Annual Report and Accounts 1996-1997

Improving the Agency's Efficiency

Personnel Management

The first quarter of 1996/7 was dominated by the aftermath of the disruption to the Agency's headquarters at South Quay 3 but, despite the dislocation, the Agency's personnel section was able to maintain its service to internal customers.

Reduction of the level of vacancies in the Agency continued to be a high priority. There was significant recruitment activity both external (described below) and from elsewhere in the Department of Trade and Industry and Government. During the course of the year the Agency undertook a review of its vacancy filling arrangements and as a result modified its internal vacancy filling arrangements to give line managers a principle role.

Further work was undertaken on implementing the Agency's policy and action programme, on equal opportunities, including review of the Agency's policy and practice towards disabled people in the light of the Disability Discrimination Act.

Work is continuing on implementing the delegation of grading and pay to Government departments on 1 April 1996 as part of the Government's White Paper on the Civil Service: continuity and change. To recognise the need for continuing interchange between the Agency's administrative staff and the DTI, the Agency has decided to implement for its administration group staff the revised staffing structure being developed by DTI. Work continues on appropriate arrangements for the Agency's specialist staff.

Contents

Open Recruitment

The Agency has systems in place to ensure that open recruitment is carried out in accordance with the principles of fair and open competition and selection on merit as set out in the Civil Service Recruitment Code. During the year the Agency's recruitment practices were audited by the Office of the Civil Service Commissioners. The audit found that the Agency's procedures met the requirements of the Code. A small number of good practice recommendations made by the auditors were subsequently incorporated into the Agency's procedures.

All open recruitment campaigns are managed by the Agency's personnel section or by RAS (now part of the Capita Group) on its behalf. Recruitment is monitored at each stage to provide equal opportunities data on the gender, ethnic origin, disability, (and, in Northern Ireland, community background) of applicants and is subject to internal check. Table 3 is a summary of the gender, ethnicity and disability data for 1996/7 open recruitment campaigns

. Contents

Training and Development

Training and Development in RA is linked directly to Agency, Group and Individual Objectives. In line with the Agency's commitment to Investors in People, training and development is directed to maximise staff's knowledge and ability to fulfil business objectives, and the responsibility for that rests both with management and the individuals themselves. While RA uses a number of external providers for training, and also buys in bespoke packages for some solutions, the Agency is also looking at alternatives to formal training programmes, for example Action Learning and mentoring. The reorganisation of RA over this past year means than Managers of Business Units (MBUs) have taken on broader responsibilities. A framework of Critical Success Factors has been drawn up as a template for assessing MBU's development needs.

TABLE 3: GENDER, ETHNIC & DISABILITY DATA

TABLE 4: STAFF NUMBERS

Contents