211029ResourcesCtteePaper2HybridApproachNewNormalRiskRegisterV10

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY RESOURCES COM­MIT­TEE Paper 2, 29/10/21

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY RESOURCES COMMITTEE

FOR DIS­CUS­SION

Title: Hybrid Work­ing Approach and Office Return: RISK REGISTER

Pre­pared by: Kate Christie, Head of Organ­isa­tion­al Devel­op­ment Vicky Walk­er, Gov­ernance and Data Report­ing Manager

Pur­pose

This risk register has been pre­pared to sup­port the tri­al of the Hybrid Work­ing Approach (which has been developed fol­low­ing man­age­ment of the Authority’s Busi­ness Con­tinu­ity Plan­ning (BCP) oper­a­tions while the Author­ity remained at stages of ​“lock­down” as a con­sequence the COVID19 pan­dem­ic), togeth­er with the tri­al of the asso­ci­ated return of staff to the office.

Recom­mend­a­tions:

The Resources Com­mit­tee is asked to: a) Con­sider the risks, and to advise on any omis­sions b) Com­ment on pre­vent­at­ive and remedi­al actions.

Stra­tegic Background

1. Dur­ing the 18 months of enforced home work­ing, the organ­isa­tion con­tin­ued to meets its object­ives, and staff con­tin­ued to oper­ate effi­ciently. This reflec­ted the nation­al trend, and the out­come of people valu­ing more highly the work:life bal­ance that the home work­ing envir­on­ment facil­it­ated. Nation­ally, as we start return­ing the work­place, there has been a shift away from entirely office-based work­ing, to a hybrid approach, and CNPA is seek­ing to devel­op an approach that best meets oper­a­tion­al require­ments, whilst still con­siders the indi­vidu­al needs and pref­er­ences of its staff, as well as space con­straints in the office, which have escal­ated fol­low­ing increas­ing staff num­bers. Giv­en con­straints on office space, in addi­tion to tri­al­ling the hybrid work­ing approach, we are also mov­ing towards an envir­on­ment of hot­de­sk­ing in the office, rather than of staff return­ing to the desks they occu­pied pre-pandemic.

2. The approach that we are tri­al­ling is one whereby staff have the option of work­ing from home up to 50% of their con­trac­tu­al hours, without this requir­ing any pro­ced­ure to sup­port imple­ment­a­tion, oth­er than line man­ager approv­al: with reg­u­lar (51% +) and per­man­ent home-work­ing requir­ing a form­al application

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY RESOURCES COM­MIT­TEE Paper 2, 29/10/21

pro­cess. This approach will be tri­alled for 12 months, and only after a pos­it­ive eval­u­ation of the approach would we look to devel­op­ing a policy pos­i­tion and per­man­ent changes to con­tract. This approach aligns with how we pro­pose using the office space when we are able to return to office-based work­ing. Staff have been fully con­sul­ted on the approach, which was developed fol­low­ing a staff sur­vey on pref­er­ences (sum­mar­ised res­ults are set out in appendix 1), togeth­er with a team sur­vey on how we might use the office space (see appendix 2), both of which informed an options ana­lys­is and com­pre­hens­ive con­sulta­tion on how the office space will be alloc­ated post-Covid.

1. The fol­low­ing table sets out the iden­ti­fied risks and their assessed impacts, togeth­er with an asso­ci­ated score of risk like­li­hood (L) and impact (I). Risk mit­ig­a­tion meas­ures are iden­ti­fied and resid­ual risk rescores to give like­li­hood of risk after suc­cess­ful pre­vent­at­ive action (ML) and impact of risk after suc­cess­ful remedi­al action (MI).

Risk appet­ite is set at a score of 16 or more, or 15 where impact is above 3. At or above such scores, mit­ig­a­tion action is required, oth­er­wise risks will be mon­itored by man­age­ment team. Review of the risk register is coordin­ated by the Man­age­ment Team and Oper­a­tion­al Man­age­ment Group. Key to abbre­vi­ations: L = Like­li­hood of risk score I = Impact of risk score ML = Like­li­hood of risk score after effect­ive imple­ment­a­tion and pre­vent­at­ive mit­ig­a­tion action. MI = Impact of risk score after effect­ive imple­ment­a­tion and remedi­al mit­ig­a­tion action. Scores 1 Low to 5 High

CAIRNGORMS NPA: BUSI­NESS CON­TINU­ITY PLAN­NING HYBRID WORK­ING APPROACH: RISK REGISTER 25 August 2020

Own­er	Risk	Impact	L	I	Pre­vent	ML	Remedi­al	MI
	Great­er demands on
man­agers time to build
and main­tain relations
with a dis­persed staff
group,	Less time to spend on
oper­a­tion­al delivery	4	3	Line man­ager train­ing on
man­aging dis­persed staff	3	Ongo­ing review of
effect­ive­ness and risk	3
	Great­er demands on
staff time to develop
effect­ive and efficient
pro­fes­sion­al relationships
with col­leagues	Less time to spend on
oper­a­tion­al delivery	3	2	Rein­force Insights
pro­files and refresh
Insights train­ing.
Most staff will have at
least 1 — 2 days in the
office on the max
occu­pancy days
IT upgrade will improve
com­mu­nic­a­tion and
plan­ning of office and
home time.	2	Ensure SCF and HR
feed­back loops are in
place

New Nor­mal Pro­ject eval­u­ation will con­tin­ue at 3, 6 and 12 months post imple­ment­a­tion with reports to man­age­ment team.|2| ||Imbal­ance in rela­tion­ships between those who see each more in the office versus those who are more homebased, lead­ing to Increased isol­a­tion of staff work­ing at home and exclu­sion from inform­al office networks’|Staff feel­ing those in the office are treated more favour­ably, and that staff work­ing remotely are excluded from decision making|4|4|Line man­ager train­ing on man­aging dis­persed staff equit­ably. Ensure staff per­form­ance devel­op­ment con­ver­sa­tions are a man­age­ment pri­or­ity Most staff will have at least 1 — 2 days in the|3|Ongoing review of effect­ive­ness and risk. Ensure SCF and HR feed­back loops are in place

Well­being work with­in HR team to mit­ig­ate any isolation.|2|

Own­er	Risk	Impact	L	I	Pre­vent	ML	Remedi­al	MI
	Inform­a­tion Technology
and adapt­a­tions are
inad­equate to meet
organ­isa­tion­al
require­ments during
hybrid work­ing
arrange­ments.	Time wasted deal­ing with IT
issues caus­ing less time to
spend on operational
deliv­ery.
Inef­fect­ive organisational
oper­a­tions through inability
to sup­port remote working /
com­mu­nic­a­tions.	4	4	office on the max
occu­pancy days.
Hybrid meet­ing space
avail­able in New Normal
office to con­nect with
staff work­ing remotely.
Strong gov­ernance
struc­tures for key
decisions.
Enhanced IT
infra­struc­ture including
migra­tion to SWAN, MS
365.
Resource Cent­ral
map­ping app to book
meeting/​desk space
All staff giv­en work
laptops
Dock­ing hubs at all hot
desk	2	Man­age­ment team to
ensure all appropriate
staff involved in decision
mak­ing

Review feed­back from MT and through staff groups, adapt, invest where required, and respond.|2| ||Dif­fi­culty in man­aging hybrid meetings|Less effect­ive meet­ings lead­ing to inefficiency|3|3|IT infra­struc­ture, and ded­ic­ated ​“small office meet­ing space” that sup­ports hybrid meet­ings Train­ing on chair­ing vir­tu­al and hybrid meetings|2|Ongoing review. New Nor­mal Pro­ject eval­u­ation will con­tin­ue at 3, 6 and 12 months post imple­ment­a­tion with reports to man­age­ment team.|2|

Own­er	Risk	Impact	L	I	Pre­vent	ML	Remedi­al	MI
	Inap­pro­pri­ate
work­sta­tions lead­ing to
poor pos­ture and
poten­tial health and
mus­co-skelet­al problems
for those work­ing at a
home office / Hot
desk­ing in office	Increased absence levels,
decrease pro­ductiv­ity	4	4	Vir­tu­al DSE assessments
con­duc­ted by trained
DSE assessor.
CNPA provide
appro­pri­ate desk and
chair for any staff who
work at home, whether
on an ad hoc or
per­man­ent basis	2	Occu­pa­tion­al Health
Ser­vice avail­able for all
staff if prob­lems develop
Ongo­ing review	2
	Lack of coordinated
activ­it­ies res­ult­ing from
hybrid oper­a­tions	Key pri­or­it­ies are missed;
work is duplic­ated by
dif­fer­ing staff / groups	4	4	Coordin­a­tion through
more reg­u­lar
man­age­ment meetings;
increase time and
pri­or­ity to internal
com­mu­nic­a­tions.	2	Estab­lish MT/OMG
review of activ­it­ies and
imple­ment further
pro­ject management
con­trols where
required;	2
	Intern­al communications
with hybrid working
arrange­ments are
inef­fect­ive.	Lack of coordin­a­tion around
activ­it­ies; staff group as a
whole are not engaged with
organ­isa­tion and not all staff
under­stand dir­ec­tion of
travel.	3	2	Cent­ral coordin­a­tion of
com­mu­nic­a­tions through
more reg­u­lar, broad
based man­age­ment
meet­ings; clear
respons­ib­il­ity for
coordin­a­tion of coms;
intern­al communications
iden­ti­fied as a key
resourcing pri­or­ity.	2	Under­take reg­u­lar staff
sur­veys and implement
bot­tom up
improve­ment
recom­mend­a­tions;
ensure there are
mech­an­isms to regularly
tap into feedback
SCF reps.	2
	Dif­fer­ent teams are not
work­ing collaboratively
due to changed
office/​desk arrangements	Dis­con­nect between team
work plans and potential
impact of either duplication
of work, or pieces of work
being over­looked	3	3	Cent­ral coordin­a­tion of
com­mu­nic­a­tions through
more reg­u­lar, broad
based man­age­ment
meet­ings	2	Weekly col­lect­ive OMG
over­sight of core work
areas of teams	2

Own­er	Risk	Impact	L	I	Pre­vent	ML	Remedi­al	MI
	Pub­lic per­cep­tion of
reduced staff in building
able to respond to
quer­ies.	Repu­ta­tion of CNPA is
impacted	5	5	Office space designed to
ensure pock­ets of teams
are able to work
col­laber­at­ively

Staff will be phys­ic­ally avail­able in the office every week day. There will always be at least one mem­ber of the admin team in the office to sign post quer­ies appro­pri­ately which can be respon­ded to remotely|2|Complaints reg­u­larly mon­itored by man­age­ment team.|2| ||Staff with equal­ity char­ac­ter­ist­ics dis­pro­por­tion­ately affected by Hybrid Work­ing arrangements|Staff with equal­ity char­ac­ter­ist­ics dis­en­gaged and isol­ated. Poten­tial indir­ect discrimination.

Staff from low-socio eco­nom­ic back­grounds may not be able to take advant­age of hybrid work­ing due to space and costs of home work­ing (inter­net, heating)

Staff at risk of domest­ic abuse at increase risk while work­ing from home|5|5|Equality Impact Assess­ment of post- cov­id work­ing under­taken Review from Equal­ity Advis­ory Pan­el and Intern­al Equal­ity group. Shared learn­ing with cross-sec­tor equal­ity group.

Domest­ic Abuse Policy in place|3|Monitor and review through SCF and staff reps, and through intern­al equal­ity group. Best com­pany sur­vey results.|3|

Own­er	Risk	Impact	L	I	Pre­vent	ML	Remedi­al	MI
	New staff take longer to
integ­rate into teams and
role	Reduced effect­ive­ness,
great­er time spent on
ori­ent­at­ing staff. Staff take
longer to fully per­form in
role.	4	3	CNPA provide
equip­ment for home
work­sta­tion.
Induc­tion processes
have been adap­ted to
remote work­ing.
All man­agers have
received train­ing on
man­aging remotely.
Chief Exec runs regular
wel­come to new staff
ses­sions (vir­tu­al)	3	Review through SCF
and staff reps. Feedback
and eval­u­ation of staff
induc­tion.	3

Appendix I

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY RESOURCES COM­MIT­TEE Paper 2, 29/10/21

We con­duc­ted a staff sur­vey in June 2021 to identi­fy staff pref­er­ences, on the caveat that these could not be guar­an­teed. The res­ults were as fol­lows: — Total Organ­isa­tion: — 68 Responses

Per­man­ent Office Based	Per­man­ent Home Based	Blen­ded
7 (10%)	4 (6%)	57 (84%)
		20% home/​80% Office 8 (12%)
		40% home/​60% Office 13 (19%)
		50% home/​50% Office 12 (18%)
		60% home/​40% Office 14 (20%)
		20% home/​80% Office 10 (15%)

Of those who would like a blen­ded approach, 33 (49% total staff, 58% of those seek­ing a blen­ded approach) would be will­ing to be in the office up to 50% of their con­trac­tu­al hours; 24 Staff (35% of total staff, 42% of those seek­ing a blen­ded approach) have a pref­er­ence for being based at home 60% or more of their con­trac­tu­al hours. The major­ity of those seek­ing a blen­ded approach would prefer to be in the office 50% or more of their con­trac­tu­al hours.

The major­ity of those who live loc­ally (18 out of 30, or 60% of those liv­ing loc­ally) would prefer to be in the office more than 60%, where­as the major­ity of those who live out­with the area (28 out of 38, or 74% of those liv­ing out­with) would prefer to work from home 50% or more. It is clear there­fore that com­mut­ing time and costs as well as car­bon emis­sions does play a role in inform­ing people’s preferences.

Focus­sing now on gender dif­fer­ences to the responses, of the 28 males respond­ents, 53% would prefer to be office based 60% or more, com­pared to 46% who would prefer to work from home 50% or more. Of the 40 female respond­ents, 65% would prefer to work from home 50% or more com­pared to 35% who would prefer to be mostly office based. So, the major­ity of women would prefer to be more home based, where­as the major­ity of men would like to be more office based. This is an import­ant point that should inform our con­sid­er­a­tions going for­ward – an employer’s Policy about hybrid work­ing pat­terns must avoid being indir­ectly dis­crim­in­at­ory on the grounds of sex because of the fact that more women than men have the primary respons­ib­il­ity for childcare.

Appendix 2

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY RESOURCES COM­MIT­TEE Paper 2, 29/10/21

Fol­low­ing the com­ple­tion of team sur­vey (which was com­pleted by line man­agers, and informed by the staff pref­er­ences sur­vey) the fol­low­ing pat­tern of office and home­work­ing has emerged.

Work­ing Type	Monday		Tues­day		Wed­nes­day		Thursday		Fri­day
	AM	PM	AM	PM	AM	PM	AM	PM	AM	PM
Work­ing in GOS (max)	26	25	55	56	49	49	48	46	18	17
Work­ing in GOS (min)	23	22	51	52	45	46	45	44	12	12
Work­ing in Ballater	0	0	1	1	1	1	2	2	0	0
Work­ing at Home (min)	60	47	18	18	26	27	23	24	42	43
Work­ing at Home (max)	63	50	21	20	30	31	25	26	47	48
Field work (max)	0	14	24	23	20	20	13	13	15	14
Field Work (Min)	0	14	21	21	19	19	11	12	15	14
NWD	11	11	2	1	3	1	13	13	22	23
Blanks	11	11	11	11	11	11	11	11	11	11

Tues­days are the most pop­u­lar days for office access with Wed­nes­day and Thursday sug­gest­ing sim­il­ar num­bers. The major­ity of home­work­ing days are Monday and Fri­day. There are 11 unknown work­ing pat­terns due to either vacan­cies or staff being unable to con­firm. The max and min levels rep­res­ent where staff have indic­ated they will be doing either/​or on any giv­en day.