CPM Peer Review Assessor Training

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excellence in business in Partnership with the
IDeA
Focusing on a Councils greatest asset
The People Management Peer Review An Overview

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Aim of the Benchmark
To provide a model of excellence for people
management and HR provision that promotes and
develops improvement activity, best practice
shared learning, benchmarking and personal
development To support councils in developing
their people capacity to ensure that there are
the right number of people, in the right place,
at the right time, with the appropriate skills,
managed effectively to efficiently deliver
excellent services to local people
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The Key Drivers and Principles

• The modernisation agenda for HR
• The key themes identified in the National Pay
  Workforce Strategy for Local Government
• CPA 2005
• Gershon efficiencies
• The EFQM Excellence Model
• The Investors in People Standard
• CIPD
• The Bottom Line We didnt want to re-invent the
  wheel but we wanted all the good practice in one
  place!

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Strategic People Management Impact on the
Improvement Agenda

• 2008 Self-assessment Agenda will provide
  challenges within the sector, particularly the
  capacity for self improvement
• Strategic management of people can improve
  organisational performance CIPD unlocking the
  black box. The study showed that where effective
  HR practices are not in place, levels of employee
  commitment are up to 90 lower
• 2003 Analysis of CPA identified an HR strategy as
  a key factor in successful people management
• 2006 IDeA/MORI Study highlighted a positive
  relationship between CPA scores and how employees
  feel about their council and how it
• is managed
• Practices that encourage staff to think and
  interact
• are strongly linked to greater productivity
• Employees must be engaged in the improvement
• agenda

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Benefits of the Peer Review

• Provides a full assessment of a councils people
  management arrangements and the contribution of
  the HR function
• Offers an objective and fresh perspective through
  a critical friend style assessment
• Helps councils to understand their strengths,
  areas for improvement and the barriers to making
  progress
• Identifies the key improvement themes and helps
  the council prioritise improvement activity
• Raises the profile and importance of effective
  people management and the role of HR/Personnel
  function within a council
• Supports Best Value Review activity, particularly
  the Challenge aspect

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Benefits of the Peer Review

• Helps support a councils preparations for future
  CPA inspections
• Contributes to the councils overall capacity to
  improve and become more efficient
• Highlights the links between effective people
  management and the provision of better quality
  services
• Helps to ensure employees have the skills and
  competencies to deliver efficient, quality
  services
• Helps to promote, develop, and share best
  practice through joint working and collaboration
• Identifies potential efficiency gains in line
  with Gershon through improved management of
  people and
• Raises levels of self-awareness and encourages
  benchmarking

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Brief Summary

• A brief self-assessment from the council precedes
  a 2-3 day site visit leading to a succinct report
  and feedback presentation 40 person days of input
• The typical elapsed timescale for a review is 2-3
  months
• The cost ranges from 8,450 to 10,995 and
  capacity building funding may be available to
  councils
• Suitable for all tiers
• Relevant for challenge of unitary and enhanced
  two tier working
• Compliments restructuring and organisational
  reviews

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Dont just take our word for it! What the
customer has to say
To date, 11 councils have had a review and 5 are
in the pipeline
The Peer Review was a real catalyst to the HR
senior team who found the process from self
assessment to discussing findings very helpful in
further improving our understanding of how to
take the People agendas forward. From a
strategic HR perspective the value it can bring
to the CPA assessment process is a major
consideration not withstanding the value it
brings to my ability to further improve the HR
service Mirriam Lawton, Assistant Chief
Executive People Performance, Tameside MBC
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Formal Evaluation
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Dont just take our word for it! What the
customer has to say
East Herts Council has found the Review to be
stimulating and has clearly set out for us the
challenge of where we need to drive forward
improvement. The Teams open and receptive
approach ensured that the Review process itself
started to create the learning environment we
wanted even before we had the results. We found
the Team to be very flexible and recognised that
the Review, although important, shouldnt
distract us from our daily work. As a small
district council that was very welcome Anne
Fisher, Chief Executive, East Herts DC
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Formal Evaluation
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Benchmark Development and Piloting

• The development and piloting phase was carried
  out by Excellence in Business between October
  2004 and 31 March 2005 with support funding from
  the national Employers Organisation
• Involved consultation with councils and other
  stakeholders
• A pilot review was carried out in each of the
  four regions
• Doncaster MBC
• Walsall MBC
• Derwentside DC
• Manchester City
• The PM framework and Peer Review process were
  subsequently modified and improved based on
  evaluation and learning from the pilots and
  further consultation

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The People Management Benchmark Making the
Links

• Leaders determine the high-level Strategy for
  people management with the Council
• They ensure that that there is an appropriate
  Delivery model in place, including management
  arrangements and processes, to translate the high
  level strategy into Operational Results and
  outcomes
• Learning from the implementation of people
  management arrangements and the results achieved
  is used to drive continuous improvement within
  the Council

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The People Management Benchmark
Leadership
OPERATIONAL RESULTS
STRATEGY
DELIVERY
Learning
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The People Management Benchmark
Clear Vision Values
Leadership
Change Management
Strategic Leadership
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The People Management Benchmark
HR Strategy
Strategy
Diverse Workforce
Build Release Capacity
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The People Management Benchmark
Key Processes
Delivery
Appropriate HR Function
Employee relations
Performance Management
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The People Management Benchmark
Staff Satisfaction
Operational Results
People Related PIs
Customer Stakeholder Perceptions
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The People Management Benchmark
Learning
Self-Aware
Learning Organisation
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The Peer Review Process
Feedback to Council
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Feedback from Peers The benefits are clearly
two-way
"As an elected Member Peer Assessor the programme
is a great opportunity to see, at close quarters,
how other Local Authorities manage their human
resources. The assessment process involves
talking to to cross section of the Council's
people from the Council Leader and Chief
Executive to staff working in, for example, call
centres on the front line of service provision.
This is a unique and privileged opportunity
to learn about the Councils HR function and I
certainly learned a great deal to take back to my
own authority. Councilor John Lamb Trafford
MBC "A bonus from the peer review process is the
opportunity to take new ideas and best practice
back to your own council. Being trained as an
assessor by Excellence in Business has given me
new skills which have enabled me to play a full
and active role in my authority, especially in
the area of scrutiny. Councillor Richard
Chattaway - Warwickshire County Council
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Feedback from Peers The benefits are clearly
two-way
 "Being an assessor is an invaluable learning
experience, a chance to see how other authorities
tackle common problems and issues. I'm confident
I contributed to the process of improvement in
the Council under review but I am equally certain
that I, and my Council, also benefit from taking
part" Andy Albon, Director of Human Resources,
Birmingham City Council Carrying out an
assessment of the people management arrangements
added valuable insight to the problems faced by
other authorities, an opportunity to share ideas
and learn from others successes . Contacts made
during the assessment have been maintained
afterwards to the benefit of both
councils" Tracey Parkin, HR Manager, Rotherham
MBC
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The Value of the Review

• The following are examples of feedback from
  councils
• Didnt just focus on the negatives and reminded
  us of our strengths which we had taken for
  granted
• Led to the development of an outcome rather
  than activity focused Improvement Plan for the
  HR Service
• Enabled us to improve and strengthen our
  submissions for CPA Direction of Travel, IiP
  re-assessment Charter Mark

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The Value of the Review

• It offered a quick turnaround - approached EiB at
  the end of July and the review was completed by
  the end of September
• Involved an honest, open and challenging
  assessment from people with first hand experience
• Provided constructive feedback on our
  transformation plans identified genuine
  improvements
• Highlighted that managers were not taking
  responsibility for people management
  particularly the difficult issues
• Identified the need to introduce a bespoke
  Leadership Management Development programme
• Told us we needed to improve the arrangements for
  Leaders, including Members, to recognise staff
  achievement

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The Value of the Review

• Highlighted our lack of ability to demonstrate
  the effectiveness of our people management
  arrangements due to a lack of appropriate PIs
• Pointed out the impact that the absence of an SLA
  for HR was having on the council
• Confirmed the lack of capacity within the HR
  function, particularly in relation to strategic
  advice
• Identified gaps in our approach from the
  strategic to the obvious ones (that we had
  missed)
• Provided a clear road map and set of priorities
  for where we wanted to get to

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The Value of the Review

• Constructively brought some difficult messages to
  our attention e.g. our people management
  framework was too top down
• Made us realise we needed to develop positive
  action programmes to fully address issues
  regarding equalities and diversity
• Highlighted the negative impact of not
  transferring/embedding learning across the
  council
• Picked up the fact that employees believed they
  were not being effectively engaged in our change
  programme

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Medium Term Impact
As a result of the peer review the HR function
was radically changed in Doncaster. Principally
this was shown by creating a strong corporate
one council approach. The council now has a fit
for purpose HR function that has successfully
dealt with many strategic challenges and as a
result received national recognition as well as
being listed by the Guardian as Top
Employer. Mandy Coalter, HR Director, Doncaster
Council July 2006
Making the Difference! We are currently
undertaking an Impact Evaluation to establish
the short and medium term impact of the Reviews
to date on the councils people management
arrangements and CPA ratings
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excellence in business in Partnership with the
IDeA
Key Contacts EiB Richard Roddie 01642
345629 client.service_at_excellenceinbusiness.com
IDeA Jill Martin 020 7296 6803 jill.martin_at_ide
a.gov.uk