Devon County Council
Background
Devon County Council is a large organisation in terms of numbers of employees (nearly 24,000 staff including approximately 1200 managers) and provides a range of services to over 680,000 people across one of the largest geographic regions in the county.
Devon recognises that increasingly employers are implementing work - life balance practices that can benefit their organisations by helping people to achieve a better balance between work and their lives outside work. Devon County Council has one of England's more demanding council profiles in terms of raising the standard of service it has to deliver; it's large and diverse population and the geographical distance it has to cover.
As such, Devon County Council has a range of policies and practices (such as flexitime, career breaks, job share, homeworking; things that encourage greater flexibility of when, how and where people work). However, it recognises that it needs to work on promoting these possibilities to staff and to look at a fair and transparent way for people to apply to use them and this, if creatively managed across the board should enhance the overall service delivery (see aims of project).
Devon County Council's broad objective was to improve equitable take-up of work-life balance policies and in doing so help to increase motivation, to aid recruitment and retention of the right people and to reduce absenteeism. This necessitated a cultural change programme.
Key Initiatives
Liaison was made with the Head of Communications and Information to establish a co-ordinated and consistent work life balance message. This included promotion through articles in corporate and departmental newsletters and magazines.
Work-life balance partnership forum was established with union representation to help cascade information and attitudes up and down throughout the organisation and to all grades of employee.
Work-life balance guide was created, providing information to help all staff achieve better work life balance, the principles that govern it and process to apply for it.
Work-life balance section of the HR guidance and policy pages was written for inclusion on the intranet.
Feedback, comments and suggestions were invited from staff in various publications and via the Internet, email and discussion groups.
Relevant questions were included in the corporate staff attitude survey.
Series of workshops were held for managers on "effective work-life balance - the business case" to re-launch work-life balance within Devon County Council.
Series of workshops were held for individuals and first line supervisors on "effective work-life balance - what would make a difference".
Key Outcomes
All new staff receive a copy of the guide in their welcome pack as part of their induction to make them fully aware of the policies in place.
Staff attending stress workshops will be provided with details of the work-life balance policies.
Higher staff approval of DCC as a caring employer and one whose policies on flexible working, especially job share and career breaks are fair.
Examples of impact:
- case study of the Adult Learning Disability Unit revealed an example of best practice in flexible working practices and team co-operation towards work-life balance. This is particularly valuable as the unit would be recognised as working in difficult circumstances and respected by other council departments i.e. "if they can, we can"
- reduction in absenteeism
- higher take up of work-life balance policies.
Summary
Devon County Council's work-life balance policy:
"The environment in which we are striving to service the people of Devon includes the fast pace of change and a need to deliver the stringent requirements of Best Value.
We recognise that each person has a role in getting the organisation to its goal and each person's welfare matters in order to reach this.
At Devon County Council we have a range of policies and practices (such as flexitime, career breaks, job share, homeworking; things that encourage greater flexibility of when, how and where people work).
Our broad objective is to improve equitable take-up of work-life balance policies. There are some very real benefits for the organisation and the people of Devon to do so as we believe that, with better work-life balance, we will all be more motivated and suffer less stress, DCC will be seen as an Employer of Choice and we will retain our valued staff."