www.themj.co.uk HR focus20 10.05.2012

How are we fostering innovative working?How can we make the most progress through innovation in local government. Joan Munro asked some of the key chief executives in the sector for their views

These were some of our questions when we created the ‘Accelerating in-novation in local government project’ last year. Since then, we have inter-viewed 15 leading chief executives, held discussions with two groups of chief executives, and consulted with the sector more widely.

We have found an enormous varia-tion in the appetite for innovation in different councils. Some councils see the current resource challenges as an opportunity to reshape and rethink their organisations, and what they want to achieve. Others are taking a much more incremental approach.

Most are encouraging managers to do ‘do things differently’. As Lewi-sham LBC’s chief executive, Barry Quirk, commented: ‘Most people’s mental model of innovation is that it is driven by a great idea which stems from a politician or a manager, or a policy person, or from some techno-logical change.

‘But most successful innovations are at the service interface, between operational managers and leading-edge service-users.’

Many chief executives recognise the importance of employees with fresh perspectives and new ideas. As Jan Ormondroyd, Bristol City Council’s chief executive, observed: ‘There is something, it is not just about young-er people, but also newer members of staff, who think differently. And, en-couraging that, not having them com-pletely constrained by organisational boundaries, is going to be even more important in the future.’

Roger Kelly, Gateshead MBC’s chief executive until March, paid tribute to the way that working with ‘funky peo-ple’ from the arts community, helped to make creative thinking an organisa-tional norm.

Many barriers can thwart innova-tion, as Norfolk CC’s chief executive, David White, described: ‘We spent a lot of time overcoming the barriers to innovation, such as limited discre-tionary spend, bureaucracy, risk aver-sion and media pressure.’

Radical innovations take commit-ment and persistence, which can be

difficult for authorities where political control changes regularly. And a hos-tile local press can make politicians re-luctant to do anything experimental.

Most organisations only have the time and resources to drive through major innovations in a handful of ar-eas. A number of authorities admitted they had too many priorities, and they were not clear as to where the biggest innovations were needed.

Surprisingly, given rising adult care costs, not all larger authorities are making this a priority area for long-term innovations. Most are introduc-ing personalisation, and many tele-care and more sheltered housing, but few are experimenting in other ways.

Overall, even in the most forward-looking councils, there was scope for doing more to encourage innovation. For example, few councils had trained their managers in innovation proc-esses, and few had expertise in the lat-est technology which might be used to support innovations.

So far, we have just talked to people at the top of councils. In the next stage of the project, we will be running focus groups with frontline staff to find out what they say encourages – or discour-ages – them from being innovative.

We have used the learning so far to produce a short ‘Local councils’ inno-vation framework’. Senior managers and politicians can use the framework to reflect on whether there is more they might do to encourage innovative working in their councils.

The framework and more details about the project are available on www.reativity.city.ac.uk/accelerating_lo-cal_govt_innov.html. n

Joan Munro is project leader for Accel-erating innovation in local government

Many chief executives recognise the importance of employees with fresh perspectives and new ideas

A victim of the downturn last year in local authority budgets and the grim task of making job cuts, the annual Public Sector People Managers’ (PPMA) conference was cancelled for 2011.

This year, it was back, although in more modest surroundings, in keep-ing with the austere times, especially in HR departments.

The venue was a former Rowton House, a hostel for down and out men constructed in 1903, and now a hotel in the old Irish quarter of Birmingham, which is now one of the city’s last ma-jor regeneration areas.

While delegates were hardly paying the original 6d a day in return for bed, food, a library, smoking room and shared bath facilities, the accommoda-tion, I can assure the Daily Mail and the Taxpayers’ Alliance, was of com-fortable but inexpensive fare, in keep-ing, as I mentioned above, with the hairshirt regime that all council offic-ers now adopt.

Despite, or perhaps because of the venue, the atmosphere was upbeat, convivial and positive, a gathering of old friends and new, with a packed and well-attended programme under the strapline ‘Full steam ahead’, and even an after-dinner comedian from the public sector, Alfie Moore, a serving police officer.

Congratulations for a well-organised event must go to new president, Mar-tin Rayson, head of HR at Barking and Dagenham LBC.

Outgoing president, Anne Gibson,

HR chief at Norfolk CC, set the tone by pointing out the PPMA’s aim is ‘to en-ergise the industry, looking beyond the financial cuts and downsizing to the agenda for 2012 and beyond’.

Reminding delegates that ‘things will never be the same again’, she add-ed: ‘If we are to provide the right sup-port for our organisations at the right time, it’s important for all of us in HR to have a clear understanding of the drivers of change.’

She described them as ‘a triple whammy’, namely, rising customer ex-pectations, the age of austerity and public policy reform. Of the first, Anne said this was well under way through customer service centres even before the economic downturn.

The second, austerity, is well docu-mented, but she mentioned a predic-tion of 900,000 fewer public sector employees by 2017.

But the third, public sector reform, was, in her view, the most significant of the three-fold ‘triple whammy’, and she summed it up as ‘rolling back the state and giving individuals and com-munities greater opportunity for self-sufficiency’.

All three together will change the na-ture of public sector organisations, and it is down to their HR managers to have a ‘deep understanding’ of these drivers of change and anticipate their impact.

She added: ‘We need to be proactive about the implications for organisation and service redesign, the implications for culture change, and the implica-

Public sector HR managers through their association, the PPMA, have just held their first annual conference since 2010. Michael Burton reports on some of the highlights

HR heads look to beyond the downturn

‘How might introducing more innovations help councils increase their citizens’ satisfaction, while reducing future costs?’

‘How can senior managers and politicians encourage their managers and staff to work more innovatively?’

‘Do all the theories about how you create more innovative organisations work in a local government context?’

‘What have council chief executives learned from their successful and unsuccessful attempts to innovate?’

tions for the impact on the shape and size of the workforce that will be need-ed in future.’

In particular, the demands on public sector professionals were changing, and they need HR support to guide them through the process. She con-cluded: ‘The traditional career path-ways that professionals might have ex-pected to follow at the beginning of their careers are literally changing in front of their eyes.

‘It’s important to pay attention to

this, to give time and space to support-ing people to take stock of their career choices, explore their aspirations, mo-tivators and strengths in the context of the changing world of work.’

The theme of reform was echoed by keynote speaker, Lord (Michael) Bi-chard. He said too many governments were ‘obsessed with public sector re-form, when they should be involved in improving the quality of services’.

He added: ‘For too long, the talk has been about public services when it

should be about services for the public good.’

He said part of the problem was the complexity and silo-based delivery of services, commenting that since be-coming a pensioner he had received three different letters informing him of his new state pension. He also said we had to be better at prevention, in particular, through the better use of be-havioural economics.

His final complaint was the continu-ing lack of ambition, adding: ‘I was talking to a major outsourcer the other day who told me that in just one in 20 tenders did they get a sense of the pub-lic sector trying to reshape itself. All the rest were simply about getting the same job done more cheaply.’

In a panel debate, Unison local gov-ernment deputy head, Lucille Thirlby, gave an employee perspective, main-taining that employers were ‘taking but not giving back’, saying pay was 10% below what it was in 1996, that overtime was cut, and councils were even charging staff for car park places.

Delegates were too polite to give the union leader a public broadside, but many afterwards, especially in refer-ence to the car park charging, com-mented privately that in their view, it was indicative of unions’ lack of reality about how public sector employment has to adapt to the economic climate, especially when private sector staff are facing worse terms and conditions.

However, Ms Thirlby also pointed out with justification that employees were also residents, that 85% of the

lowest-paid council workers lived and worked in the same place, and the is-sue was ‘how you treat employees who are also your citizens’.

And she warned that once the econo-my picked up, many would simply leave for better paid employment.

Rounding off the seminar, the enter-taining stand-up comedian Ben Page, chief executive of Ipsos MORI, pre-sented some home truths about public perceptions of councils. Indeed, he also gave the audience some home truths about how the private sector managed through tought times, point-ing out that ‘the company I bought hasn’t had a pay rise for five years’, and that his market ‘will just carry on shrinking for years’.

He said that from research, there was no correlation between pay and employee satisfaction, and added that there was something wrong if the only reason people joined the public sector was because they could look forward to being paid well when they left it. He added: ‘Job security is falling, Get over it.’

He left us with a conundrum. Satis-faction with services is up, trust in councils is improving, and there is no sign that the public is getting angry about council cuts.

Yet, while only 12% of overall public sector cuts have been enacted, local government, whose cuts were front-loaded, has supposedly enacted most of its share, and yet appears not to have lost public support as a result. Explain that one… n

10.05.2012 21

www.themj.co.uk HR focus

Meeting of HR minds: Martin Rayson; Lord Bichard; Anne Gibson; and Ben Page all spoke to the PPMA at the Paragon Hotel in Birmingham this week

Public sector HR managers through their association, the PPMA, have just held their first annual conference since 2010. Michael Burton reports on some of the highlights

HR heads look to beyond the downturn©

Shutterstock/Robert A

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