are actually vulnerable to compulsory redundancy and in certain cases could lead to an assimilation of all staff in the unit. Surely this assimilation work needs to be completed well ahead of the rest of the selection process?
The current deadline laid down for the submission of personal statements (18th August) has lead to members feeling as though they are being ‘railroaded' through the process. Members need to be given more time to prepare their personal statements and the deadline for their submission should be initially suspended for two weeks (2nd September) to allow for the negotiation of a more reasonable timescale.
Whilst I understand the need for staff to be clear on their future, any selection process which appears to be rushed through will only lead to major problems for both the Council and its valued staff in the future.
Regards
Stephen Higgins
Branch Secretary
Westminster UNISON
