Hello team,
❄️It's December and we are bringing Staff Matters to you a little earlier this month to make sure you get all the updates before the Christmas period when lots of staff will be on leave. Whatever your December usually looks like, we pray that it will be filled with joy and peace.❄️
Who's who?
This month's team focus is the Finance Team. The team consists of Ian Maith, Financial Controller, Heather Kirby, Finance Assistant (heading off on maternity leave this week!), Alan Gale, Finance Assistant (maternity cover) and Jen Ball, Finance Assistant. As a team they are responsible for the Charity Statutory accounts, budget-setting, payroll and pensions, processing of mileage and expenses, processing of invoices payable and receivable. If you have any finance related questions do reach out to this lovely team here.
Ian Heather Alan Jennifer
Staff Updates - New Starters
This month we would like to give a really warm welcome to...
Jo Naomi Emily
- Jo Bibby, Family Support Manager in Central, started 3 December (this is a welcome back as Jo previously worked for Safe Families in 2023)
- Naomi Kelleher, Family Support Manager in the North East, started 9 December
- Emily Keir, Family Support Manager in Scotland, started 16 December
Staff Updates - Leavers
This month we will be saying goodbye to Leisa Thorne, Family Support Manager and Clive Ashby, Fundraising Manager. We will be praying for them in their next steps.
Working Groups
As we said last month, we want to give you some updates on the working groups taking place since merger.
For more information around some of these, be sure to catch up with the All Staff Meeting here as Kat and Tarn share a bit more.
First up, Q5 - Culture Survey. As you know there have been a team of people looking at the results that were gathered and putting plans together in terms of what things can be shaped to make this a great place to work. There were a number of areas identified that we have taken action on (including some things discussed at the vision and values tour and those mentioned at the all staff meeting), and more is planned to come. We will have our next staff survey coming out in January with additional questions related to these priority areas giving us a baseline measurement as we move forward as a merged organisation.
The Flexi time and TOIL working group have now shared some principles around this trial. Line Managers have had all the information and will be speaking with their teams to roll out this new information by 1 January. If you are not sure when you will hear about it and want to know more, please speak to your manager.
The Home/ Office location working group have been analysing the results from the survey (BIG thank you to everyone who completed that) and are now pulling together a proposal for how this could look going forward. This will be shared with you very soon!
Other Updates
Off the back of our consultations before merger, we made commitments to review some of our policies. Below are some updates:
Pay Review
Kat has started a pay review process which includes using an external benchmarking tool. By April 2025 we will have consistent pay bands for our roles based on this research, with competencies. As part of this we have also written a Pay Policy which outlines our current position and how pay is reviewed.
Paternity Leave
Our Home for Good and Safe Families paternity policy has been two weeks paternity leave with full pay since September. As the start of reviewing this, we have bench-marked this against other similar charities and found that it is standard practice across the sector. We therefore are not making any immediate changes to our policy but we are making a commitment that in the next six months we will continue to consider if and how we can develop this to support new parents well whilst balancing this with budget and cover within teams.
Bullying and Harassment Policy Update
In October there were some updates to a piece of legislation called the Worker Protection Act. The wellbeing of our staff and making sure that we look after you well is paramount to all that we do. This change in legislation has meant that we have now relooked at our policy and processes around bullying and harassment. The policy has been updated and is available here so please do familiarise yourself with that. If you witness or experience any type of bullying or harassment in the workplace please speak to your line manager (if that is appropriate). If you feel that you want to report something but would like to do it anonymously, you can do that via this form. The completed forms will come to People and Culture and we will take appropriate actions from there. We will also be giving more guidance to Line Managers so if there is something you want to know about please reach out to them first or raise a ticket and we will get back to you.
How to - IT Advent Calendar
This month we are borrowing a 'how to' from our lovely Systems team. Well, not just one how to, but 24 thanks to their amazing Advent Calendar full of top tips to help you streamline what you do. Head over to this Slack channel and have a watch of all the great things that have been shared so far (and look out for more great tips to come!)
Getting Organised (do we want to say AL is open?)
A little reminder that a few things will look different during December. As we mentioned last time Pay Day will be 20 December and not at the end of the month. Don't forget to book you Christmas Closure Leave and bank holidays - this doesn't happen automatically. The annual leave system is being updated and should be ready for you to book leave from April 2025 from the end of this week! And finally, be aware that there may not be as many staff around towards the end of the month so turnaround times for things may look different.
Coming up...
In 2025 (yes, I said it) we will be sharing an update of our Staff Handbook and some information around PAT testing so look out for that.
If you have any questions about anything shared in Staff Matters or anything else people and culture related you can raise a ticket here.
Until next time, we pray that you have a blessed Christmas and joyful new year. See you in 2025!!
People and Culture Team