Minutes

2        AGILE ORGANISATION POLICIES – The Director: Economy and Environment submitted a report seeking approval for two new policies; the Agile Organisation policy and Agile Working policy.

The council currently had an Agile Working policy and a Homeworking policy, both policies were developed pre-pandemic.  The Agile Working policy was last updated in November 2018 and was designed to aid the shift to WorkWell principles at the time of the move of the main office space from the Civic Centre to Church Square House.  The Homeworking policy was mainly for employees, who pre-pandemic, were contracted to work exclusively at home.

The pandemic had changed the way the council worked, and practices and guidance had been in place and had continued to evolve since 2020 to support the frequently changing nature of that time.  Now the council was at a point where these practices, initially instigated by WorkWell and further developed throughout the pandemic, had settled to such a way that the formal policies could be updated.

The new Agile Organisation policy was an overarching policy in the new policy format that provided a set of guiding principles for how the council worked in an agile way.  It also set out the expectations on employees and managers in terms of how and where employees work.

The updated Agile Working policy explained the council’s four ‘workstyles’ which covered the different ways which staff could work.  It also covered workspaces, community hubs and considerations for home working.  It had useful information on how to ensure connectivity, including on team charters which set out how teams agreed to work together to support connectivity and wellbeing whilst delivering outcomes.

The council had a very well developed agility as part of its ‘Living with COVID-19 Framework’ which gave the flexibility to work across the four new ‘workstyles’ as appropriate in order to respond to any peaks in infection rates or new variants.  With this agility now embedded across the workforce the formal policies would reflect the current practice.

In addition, the existing Homeworking policy would be retired, although for now, a very small number of employees would continue with contracts that provide for them to work exclusively at home. 

Resolved – (a) That the draft Agile Organisation and Agile Working policies be approved and (b) that the Homeworking policy be retired.