More than 50 local authorities in England and Wales now share joint chief executives, with various degrees of integrated roles, structures and services operating beneath them. Our study for the Local Government Association investigated HR and OD capability in shared councils, to improve the contribution these functions can make to the success of shared arrangements.
More than 50 local authorities in England and Wales now share joint chief executives, with various degrees of integrated roles, structures and services operating beneath them. The attractions and drivers are obvious: immediate cost savings, economies of scale and learning, reduced administration and bureaucracy. But where is the evidence that these benefits are actually being realised? And how is this being achieved, given that, as Ron Ashkenas has pointed out in Harvard Business Review, between 60-70 per cent of major change exercises fail [1] and the key reason for that is typically ‘the people factor’?
Our new report summarises the findings from a major IES study for the Local Government Association (LGA), involving 10 council partnerships across 23 councils. The overall aim was to investigate HR and OD capability in shared councils, to improve the contribution which the functions and policies in these fields make to the success of such shared arrangements.
As the LGA Chairman, Lord Porter, puts it, the examples in the report highlight how councils can both improve services and deliver efficiencies through partnership, and create ‘an agile council workforce for the future.’
Interestingly, the report highlights the necessity of trust between authorities involved, and retaining their own distinct identities, as well as the need to overcome the inevitable political barriers so that it feels ‘like a partnership rather than a takeover.’ Hence the vital importance of the HR function and people management.
The report is evidence-based and honest, with some councils progressing the people agenda more effectively than others. As Lord Porter says, ‘basic HR practice is generally excellent, but more attention could be given to strategic OD in order to transform services effectively’, which his own council is doing.
The report also highlights the latest thinking and practice on how to successfully deliver on this strategic OD agenda of transformational change, with key components being: effective stakeholder communications and relationship management; top team development; and transforming the HR function itself.
Delivering major organisational change in the context of significant budget reductions is far from easy and the research clearly shows that a ‘one size fits all’ approach can never work successfully: flexibility and tailoring are key. The implications of this research for organisation and HR leaders extend far beyond local authorities and this report should be highly useful to those piloting major organisational change in all sectors.
The HR heads from these councils met a number of times during the research and IES are currently discussing a range of further tools and workshops with the LGA to extend and further embed the learning from the study.
1 Ashkenas R (2013), Change Management Needs to Change, Harvard Business Review [Online]. Available from: https://hbr.org/2013/04/change-management-needs-to-cha [Accessed 31/03/16]
This report summarises the findings from a major study undertaken by IES for the Local Government Association (LGA), which researched and investigated HR and OD capability in shared councils, in order to help to improve the contribution which the functions and policies in these fields make to the success of such shared arrangements.
