3 People

Considerable progress has been made with our successful people policy that has:

• selected and appointed new team leaders and senior managers via structured assessment centres
• completed the selection of individuals with high potential to be our future managers
• continued the use of 360- degree reporting to develop leadership and to support culture change within the Agency
• successfully introduced a new grading structure and pay system
• recruited, for the first time for many years, graduate trainees for both business streams
• started a new programme of training current staff for IRRV qualification.

During the planning period these new arrangements need to be bedded in. We will continue graduate recruitment, select a second tranche of staff to follow the IRRV qualification route and further assessment centres for the selection of team leaders and more senior managers. In the next few years natural turnover of staff is likely to remain low so the numbers of new recruits (except at clerical support level and graduate) are likely to remain small. But from around 2005/ 06 our age structure means the number of retirements will rise. We plan by this period to have developed some of the new leaders and to be gradually developing more. As far as possible they need to reflect the diversity of the working population and we have set ourselves targets to encourage more diversity among this group.

New structured training programmes will be introduced which will focus on developing leadership skills as well as the training required for the successful introduction of improved processes.

In 2001/ 2002 the Agency introduced a prototype process to assess and recognise the relative performance of teams and to provide incentives to encourage improvements in collective performance and delivery of a quality service. The assessment is based on a team results scorecard approach and includes criteria to measure performance improvements across a range of aspects.

Following evaluation of the approach the Agency and TUS are discussing arrangements for the assessment and funding of team awards based on these criteria.

Further surveys will be undertaken to measure the satisfaction of staff and contribute to the continual development of our human resources policies. We aim to increase the interchange of our staff with other organisations to help develop both individual skills and add fresh views to the Agency. We will review ways of increasing the rotation of staff between specialisms and business streams in order to increase job satisfaction and ensure our trainees gain the relevant experience. This will enhance the breadth of the pool of talent we have to select from for future vacancies.

A series of seminars will be undertaken to promote best human resource practice with senior managers. Key aims will be the continued reduction of sickness absence so that by January 2003 it will be 33% less than the 1998 baseline; to promote a better understanding of the skills to motivate and support continuous improvement; promoting the effectiveness of diversity and continuing development of opportunities for all. We will continue working with the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), Institute of Revenues Rating and Valuation (IRRV), Property Services National Training Organisation (PSNTO), Defence Estates and NHS Estates.

The challenge of dealing with geographical mismatches between where our staff are and where our work arises, is likely to increase. We will take forward the pilots on teleworking and are likely to see a growth in distance working and other flexible working patterns to meet our key business needs and so that no section of our workforce is excluded from opportunities for advancement or other development opportunities.

We will continue to work in partnership with our Trade Unions.