A new guide has been published to help tackle the staff retention crisis in local authority place services.
Council directors’ body ADEPT said skills gaps are having a serious impact on how councils provide services and that to help address this, it has published Employee Retention – a great practice guide, created in partnership with Colas
Work initially carried out by the Future Highways Research Group looking at the highways sector found that the number of unfilled vacancies and skills shortages were significant and causing considerable problems for councils.
‘But what also emerged was a number of key measures that employees particularly valued that local authorities could adopt,’ ADEPT said.
Building on this, ADEPT and Colas brought together key partners to examine the challenges across place services more generally, and to identify great practice examples on how to improve staff retention at all levels.
The 11 examples outlined in the guide include professional development, mentoring and support, offering a better work-life balance and training opportunities tailored to place.
ADEPT president Anthony Payne said: ‘ The guide is designed to provide local authorities with ideas not only on how to retain staff, but how to be the kind of employer where people are valued and choose to stay.
‘Aside from the long term benefits of greater job security and well-structured pension plans, the careers we offer can provide so much variety with the chance to develop across many different areas of interest. Our employees also have an unrivalled opportunity to make a difference to the places and communities where they live.’
Mark Saunders, client director at Colas, said: ‘In the course of gathering material for the guide, we spoke to a large number of local authorities and their stakeholders, and the issue of staff retention is common across almost every organisation.
‘It quickly became evident that there is a wealth of good practice and lots of positive ideas about how to address it, I hope this guide proves useful in sharing these.’
For more information, visit adeptnet.org.uk/workforce.
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