There was a wonderfully Alice in Wonderland logic about South Cambridgeshire District Council switching staff to a four-day week. There wasn’t enough work to keep them busy. So why not let them work four days for the same pay – not even a pretence of “working from home”? The Council report that it helped with the recruitment and retention of staff. I bet it did. They found productivity increased – by such innovations as only having meetings for a reason. While the ones they had were only being attended by people who had a reason to be there. Also fewer emails, with fewer people copied in. More top tips on their graphic below.
It must be excruciating having to turn up to an office each day with little real work to do. When I was a councillor there was a committee I sat on which sat half a dozen times a year. There was a clerk (or “Scrutiny Co-ordinator”) who took the minutes. That was a full-time job.
Rather than rejoicing in idleness, it is no surprise that these (intelligent and decent) people dread going into Council offices and soon quit for other jobs. Then agency staff are brought in to fill the posts until a permanent recruit can be found. As well as being expensive it is also frustrating for residents and other staff as they have to start from scratch explaining whatever issue might need to be dealt with.
The 4-Day Week Campaign has undertaken some interesting research – via Freedom of Information requests. It found that for the most recent financial year (2022/23), councils spent at least £2.1 billion on agency staff, amounting to six per cent of their total spend on staff. £1.8 billion was spent on agency staff in 2021/22, and £1.6 billion in 2020/21 so it has been increasing. (Not all councils responded so the real total will be higher.)
Turnover of staff at councils has also increased significantly in recent years. For 2022/23, councils reported an average turnover rate of 26 per cent, compared to ten per cent in 2020/21 and 25 per cent in 2021/22.
Rates of sickness absence at councils have also risen, from 4.1 per cent in 2020/21 to 5.3 per cent in 2022/23.
I am not surprised that in South Cambridgeshire, with an extra day off, these problems are reduced. But wouldn’t a better alternative be proper management so that the number of staff councils employ is reduced to align with the number needed for the work required?
The returns from the individual local authorities do show a wide variation in agency staff spending. Hammersmith and Fulham Council, my own Council, spends £132 million a year on staff. Of that £17.5 million is on agency staff. Over 13 per cent. More than twice the local authority average of six per cent noted above. So that’s pretty bad, but others are much worse. The top three are Slough on 42 per cent, Barking & Dagenham on 37 per cent and Merton on 35 per cent.
Birmingham City Council spends £989 million on staff. The most recent figure it has for agency staff spending is £93.25 million for 2021/22. Doubtless the figure has since risen. But, in any event, it is well above average and thus another black mark to add to the charge sheet from last week.
It would probably help if we moved away from monolithic public sector pay deals to flexible ones for individual workers. That would allow some councils to pay more to attract staff in areas (such as London) where the labour market is more competitive – and thus cut the use of expensive agency workers. Individual contracts would also enable hard work and success to be rewarded and to prevent strikes. Bespoke arrangements could apply to other terms and conditions apart from basic pay. Some might opt for a less generous pension contribution in return to a higher salary, others might not.
Those individual deals might also include negotiating a four-day week. Or a one-day week. Or working from home. There is nothing sacrosanct about a five-day week. Until around the 1890s it was the norm to work a six-day-week. The miracle of capitalism with all its remarkable innovations has allowed us to be richer as well as having more leisure. But some of us might choose to continue working, perhaps part-time, beyond the official retirement age of 66.
So the 4-Day Week Campaign have raised the right question but come up with the wrong answer. Paying people to do four days work for five days pay will be seen as a skiver’s charter. The extent to which performance is maintained is disputed. But just suppose the same amount of work is carried out. That just makes it blindingly obvious that South Cambridgeshire District Council employs more staff than it needs. The cat is out of the bag. The curtain is lifted. The game is up.
Lest I be misunderstood I should stress that poor morale in the public sector could take many forms. It could be a problem of being overworked rather than sitting around with nothing to do. That overwork might be genuine even if futile – all those social workers and planning officers drowning in paperwork.
Then there is the injustice that those who are conscientious are treated the same as the negligent. I remember inspecting a couple of housing blocks in the same council estate – one filthy the other pristine. The explanation for the discrepancy was that they had different caretakers one who took pride in the work, the other did not. They were paid the same and neither faced any possibility of being sacked.
The way to motivate staff is to treat each of them as an individual. To have an honest arrangement about the work they do, to adapt to their needs and to provide a fair reward for their efforts.
