HSE People and Culture Committee meeting minutes 20 January 2021

Members Present

Dr Yvonne Traynor (Chairperson), Dr Sarah McLoughlin, Bernie O’Reilly

Apologies

Aogan Ó Fearghail In attendance: HSE Executive Members: Anne Marie Hoey (ND Human Resources), Edna Hoare (Modernisation & Efficiency), Dr Phillipa Withero (AND Strategic Workforce Planning and Intelligence), Niamh Drew, Hannah Barnes

The Chair commenced the meeting. No conflicts of interest were declared.

The meeting began with a presentation by ND Human Resources on HSE Strategic Workforce Planning & Resourcing. In her briefing, the ND Human Resources, highlighted the combined Strategic Workforce Planning and Resourcing operating model and Governance Structure which has been established to enable the Services to deliver the headcount requirements laid out in the Winter Plan and NSP 2021.

The Committee were told that in order to enhance recruitment capacity in the health service and make the most of existing capacity a focus will be placed on; Boosting national capacity through use of third party support, boosting local recruitment capacity, supporting focused recruitment through local channels using the Recruitment Planning Tool, and facilitating regional collaboration by taking a whole health service approach.

The Committee noted that this was the first time that the HR division had a national overview of new development posts being recruited and acknowledged the potential for this tool in the future. The ND Human Resources detailed that in 2020 recruitment numbers have likely surpassed what was initially anticipated. For further recruitment in 2021, it will be essential to identify where there is workforce available as part of the strategic approaches.

In response to questions regarding areas of concern, the Committee was appraised of the risks and issues in the presentation, including concern that some areas might run into issues over the course of the year. In particular, there may be challenges around specialist and professional posts at both promotion and entry level. To mitigate this a robust international recruitment framework is being put into place to supplement the supply in the domestic market. Additionally, a campaign to fill posts form our own pool of employees and then backfilling posts with new grads will be utilised. The Committee were told that this plan was used in the previous year to secure graduating Nurses to fill entry level positions and proved to be very successful.

The ND Human Resources briefed the committee on the overall growth of WTEs each year and provided an overview of the WTE requirements received to date by Service by initiative at staff category and grade level for the Winter Plan. The Committee were shown how the new recruitment tool can track the progress of recruitment against the number of posts at different stages of the recruitment process.

The ND Human Resources spoke to the Risks and Issues around recruitment noting that mitigating actions are underway. She confirmed that although recruitment takes places at many different parts of the Health Service, all parties now have access to the Recruitment Tool and have been granted an additional resource to maintain the database. The ND also noted that the tool does not currently depict Employee Churn through the organisation, one of the noted risks for recruitment.

The Committee requested that the Tool depicts the time to recruit for posts, in the future. In response to questions regarding challenges around COVID surge response the ND Human Resources confirmed that some elective services remain suspended due to redeployed staff. The Committee were briefed on the pausing of clinical placements for nursing students by two weeks due to the increased pressures in the acute hospital and the need to release the clinical placement coordinators for front line work.

It was noted that a further decision will be made on next steps at the end of the following week. Queries were raised regarding the level of absences due to COVID. The Committee were informed that there is a high rate of absences due to employees having COVID or being a close contact. In response to a question it was noted that absences due to stress are currently not measured and are included in the overall absence figures.

The Committee stressed the importance of coming up with innovative solutions to encourage recruitment in specialised posts in more rural areas. Discussion arose regarding what the organisation can do to support staff more adequately in a COVID environment, in particular how can the HSE advocate for its staff members. It was also noted that the issue around Public Health Doctors Contracts is a matter of on-going discussions with DOH.

The ND Human Resources along with the Committee reviewed the Dashboard which had been circulated in advance of the Committee meeting. Upon review the Committee made the following suggestions:

• that any measurement that is depicted without a target is removed from the dashboard
• that Lost time Incidents should be removed
• that for the depiction of course completions a goal should be added if possible
• that absence rates for staff categories should be included The ND Human Resources agreed to consider the Committee’s suggestions and adjust the dashboard accordingly in advance of the next Committee meeting.

Actions

• The ND Human Resources is to consider the Committee’s suggestions and adjust the dashboard accordingly in advance of the next Committee meeting

Meeting concluded at 11:20.