Peer review – the Swindon experience
By Jack Markiewicz, Director of HR and Change at Swindon Council
Four years ago Swindon was rubbing shoulders with authorites at the bottom end of performance in Local Government. Our education service was being run by an external organisation, our finances were in a shocking state and Sir Michael Pitt was drafted in to help us to pull ourselves out of the big black hole we were in.
Four years on, we are in the top five performers and are one of the quickest climbing authorities in terms of performance.
So what’s led to this change?? Our people have done this. They have been given a strong vision, leadership and an energy which we never had before. Leadership is the key to this recovery.
Understanding what the problems are, is the first step to making some transformational changes and , therefore, we asked the IDeA to come and help us to establish our ‘health’ in connection with our people policies and approaches to see where we had got to over the last four years.
We were one of the pilots to go through the process. It’s not easy and takes a little bit of planning, but the value for money consultancy that you get is invaluable. It is also a fantastic way of finding out how fit you are for the CAA assessment which will come next year!!
The peer review team comes in for three days and is made up of two senior HR officers, a councillor and an IDeA lead. The team sees top managers as well as councillors and in our case key partners such as the PCT and Capita with whom we have a close relationship.
The team looks at some predetermined areas such as do we know in the medium and longer term what staff we will need and the skills that these staff will need? Is the workforce productive and skilled?? How well do we engage and support staff?? How well do we achieving diversity and people management best practice and do we have an effective and relevant pay and rewards approach. That just about covers most of what we, in HR, do.
When the team came I also set them a challenge to let us know if the oranisation has the capability to transform and HR’s ability to support transformation.
We involved internal and external partners in the review. One of our greatest successes has been the strong partnerships with the PCT and Capita as our strategic partner. The peer review also helped us to review how the relationship with the external partners is progressing as well as involving our employee forum to get a view of our health from the front line.
Unusually, there is no written report, but a clear and comprehensive feedback session, is delivered, in the third day followed by an action planning event to help the organisation get the best from what the peer review team has found.
It’s a fantastic way of raising the profile of the HR teams and to give us an opportunity to publicise what we do and how well we do it.
So what next. Well the outcomes from the peer review have been incorporated into our business plan and will support the development of a workforce plan. There are some short term issues that we can address but also some longer term ones which will need a bit of resource being allocated.
We had great and very positive feedback and I would recommend any organisation to have a go at such a peer review.
Jack Markiewicz
Director of HR and Change at Swindon Council