20240517Paper3OrganisationalDevelopmentStrategy

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ùgh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

Resources Com­mit­tee Paper 3 17 May 2024

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Organ­isa­tion­al Devel­op­ment and People Strategy (ODPS) 2024 – 2027

The Cairngorms Nation­al Park Authority’s vis­ion is:

“An out­stand­ing Nation­al Park, enjoyed and val­ued by every­one, where nature and people thrive together”.

Our mis­sion is to lead the way in deliv­er­ing for the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity by: • Bring­ing people togeth­er towards a com­mon pur­pose • Enhan­cing the Cairngorms Nation­al Park for every­one • Inspir­ing new gen­er­a­tions to be nation­al park champions

Intro­duc­tion

1. Organ­isa­tion­al devel­op­ment refers to the devel­op­ment of the people and infra­struc­ture of the organ­isa­tion with­in a cer­tain envir­on­ment (eg one led by eco­nom­ic cir­cum­stances, soci­et­al and / or organ­isa­tion­al expect­a­tions, and aspir­a­tions). Without its people, tech­no­lo­gies and val­ues, the organ­isa­tion can­not exist. An organ­isa­tion­al devel­op­ment strategy is a delib­er­ate planned organ­isa­tion­al wide pro­gramme of work to enhance organ­isa­tion­al effect­ive­ness and effi­ciency with­in the con­tex­tu­al and chan­ging envir­on­ment at play at a giv­en point in time.

2. 2023 marked the 20^th anniversary of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity (Park Author­ity). So much has changed over the last 20 years, but the key ​“thread” that has remained con­stant over this time is the Nation­al Park aims and a vis­ion to see people and nature thriv­ing togeth­er. With­in these aims and vis­ion, the nature and cli­mate crisis are at the core of our work at this cur­rent time, and the Park Author­ity is tasked with coordin­at­ing the man­age­ment of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park, and devel­op­ing and deliv­er­ing a well­being eco­nomy that works for the people of the Cairngorms, whilst also restor­ing nature and deliv­er­ing net zero. Our ambi­tion is set across three themes – nature, people, and place, which are under­pinned by our aim of being ​“the best small pub­lic sec­tor pub­lic body in Scotland”.

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Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ùgh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

Resources Com­mit­tee Paper 3 17 May 2024

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1. This Organ­isa­tion­al Devel­op­ment and People Strategy (ODPS) is designed to give our staff the frame­work and sup­port to be able to deliv­er these ambi­tions suc­cess­fully. It sets out our vis­ion for our organ­isa­tion­al per­form­ance and beha­viour and out­lines the over­arch­ing pro­gramme of work to deliv­er and embed the organ­isa­tion­al changes to deliv­er that vis­ion. This strategy facil­it­ates a high- per­form­ance and people-focused cul­ture where our staff are the corner­stone of our suc­cess, and thereby are effi­cient, healthy, diverse, have access to the most up to date tech­no­lo­gies and prac­tices, have oppor­tun­it­ies for learn­ing and devel­op­ment, and have a work­ing envir­on­ment that facil­it­ates col­lab­or­a­tion and innov­a­tion. This strategy will con­tin­ue to nur­ture our pos­it­ive work­ing cul­ture, aim­ing to make the Park Author­ity an employ­er of choice for our cur­rent and future colleagues.

Organ­isa­tion­al con­text 2024

1. Since the last Organ­isa­tion­al Devel­op­ment and People Strategy was imple­men­ted pre-Cov­id, there have been many changes with­in the organ­isa­tion, all of which have influ­enced and shaped the areas that our ODPS needs to focus on. These changes include the fol­low­ing: a) Our Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan 2023 — 27 has been approved, and our bid for Nation­al Lot­tery Her­it­age Fund (NLHF) fund­ing for the five year deliv­ery phase of the Cairngorms 2030 pro­ject was suc­cess­ful. This means a fur­ther increase in our scale of fin­an­cial and staff­ing resources, and a sig­ni­fic­ant increase in pro­file for the organ­isa­tion, which brings with it increases in terms of deliv­ery expect­a­tions and pres­sures asso­ci­ated with that. b) There has been an increase in staff num­bers not only to sup­port Cairngorms 2030, but also in order to deliv­er the increased invest­ment in peat­land res­tor­a­tion and nature res­tor­a­tion fund­ing, as well as the ongo­ing require­ment for an act­ive and engaged Nation­al Park employed ranger ser­vice. Although the organ­isa­tion is now 20 years old, 50% of our staff have been with the organ­isa­tion for less than two and a half years. So, our staff demo­graph­ic rep­res­ents an inter­est­ing mix of new know­ledge, skills, ambi­tion, expect­a­tions and ideas, which sits along­side estab­lished staff with years of exper­i­ence and net­works. c) Fol­low­ing per­man­ent changes to the work­ing cul­ture as a res­ult of two years of lock­down dur­ing the Cov­id-19 pan­dem­ic, we have imple­men­ted a Hybrid Work­ing Policy, whereby the default pos­i­tion is that staff work 50% of their con­trac­ted hours from home and 50% from the office. Whilst this is a sig­ni­fic­ant move from pre-Cov­id work­ing where 90% of our staff were office based 100%

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Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ùgh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

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of their time, it is also a move from many oth­er pub­lic sec­tor organ­isa­tions who still have the major­ity of staff home work­ing for most of the time. d) Although the office space was vastly exten­ded in the last six years, the office can no longer accom­mod­ate the full cur­rent and anti­cip­ated staff com­ple­ment if we were all to be togeth­er in the office at the same time. This, togeth­er with the imple­ment­a­tion of hybrid work­ing, has facil­it­ated the need for enhanced digit­al innov­a­tion and tech­no­logy. e) There has been a phased reduc­tion in the work­ing week from 37.5 hours / week, to 36 hours / week from 1 April 2023, and 35 hours from 1 April 2024 imple­men­ted on the basis of effi­cien­cies in oper­a­tions and in deploy­ment of staff time. f) We have in the last two years con­sti­tuted both an engaged extern­al Equal­ity Advis­ory Pan­el and an act­ive intern­al Equal­ity, Diversity and Inclu­sion Advocacy Group (Intern­al Equal­it­ies Group), through which we have achieved the LGBT Charter accred­it­a­tion at found­a­tions level; developed some key part­ner­ships, eg with Black Pro­fes­sion­als Scot­land, and the Rain­bow Enter­prise Net­work; and imple­men­ted some bold and pro­gress­ive policies, eg Neurodi­versity Policy, Mis­car­riage Policy, Reas­on­able Adjust­ments Pass­port Policy, Gender Diversity Policy. Our work­force diversity has increased as a res­ult of the work of these two groups and a sup­port­ive organ­isa­tion­al policy envir­on­ment, which is pos­it­ive, but the num­bers of minor­it­ised staff are still small, reflect­ing the typ­ic­al demo­graph­ics of the pub­lic sec­tor. g) There are pock­ets of tech­nic­al spe­cial­ists that have proved to be chal­len­ging from a recruit­ment per­spect­ive. Our rur­al loc­a­tion and in par­tic­u­lar the more recent dif­fi­culty in secur­ing long term hous­ing in the area has also impacted on recruit­ment. h) The con­sulta­tion and plan­ning for a third nation­al park as well as the pro­gramme for Pub­lic Sec­tor Reform has the poten­tial to impact on the oper­a­tions of the Park Author­ity, and the way we work generally.

1. It is clear from all the above points that the ways in which we work have and are con­tinu­ing to fun­da­ment­ally change. The option to work from any­where has been exped­ited, and this impacts on the approach we have to each oth­er and to work­ing togeth­er. There has been rap­id trans­form­a­tion of digit­al sys­tems, which presents many oppor­tun­it­ies, but also chal­lenges, and this strategy looks to address these and bene­fit where we can. This strategy also looks to review and enhance our cap­ab­il­ity in deal­ing with a grow­ing skills short­age in some of the key areas of our work, togeth­er with a need for excep­tion­al lead­er­ship and man­age­ment skills, and a cul­ture that embraces the diversity of our exist­ing and future staff group.

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Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

Resources Com­mit­tee Paper 3 17 May 2024

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Organ­isa­tion­al Devel­op­ment and People Strategy – input / influence

1. In Octo­ber 2023, we con­duc­ted the bien­ni­al Best Com­pan­ies Staff Sur­vey, and have been ana­lys­ing and dis­cuss­ing the res­ults, at an organ­isa­tion­al level and also at team / dir­ect­or­ate level. This has involved dir­ect­or­ate meet­ings as well as drop-in ses­sions and dis­cus­sions with­in estab­lished groups. Appendix 1 sets out the high level res­ults, and Annex 2 sets out the con­text and inter­pret­a­tion of these res­ults. The dis­cus­sions about these res­ults will con­tin­ue for many months to come, as we drill deep­er into the ana­lys­is and fur­ther focus on key areas, and thereby keep the engage­ment around the sur­vey alive, flu­id and evolving. The res­ults have informed this strategy, and as the dis­cus­sions con­tin­ue and evolve, so too will the actions to deliv­er the key ODPS themes. Key mes­sages that have emerged from the dis­cus­sions to date are as fol­lows: a) Gen­er­ally pos­it­ive engage­ment (only one ques­tion scored below the neut­ral score of four), with six out of eight factors show­ing improve­ment since the 2021 sur­vey. b) The Park Author­ity achieved ​“one star” status, which is bet­ter than any of the last four sur­veys. c) Improve­ment in the well­being factor, which is now viewed more pos­it­ively than ever before, with the excep­tion of per­cep­tions around staff feel­ing exhausted when they fin­ish work. To be explored – is this due to work­load man­age­ment, type or amount of work, diary man­age­ment, the sig­ni­fic­ant changes that are hap­pen­ing etc? d) No move­ment in the lead­er­ship factor – issues around vis­ib­il­ity / access­ib­il­ity / approach­ab­il­ity of man­age­ment. e) Need to con­sider reten­tion and devel­op­ment, and how we can sup­port devel­op­ment when there are lim­ited oppor­tun­it­ies for pro­mo­tion. f) Fair deal (which cov­ers pay) down on pre­vi­ous sur­vey. g) Noted that staff at bands D and E are less engaged than all oth­er levels, as are staff who have been with the organ­isa­tion for five to 10 years.

2. We have also estab­lished an intern­al Cul­ture and Val­ues Focus Group, drawn from staff mem­bers across the organ­isa­tion. The group is tasked with con­sid­er­ing if the exist­ing val­ues are still rel­ev­ant for our organ­isa­tion, and review­ing them if neces­sary, and then estab­lish­ing how the Park Author­ity aims to bring the agreed val­ues to life intern­ally in terms of what we need to do in order to ensure that our

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Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ùgh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

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staff group see the Park Author­ity as liv­ing up to its val­ues and embed­ding the val­ues in our day-to-day oper­a­tions. The work of this group has informed this strategy and will con­tin­ue to inform the evolving pro­gramme of actions.

1. We had an all-staff away day in Octo­ber 2022 where staff had the oppor­tun­ity to give their views on organ­isa­tion devel­op­ment areas and actions that they felt were required, and anoth­er staff away day in Octo­ber 2023 which explored our cur­rent val­ues, with staff mem­bers put­ting for­ward their thoughts on the organ­isa­tion­al val­ues and the asso­ci­ated beha­viours that they would like to see embed­ded as part of their organ­isa­tion. This staff feed­back has con­trib­uted to this strategy.

Organ­isa­tion­al Devel­op­ment and People Strategy – vis­ion and key themes

1. Tak­ing into account the many changes in the way we work that have evolved over the last few years, togeth­er with our cur­rent stra­tegic plans and strategies; as well as staff feed­back through the sur­vey, the vari­ous groups and facil­it­ated events, this Organ­isa­tion­al Devel­op­ment and People Strategy iden­ti­fies sev­en key themes, set out below, all of which are under­pinned by the fol­low­ing over­arch­ing vis­ion / aspiration:

“The Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity will be an organ­isa­tion that involves all our staff in devel­op­ing our goals, tar­gets, pro­cesses, and strategies; cel­eb­rates what we do well, both at an organ­isa­tion­al and indi­vidu­al level; inspires and enables out­stand­ing per­form­ance; and sup­ports our staff to achieve excel­lence in their work, their beha­viour, and their rela­tion­ships with each oth­er. This will help us to achieve our ambi­tion to be the best small pub­lic sec­tor organ­isa­tion in Scotland”.

Key themes:

1. Set out below are the key themes, and their asso­ci­ated out­comes: i. Our infra­struc­ture will sup­port our staff to work com­fort­ably, safely, and effi­ciently in an ever-chan­ging work­ing envir­on­ment, sup­port­ing our aspir­a­tions for net zero, and mak­ing the best use of the tech­no­logy avail­able to us (this includes our facil­it­ies and IT ser­vices). The out­comes of this theme will be: α. Ensure we have the infra­struc­ture to sup­port act­ive travel for staff.

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Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ùgh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

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b. Ensure we max­im­ize the use of our desk spaces to be able to facil­it­ate as many staff and part­ners using the build­ing on a daily basis. C. Bal­later office to be wel­com­ing and attract­ive. d. The exten­sion office is not as noisy as it is cur­rently. e. The older part of Grant­own office to be more attract­ive space. f. Con­sider install­a­tion of sol­ar pan­els across build­ing to improve green­ing cre­den­tials and reduce bills. ii. Our IT infra­struc­ture will sup­port our staff to work com­fort­ably, and effi­ciently in an ever chan­ging work­ing envir­on­ment, sup­port­ing our aspir­a­tions for net zero, and mak­ing the best use of the tech­no­logy avail­able to us. The out­comes of this theme will be: α. Explor­ing between our in-house team and wider arrange­ments we have, the full range of sup­port needed by the organ­isa­tion both oper­a­tion­ally and for future stra­tegic devel­op­ment. b. Bet­ter com­mu­nic­a­tion of faults between the wider organ­isa­tion and the IT team. C. New and exist­ing col­leagues are issued with hard­ware and soft­ware appro­pri­ate to their roles, with replace­ment peri­pher­als avail­able as required by staff. d. Stra­tegic approach to GIS is developed. e. Full advant­age is taken of the vari­ous applic­a­tions provided by Microsoft 365. f. Cli­ent rela­tion­ship man­age­ment (CRM) resources are avail­able to staff. g. Up to date stand­ard oper­at­ing pro­ced­ures are avail­able to all staff. h. Data sources are sys­tem­at­ised and cent­ral­ised. iii. We will have the inform­a­tion and data sys­tems and pro­cesses to enable our staff to work effi­ciently and innov­at­ively. The out­comes of this theme will be: α. There will be organ­isa­tion­al trans­par­ency and pub­lish­ing as much of our data / records as pos­sible to sup­port open gov­ern­ment. b. There will be col­lab­or­a­tion with part­ners on data cre­ation, shar­ing and man­age­ment. C. Improved know­ledge man­age­ment / shar­ing across dif­fer­ent teams and func­tions. d. Con­sist­ent pro­ject man­age­ment cap­ab­il­ity and sys­tems across the organ­isa­tion. e. Effi­cient and effect­ive use of all data and inform­a­tion resources held by the Park Authority.

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Resources Com­mit­tee Paper 3 Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity 17 May 2024 Ùgh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Page 7 of 9

f. Staff are provided with suf­fi­cient guid­ance and train­ing to use new sys­tems most effi­ciently and effect­ively. g. Staff have rel­ev­ant and near-real time inform­a­tion required for their role at their fin­ger­tips. h. Sys­tems and inform­a­tion are used most effect­ively to reduce inef­fi­cient paper-based work­flows. iv. We will have the right staff in the right roles at the right time, who will be motiv­ated and sup­por­ted to strive towards excel­lence, but will also take per­son­al respons­ib­il­ity for their own devel­op­ment, as well as that of col­leagues where they have spe­cif­ic expert­ise / skills that can be shared the out­comes of this theme will be: V. α. More staff and teams will use of the Bal­later office in the short term, b. C. d. e. f. g. h. i. ensur­ing more vis­ib­il­ity, attrac­tion for a wider pool of applic­ants and a wider spread of func­tion­al­ity. There is a good bal­ance between new staff join­ing and exist­ing staff remain­ing, and each learns from the know­ledge, beha­viours, and exper­i­ence of the oth­er. Plan­ning spe­cif­ic – the team will be well staffed and resi­li­ent. Hous­ing will not be a bar­ri­er to people apply­ing for and being appoin­ted to roles with­in the Park Author­ity. The Park Author­ity will test new recruit­ment selec­tion meth­ods eg for tech­nic­al or engage­ment jobs, where job inter­views don’t give the best indic­a­tion of wheth­er a can­did­ate would be good at the job. We will con­sider devel­op­ing an approach to recog­nising excel­lent per­form­ance. More con­sist­ency around line-man­agers man­aging their staff. Induc­tion pro­gramme for new staff is dynam­ic and com­pre­hens­ive and tailored to be appro­pri­ate for the type of role. Staff are aware of oppor­tun­it­ies for train­ing and Con­tinu­ing Pro­fes­sion­al Devel­op­ment (CPD) and encour­aged and sup­por­ted to make the best of these oppor­tun­it­ies, as the organ­isa­tion embraces a cul­ture of con­tinu­ous learn­ing and excel­lence. We will ensure that our work­force is healthy and resi­li­ent, where staff are will­ing and able to get the best out of each oth­er, and where diversity is wel­comed and cel­eb­rated the out­comes of this theme will be: α. A work­force that is sup­por­ted by a cul­ture of well­being. b. A diverse work­force that is wel­com­ing, under­stand­ing, and respectful.

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Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ùgh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Resources Com­mit­tee Paper 3 17 May 2024 Page 8 of 9

vi. We will lead our organ­isa­tion with hon­esty, inspir­a­tion, respect, and integ­rity, and will have a set of val­ues that reflect the cul­ture of the organ­isa­tion, and which are dynam­ic and act­ive. The out­comes of this theme will be: α. There will be a set of val­ues that are applic­able and rel­ev­ant to the organ­isa­tion, now and for the future devel­op­ment of the organ­isa­tion. b. A seni­or man­age­ment team that is vis­ible and access­ible. C. Middle man­agers (man­agers at bands D and E) are involved in and help inform oper­a­tion­al decisions.

vii. We will have effi­cient, innov­at­ive, and trans­par­ent com­mu­nic­a­tions in the organ­isa­tion, where all staff have oppor­tun­it­ies to par­ti­cip­ate and where we openly cel­eb­rate suc­cess. The out­comes of this theme will be: α. There will be a strategy for all staff com­mu­nic­a­tions that makes best use of the avail­able chan­nels, and which sets out which chan­nel should be used and which all staff are aware of and able to deliver.

Deliv­er­ing organ­isa­tion­al devel­op­ment with­in the Park Authority

1. Work­ing groups com­pris­ing staff from across the organ­isa­tion, rep­res­ent­ing a diversity of teams and job levels, were estab­lished for each of the six themes. The work­ing groups were tasked with identi­fy­ing actions that would sup­port the deliv­ery of the theme – these are the ​“action plans”. Feed­back from the Best Com­pan­ies Staff Sur­vey dis­cus­sions has also informed these action plans.

2. Col­lect­ively, the six themes, togeth­er with the asso­ci­ated action plans form a cohes­ive, integ­rated organ­isa­tion­al change pro­gramme brought togeth­er under the umbrella of this ODPS.

3. We recog­nise that the envir­on­ment is con­stantly chan­ging, so flex­ib­il­ity is key, as is the require­ment to con­tinu­ously ​“check-in” and review the ODPS themes, tar­gets, and activ­it­ies. As such, the pro­gramme will evolve over time, aligned to ongo­ing and con­tin­ued con­ver­sa­tions about the sur­vey res­ults, and work around val­ues and culture.

4. The Seni­or Man­age­ment Team (SMT) will effect­ively com­prise the pro­gramme board for deliv­ery of the organ­isa­tion­al change pro­gramme asso­ci­ated with this ODPS. Oper­a­tion­al deliv­ery of the ODPS will be led by a pro­gramme team chaired by the

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Head of Organ­isa­tion­al Devel­op­ment. This pro­gramme team will com­prise the work­ing group theme leads and will provide sum­mary pro­gramme reports upward to SMT and the Board’s Resources Committee.

1. The Board’s Resources Com­mit­tee will be con­sul­ted on the ini­tial devel­op­ment of the strategy and will be kept informed of the deliv­ery of the organ­isa­tion­al change pro­gramme over the course of the programme’s deliv­ery. The Board will also be con­sul­ted on the out­comes of the val­ues and cul­ture work at an appro­pri­ate point.

2. Staff will be con­sul­ted on this pro­gramme, and updates shared with staff via the Staff Con­sultat­ive Forum.

Recom­mend­a­tion: Resources Com­mit­tee are asked to con­sider and com­ment on the draft Organ­isa­tion­al Devel­op­ment and People Strategy, before it is form­ally con­sul­ted with staff through the Staff Con­sultat­ive Forum.