Warwickshire County Council explores how it might attract and retain the most talented staff

Carers leave and flexible working rights are among the things being offered to Warwickshire County Council staff in a bid to attract and retain the right staff for the job.

Rich Thomas, the council’s strategy and commissioning manager, explained that they were among the priorities for the coming year when he reported to this week’s (February 23) meeting of the resources and fire & rescue overview and scrutiny committee.

He said the average rate of turnover for staff was 11.5 per cent against a national rate of 14 per cent and added: “We talk to our people on exiting the organisation and, in addition, we try and talk to them while they are with us as well in order to understand how they feel we are doing as an employer.

"We need to know what we need to put in place in order to positively retain the best talent for Warwickshire.”

Councillors offered their views on how best to attract the best calibre of staff.

Cllr Parminder Singh Birdi (Con, Warwick South) said: “There is no doubt that Warwickshire is a high employment area and that has a downside in that the private sector can pay more to employ people.

"That means we have to offer more than just money to retain people so it is important during their employment that people are given a career path and an internal training offer.

And Cllr Sarah Boad (Lib Dem, Leamington North) added: “I think it is really positive that we give our employees the best training and the best foundation that we possibly can.

“Many years ago I think people thought that working for a local authority was really boring and dull.

"Now I think the opposite with our staff having an enormous influence on their lives, whether they are social workers, teachers, librarians or trading standards - they are all having an impact on the lives of our residents.

“The more training and support we give our staff the better.

"We want to retain our staff so we should be giving them the best possible terms and conditions so they stay with us and do their very best for the residents of Warwickshire.”

Cllr Piers Daniell (Con, Alcester) suggested that the retention of staff should not be as important as the quality of staff, something that Mr Thomas acknowledged.

He said: “I don’t necessarily disagree that losing talent is a bad thing - if we are doing the right things as an organisation and people are leaving us then they are taking that skill set elsewhere and ultimately that’s for the wider benefit of Warwickshire.”