Sunday Times: Job security vanishes for council staff
IS it possible to be an ambitious go-getter and not work in the private sector? And does working in the public service always mean better working conditions and more security -but less pay? That has always been seen as the case, but is it still true?
A recent survey shows the best councils offer competitive salaries, flexible working hours and training, as well as perks such as gym memberships, quit smoking groups and yoga. But, despite all this, council staff appear to be more insecure about their jobs than those working in the private sector.
The Times Best Councils to Work For survey showed that almost half (49.2%) are over 45, compared with 23.6% of private-company employees. And nearly 38% have been with their council for more than a decade, against 17.3% in the private sector.
While one might assume that such career longevity would make them feel more secure, 38.3% answered negatively in reply to the question, "I feel my job is secure", compared with a mere 17.1% working for private companies. More surprisingly, 31.1% of those at the top five councils feared losing their jobs.
Peter Gilroy, chief executive of Kent county council -the largest council in Britain, with nearly 30,000 staff and an annual turnover of Pounds 1.8billion - said: "The public want good access and that requires an enormous shift of attitude on the part of staff, which creates a feeling of insecurity for many people. So I'm not surprised by the survey.
"A whole chunk of high- performing local-government operations are in the middle of transforming their services. If you are transforming the front end of the business, you will inevitably create anxiety as you are asking people to do things differently and you are quite often rationalising processes. As people leave, you do not replace them as you create new processes, which can create even more anxiety."
One of the big changes is in information technology, said Gilroy. "In our front office we now have a single call-centre technology instead of having lots of reception areas with lots of phone numbers. This single phone number is changing the way people deal with us and the way we deal with the public.
"But part of the journey is to turn that into an opportunity for people to see the future differently. This is going on in the best councils and is creating a more dynamic workforce. As a result, you will see a whole range of things happening alongside it, such as flexible working and home working."
The survey also finds that although salaries in the best councils are competitive, 71.5% of council employees do no overtime, compared with 52.1% in private mid-sized firms. Perhaps that is why there are twice as many people employed in companies (28.2%) being paid more than Pounds 35,000 than there are in councils overall (14.6%).
However, some people in the public sector earn much more than that. Gilroy was reportedly the highest-paid council chief in 2005-6, on Pounds 229,999, followed by Gerald Jones at Wandsworth in London (Pounds 227,424). Renfrewshire's Tom Scholes actually received more at Pounds 233,029, but this included a Pounds 113,015 redundancy payment.
At the time, Tony Blair was paid Pounds 186,429, prompting Corin Taylor of the Taxpayers' Alliance to say: "Council taxpayers are entitled to ask why someone should be better rewarded for running services in Kent or Wandsworth than running a country."
But Gilroy said that, despite the publicity, he didn't get a "massive reaction" from staff when his salary was announced. "The public expect more and more with less and less. If you are going to pay low salaries to those people concerned with that, don't expect to get results," he said.
"The real issue is whether as a public authority you can do your best to create an environment where your staff feel that they are working for an employer who actually cares about them, who wants them to be more productive but makes sure they are well looked after and cared for."
Risk-taking is another reason why council workers may feel less secure about their work, he said. "If you're into serious innovation, which we are now in the public sector, that means you take risks. And when you take risks they're everywhere, not just for politicians but for staff, too."
Many council staff like stability, but recognise that there are no more "jobs for life".
And do government efficiency reviews also place undue stress on public employees?
"I'm not too sure that having big inspections with 150 inspectors all coming in at once is the right way to do things," Gilroy said.
"People get upset by the process of being overloaded with bureaucracy and performance indicators and frameworks. The government has acknowledged that recently and is trying to do its best to reduce that load, and it is becoming more concerned about outcomes.
"Celebrating the bit of your organisation that is doing well and celebrating an action plan to improve other things is the right way to motivate people, said Gilroy. "If you have too many parents coming in and criticising people, looking at the things going wrong instead of the things going right, you demotivate your workforce."
The key to successful leadership was creating an environment in which relationships were the most important criterion, he said. "How we look after and treat one another is the most important thing. It sounds trite but it's not airy-fairy; it's the hardest thing to remember. It might sound simple but it's the simple things that matter."
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