Workforce Strategy
1. Foreword From the Chief Executive and Cabinet Member
We are proud of our County because Carmarthenshire is a great place to live, visit and work. As a Council, we are also extremely proud of the people that work for us. Our services are delivered by our people, and it is our people that make this council what it is.
We have worked hard to empower and support our people to create an inclusive ‘One team’ culture. This was recognised in 2022, when we achieved the Investors in People Gold standard accreditation, with the report identifying: ‘The organisation is achieving outstanding outcomes as a result of the ways in which people are encouraged and empowered to be agile, innovative, and collaborative’. However, there is more that can be done.
We know the world is changing, and the way public services are delivered will continue to change, so doing more of the same is not sustainable. The COVID-19 pandemic had a major impact on the way we work, and, having reflected on our experiences, we now look ahead. By fully embedding the Sustainable Development Principle in our forward planning, we have created a Strategy that sets out how we intend to shape our workforce over the next 5 years, ensuring that, together, as one council and one team, we can focus on doing what matters to our residents and local businesses.
We are currently operating in a challenging recruitment market, with budget constraints that make it difficult for us to offer competitive salaries. Like all other public sector bodies, it would be foolish to underestimate the significant financial challenges we are facing, against a backdrop of reduced funding and increased demand for services. This means that we will need to be open to new ways of working and different ways of thinking. We also know that our future workforce will probably be different to what we have today and need different skills, so we will need to invest in our people, as well as grow and develop our own leaders, so that they are equipped to meet the challenges we face.
Through this period of change and transformation, we will make sure our people are well led, supported, trusted, and recognised for the contribution they make; making sure they are treated fairly, with respect and encouraged to bring forward ideas about how we can improve what we do. We will also encourage our people to embrace change and engage with our transformation programme to help us modernise the services we provide and build a more resilient and efficient Council.
Finally, our ambitions simply cannot be realised without our dedicated and motivated workforce. So, we will work together, be open, honest, fair, and inclusive, which is the commitment that this strategy is built on.
Wendy Walters and Cllr Philip Hughes
2. About Our Workforce Strategy
Our Workforce Strategy supports the Council’s vision and defines how we will build the capability, skills, and culture we need for our workforce. It not only meets our present needs but also the needs of our future workforce. This will involve strategies for employee development, succession planning, recruitment, and retention that consider long-term sustainability and the impact on future generations.
The Strategy describes five key objectives for action, to support and develop our workforce, strengthen our capabilities as an organisation and transform how we do things. By aligning our Workforce Strategy to the council’s corporate priorities, we will ensure that this Strategy focusses on embedding the Council’s purpose, vision, and values across our work.
2.1. Our Cabinet Vision Statement (2022 – 2027)
Our Cabinet Vision Statement recognises the important role our workforce plays in delivering its five-year ambition. It has very clear expectations in terms of our workforce, and these have been used to shape our Workforce Strategy actions (see Appendix 1).
2.2. Our Corporate Strategy (2022 - 2027)
Our Corporate Strategy is clear about the need to further modernise and develop as a resilient and efficient Council following the pandemic, and key to this is our workforce. It recognises the benefits of having a more flexible, dynamic, empowered workforce to support our transformation programme, to help us achieve our wider aims and objectives.
2.3. Our Core Values
Our values are integral to our Workforce Strategy and are influenced by the Seven Principles of Conduct in Public Service (Nolan Principles). Our people, senior officers and elected members were involved in the development of our Core Values, which now reflect the type of organisation we want to be:
- Working as One Team
- Putting our Customers First
- Listening to Improve
- Striving for Excellence
- Acting with Integrity
- Taking Responsibility
These values underpin and guide the way we work, the way we improve, the way we work with partners and the way we make decisions to support the community that we serve.
2.4. Our Transformation Strategy (2022 – 2027)
Our Transformation Strategy has our workforce at the heart of its ambitions. It recognises that our employees are our most important asset and account for over 60% of the Council’s total expenditure. ‘The future recruitment, retention, development, and well-being of our workforce will be key to the delivery of a successful Transformation Programme and to the Council’s wider strategic objectives’ (see Appendix 2).
3. Our Ambition as an Employer
Our ambition is to be an ‘employer of choice’, creating a workplace that fosters growth, achievement, and satisfaction. We are one of the largest employers in the region, with people working in a range of front line, technical, back office, and professional roles.
We will work to make sure our people feel valued, inspired, and empowered to achieve our objectives and provide the best possible services to our residents. We will also work to be a high performing organisation that works as one team, is inclusive, and innovative, and an employer that encourages talent to flourish and builds workforce capability to meet our ambitions. A place where everyone can speak up, speak out and have a voice - where fairness and equality feel real, and where bullying, harassment, and discrimination are not tolerated. We will communicate our brand values clearly so that the people who want to work for us are the ones who naturally align to our values.
4. Our Role in Delivering Bilingual Services
We understand that the Welsh language is key to the identity of many of our residents and that people are often able to better express their opinions and needs in their first language. It is therefore our duty to ensure our residents and customers can access our services through their language of choice and to make sure our employees have the required skills.
Working alongside our Welsh Language Advisory Panel, we are refocussing support to promote and develop the Welsh Language in the context of ensuring we are able to recruit to key and critical roles.
The latest Census data for 2021 tells us that Carmarthenshire is home to 72,838 Welsh speakers. This translates to 39.9% of the county’s total population. This figure has decreased by 5,210 since the last Census in 2011, which translates to a percentage point decrease of 4.0. This is the largest percentage point decrease of all local authorities in Wales.
In 2001 and 2011, Carmarthenshire had the highest number of Welsh speakers of all local authorities in Wales, with 84,196 and 78,048 Welsh speakers respectively. These new figures mean that the county now has the second highest number of Welsh speakers of all local authorities in Wales. Carmarthenshire remains the fourth highest in terms of the percentage of the population that can speak Welsh.
In line with Council’s Welsh Language Promotion Strategy and the commitments set out in the Welsh Language Standards, Welsh Language Skills Strategy, and the Equalities and Diversity Policy this Strategy echoes what Carmarthenshire County Council will do to facilitate the delivery of bilingual services.
5. Promoting Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion
We will work to create a workplace where everyone is treated equally, with dignity and has fair access to resources, learning and opportunities. We also want a workplace that has an inclusive culture that provides an innovative, supportive, and interesting place for our people to work as well as allow them to fully engage in our work to help communities to thrive.
We know that employing people who have a range of different backgrounds, experiences and ideas increases creativity and leads to better problem-solving and decision-making. We also know that a workplace that encourages equality, diversity and inclusion can help to attract and retain good people, better serve our diverse range of customers whilst keeping our people engaged and motivated. Put simply, fairer organisations perform better. In line with our commitments, set out in our Strategic Equality Plan, this Strategy echoes what we will do to achieve this.
6. About Our Workforce
Nationally, we know that around 30% of the UK’s workforce is aged over 50 years, and that this percentage will continue to increase. Locally, since the 2011 Census, Carmarthenshire has seen an increase of almost 19% in the number of people aged 65 years and over and a decrease of 2.5% in people aged 15 to 64 years. Given the socio / economic situation and increase in the cost of living with higher inflation, many people will inevitably be working for longer. However, it is recognised that the pandemic has had an impact on the personal choices some people are taking in relation to early retirement, reduced hours, and the need for a more flexible working environment.
As our population grows older, it is not feasible to simply replace those retiring with younger people. We will therefore need to reflect on how we look after our workforce’s health and wellbeing to help extend their working lives.
We are also one of the largest employers in the County and currently employ:
- 8,665 people (6,566 FTEs) occupying 5,022 posts with just under 100 workers being employed via an employment agency at any given time.
- 45% of our people have more than 10 years’ service.
- 27% are likely to retire in the next ten years.
- 11.77% of our people have a declared disability.
- The median salary in the Council is £27,128
- Voluntary turnover is currently running at 9.11%, which is below the UK average.
Table 1 below provides a detailed age profile breakdown:
Table 1
| Age Range | Number | Proportion of workforce |
| Under 25 | 482 | 5.6% |
| 25-44 | 3,476 | 40% |
| 45-54 | 2,405 | 28% |
| 55-64 | 1,957 | 23% |
| Over 65 | 345 | 4% |
The following pie charts provide a further breakdown of our current workforce:
Age
Gender
Contract Status
Full Time V Part Time
7. Our Workforce Strategy Objectives
The overall aim of this Strategy is to support the delivery of our corporate priorities by ensuring we have the right number of people, with the right skills and attitudes, in place at the right time. We will achieve this via the delivery of our five Workforce Strategy Objectives (WSO).
Workforce Strategic Objectives:
- Attract, Recruit & Retain Talent
- Grow Outstanding Leaders & Managers
- Improve Workforce Engagement
- Develop a High Performance, Innovative & Achievement Culture
- Develop and Maintain a Safe & Healthy Workplace
8. Appendices
8.1. Appendix 1: Cabinet Vision – Summary of Workforce Expectations
- Ensuring that Carmarthenshire County Council is a diverse and inclusive organisation.
- To work with relevant groups to promote the council as an employer across all communities including within the Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic community.
- Work with the Public Services Board to drive community engagement and good practice in relation to recruitment from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic communities.
- To work with relevant external groups, to improve representation and signposting for Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic communities on the Council’s website.
- To look at ways of improving the quality of our workforce equality data and continuously improve the quality of information gathered to improve workforce planning and management.
- Work to position our recruitment competitively and work towards continuously improving recruitment levels across the organisation. Seeking to understand the steps needed in order to become the ‘employer of choice’ in West Wales.
- Work to market Carmarthenshire County Council as an attractive employer for apprentices, school leavers and graduates. Focusing on reducing the migration of young people out of Carmarthenshire and from rural areas.
- Work with stakeholders to increase the proportion of Welsh-medium apprenticeships.
- Consider the short and long-term capacity of our workforce to deliver the current administration’s vision.
- Continue to embrace and promote agile working, hybrid meetings and new ways of working across the organisation.
- Work with Welsh Government, Public Service partners and Trade Unions in further progressing the Real Living Wage agenda.
- Further increase our use of the latest digital technology to further transform the services delivered by the Council.
- To develop a Council Transformation Strategy which will provide the strategic framework to support the implementation of a programme of transformation and change across the organisation.
8.2. Appendix 2: Transformation Strategy – Workforce Priorities
- Further develop and strengthen the Authority’s strategic workforce management framework to support the Council in becoming an ‘employer of choice’.
- Further develop the Councils approach to Workforce Planning to provide the capacity and resilience to deliver its strategic objectives and anticipate and meet future needs.
- Ensure that the Council is able to make effective use of data to strengthen the performance and strategic management of its workforce.
- Make effective use of technology to help modernise key workforce processes and procedures.
- Strengthen the Council’s approach to the recruitment, retention, and flexibility of its workforce.
- Ensure that the Council staff are equipped with the necessary skills and behaviours to support the effective implementation of the modernisation and transformation agenda to enable the Council to deliver on its wider aims and objectives.
- Continue to strive to improve the health and wellbeing of our workforce.