Government Business

The Drive for Change website was developed specifically for people working in the public services. It provides a practical guide for improving services through the effective engagement of the trade unions and the workforce. Involving unions and staff in decision-making processes is a vital feature of high performance workplaces.
    
The website has been developed through a partnership between TUC and Cabinet Office with the support of public sector unions and organisations.
    
A key factor in any successful change programme is a commitment to engaging and involving the workforce and their representatives in identifying long-term solutions for present and future service user needs. Drive for Change provides practical support to public service managers, HR practitioners, trade unions and the workforce by promoting closer dialogue and joint working in taking forward change or the redesign of services.

Engagement matters
Organisations across the private and public sectors will at some time face the need for change, improving the way services are delivered and products produced.
    
A key factor in any successful change programme is a commitment to engaging and involving the workforce. A workforce that is convinced of the need for change and involved in the full process is much more likely to be committed to any changes decided and the organisation as a whole.
    
By managers, employees and trade unions working together, organisations can innovate by tapping into staff knowledge and experience. This will support long-term solutions for present and future service user needs. Joint problem solving between staff and managers helps organisations learn and helps build a wider understanding of how service improvements can be implemented.
    
Trade union engagement can give employees the assurance that changes are for the benefit of the service and the workforce. They also give employees a voice that is often necessary to bring about the cultural changes essential to service improvement.
    
Drive for Change has been trialled in four organisations across the public services. One of these is the Birmingham City Council Social Care and Health Department. It was aimed at creating better public services, workplaces and working lives.
    
The impetus for the project came from various sources, including a Comprehensive Performance Assessment critical of level of employee consultation and poor star ratings for the social services department. More specifically, employee and union dissatisfaction with some workforce policies converged with a wish among senior managers to improve employee and union involvement.
    
The focus was initially directed at the department's attendance policies, however, managers and trade union representatives working on the project came to the realisation that addressing employee wellbeing as a whole would have a more powerful impact on quality of service than the narrower focus on policies.
    
Tackling wellbeing includes looking at the totality of employee experiences at work, especially work-life balance. Lack of flexibility is certainly damaging to people's personal and family lives. Managers need to acknowledge that this has an impact on recruitment and retention.
    
A Reference Group was set up to oversee the project and included departmental and human resources managers and trade union representatives. This group authorised a smaller working group made up of department and HR managers and trade union representatives to take forward the work. In turn, the work was divided into four major workstreams: Organisational: Work-life balance; Procedural: Managing attendance; Management: Management culture; and Environment: Working environment within Social Care and Health.
    
With their work overseen by the working group, the four workstream groups undertook various activities, including focus groups, work-life balance questionnaires, reviews of council policies, examining internal communication routes and looking at previous research on staff wellbeing.
    
The workstream groups made a total of 45 recommendations to the working group, which condensed these into six themes: policies and procedures; health and safety environment; training/management development and organisation; development; empowerment; wellbeing; and communication.
    
The department is now developing a policy to support and develop the wellbeing of staff. These include improved health promotion and access to facilities and services that promote health and policies around improving physical state of working conditions. Other outcomes include revised attendance policies and improved management guidance on the policies and the support mechanisms available for people returning to work.
    
A big issue facing the department is the staff and management time needed to engage practically in service improvement issues. Unless time and staff cover is guaranteed, this will threaten the credibility of any joint working initiatives.
    
The project has trialled a new way of working and created the environment to show joint working on service improvement can work. The challenge now is to mainstream employee involvement in service improvement issues.