Agenda item

Briefing note

The Board considered a briefing note which provided information on the Recruitment & Selection EDI monitoring data at the application, shortlisting and appointment stages of the recruitment process in respect of the three groups of employees who had been identified as being under-represented across the Council.

In 2019 the Council signed up to the West Midlands Combined Authority’s (WMCA) Inclusive Leadership Pledge which asked senior leaders to commit to promoting diversity and to embedding inclusivity into our organisation’s ethos and culture so that every employee had a fair opportunity in recruitment, promotion and progression.

In December 2020 the Council launched its Workforce Diversity & Inclusion Strategy and as part of the strategy the composition of the workforce was analysed. Details of the analyses were shown in the briefing note. The information gathered identified that there were three key under-presented groups of employees within the workforce, and that there was more work to do to ensure that the workforce better reflected the diverse communities that the Council served.  This data provided a focus for the work going forward.

To support the Council’s diversity & inclusion ambitions and to act as an enabler to this process, the Council had successfully procured a new ATS known as Tribepad in 2020.  Through the implementation of the Tribepad system the Council was able to introduce an anonymised process whereby all personal information and any information which might identify an applicant is removed which ensured that applicants were shortlisted solely on the criteria for the role. According to the Greater London Authority (2020), evidence showed that ethnic minority job applicants were less likely to be successful based on the personal information they provide on application forms or CVs, such as their name and where they live.

Tribepad had enabled a step change in our ability to deliver anonymised recruitment as it encrypted candidate personal details until after interview invites had been sent.  Hiring Manager self service facilities reduced duplication of work as Managers were able to complete tasks themselves in the system, rather than fill in forms to send to Resourcing to undertake the tasks.  Managers could see at a glance any internal candidates whose jobs were currently at risk, or who were redeployees, and candidates with disabilities.  In general, the facilities in Tribepad had helped to reduce time to hire and improve the recruitment processes. Positive feedback had been received from both candidates and hiring managers.

As part of the presentation, the Board were given a demonstration of ‘Tribepad’ showing the system from both an applicant and a manager perspective.

The Board questioned Officers and received responses on a number of matters including what the aim of anonymised recruiting was and how its success was measured.  In response, the Board noted that the system helped in ensuring a fair opportunity for all and the recruitment of the best person for the job.  It was acknowledged however that when it came to the interview process, work needed to be done and that was in hand through training and reviewing interviewee feedback.

In addition, the following were part of the ongoing recruitment and selection initiatives:

• Advertising on diversity job board
• Relaunching Council’s Careers landing pages
• ‘Recruiting for workforce diversity’ training
• Diversity and Inclusion data monitoring using Tribepad

In respect of the recruiting for workforce diversity training, the Board asked that all Members be offered this training specifically for their role as school governors who sat on recruitment panels or those who are involved in the appointment to City Council senior manager posts. 

RESOLVED that the Board note the contents of the Briefing Note and request that Members have the opportunity to undertake the ‘Recruiting for workforce diversity’ training.