The Housing & Property Committee met and received an update on the workforce plan for the service until 2026.
Housing and Property Chair, Cllr Glynis Campbell Sinclair said:
“We know from data captured that around 20% of the Housing & Property service staff are approaching retirement in the coming years, recruitment challenges and forecasted budget pressures for the service requires a workforce development plan to be delivered to best utilise the existing workforce.
“The strengths within the Housing & Property (H&P) Service include ‘specialist expertise’ and a high level of industry related qualifications.
“To ensure this is captured and developed, over the last 4 years a proactive modern and graduate apprenticeship schemes has developed, with particular focus on difficult to recruit posts and remote areas within the Highlands.
“The Service currently has 36 modern and graduate apprenticeships, and it’s important to explore further opportunities for mentoring to develop over the coming years.”
Following an analysis of the current and future workforce profiles, the Housing and Property Service will strive to ensure that it has the appropriate workforce going forward and will achieve this through the following actions:
- Continue with the development of an affordable, agile and sustainable workforce.
- Identify synergies and support cross team/service working opportunities.
- Develop an effective structure.
- Continue to support management and leadership development.
- Develop an effective recruitment and retention strategy.
- Continue to utilise the modern and graduate apprenticeships to support succession planning.
- Explore mature digital approaches to service delivery and apply reviews to existing processes to identify and release efficiencies.
- Establish training action plans.
Actions identified through the workforce plan will be linked to work streams covered in the Corporate Workforce Strategy, such as the improvement of management data and business processes.
Work is also underway to engage with schools to explore careers within the Housing and Property Service and for the Service to identify entry level opportunities for school leavers.
The Housing & Property Service would also benefit from exploring routes via UHI to develop education possibilities in relation to the Housing Management function as there is a shortage of available courses in Highland, which contributes to a lack of awareness of the career opportunity within the industry across Highland.
