This meeting of the Employment Committee was scheduled to include an update on Surrey Heath Borough Council's People Strategy, and to discuss changes to the Council's policy for dealing with bullying and harassment. The committee was also scheduled to be provided with an overview of the makeup of the council's workforce.

Pay Settlement 2025/26

This item was listed on the agenda as being confidential and not for discussion in public, so no documents were provided.

People Strategy Annual Update

The People Strategy is intended to guide Surrey Heath Borough Council in creating a workforce and working environment that meets the needs of the council and its employees.

The purpose of the People Strategy is to help address key challenges to create a workforce and working environment that:

• Is attractive and welcoming to all with an organisational brand that enables Surrey Heath to stand out in a highly competitive employment market
• Delivers high performance through clear priorities, effective empowerment and positive performance management, and by successfully aligning the needs of the employee with the needs of the organisation
• Builds workforce resilience in terms of skills, innovation, succession planning, health and wellbeing, retention and change agility

The meeting was scheduled to receive an update on the progress made on implementing the strategy during 2024/25. The committee was also scheduled to be asked to approve a plan of work to further implement the People Strategy during 2025/26.

Dignity & Respect at Work Policy

The Committee was scheduled to be asked to adopt a revised Dignity & Respect at Work Policy. The revised policy included a number of changes from the previous policy, including updated definitions of bullying and harassment, new guidance for staff accused of bullying or harassment, and a new section on malicious allegations.

The policy makes clear what is and is not considered to be bullying and harassment:

However, other forms of behaviour would be unwelcome too, or could offend a particular person e.g. certain “banter”, flirting or asking someone for a private drink after work. In these cases, first-time conduct which unintentionally causes offence will not be harassment, but it will become harassment if the conduct continues after the recipient has made it clear, by words or conduct, that such behaviour is unacceptable to them.

It also makes clear the council's approach to dealing with allegations:

All complaints of bullying or harassment will be taken seriously by the Council. The Council will also take seriously any allegations proven to have been made maliciously.

An implementation plan was provided, setting out how the council plans to raise awareness of the policy and ensure that staff are familiar with it. The plan includes mandatory training for all staff, a communications campaign and an organisational risk assessment.

Recruitment of a permanent Chief Executive

This item was listed on the agenda as being confidential and not for discussion in public, so no documents were provided.

Workforce Profile 2023/24

The committee was scheduled to receive a report on the profile of the council's workforce, which provided a statistical breakdown of the council's employees by a variety of characteristics including age, disability, ethnicity and gender.

Work Programme

The committee was scheduled to review its work programme for the remainder of the 2024/25 municipal year. The work programme included items on the pay settlement for 2024/25, the Speak Up Policy annual report, and the Chief Executive Pay Award. The committee was also scheduled to be asked to agree to a number of new items for inclusion on the work programme, including a report from the Resident Services & Communities Portfolio Holder, a review of the Policy Programme and to set the work programme and priorities for 2025/26.