GPSJ WINTER 2023 2024 LATEST - Flipbook - Page 5
NEWS
GPSJ
Konica Minolta is certified for its excellence in
people practices for a seventh consecutive year
Konica Minolta Business
Solutions (UK) Ltd has
been recognised for its
excellence in people
practices for a seventh
consecutive year, with
certification by the Top
Employers Institute.
The Top Employers Institute is the
global authority on recognising
excellence in people practices. Its
certification programme enables
organisations to assess and
improve the workplace environment.
Since it was last certified (for a sixth
time in 2023), Konica Minolta has
continued to expand and refine
its commitment to existing and
new employees with a range of
initiatives focused on workplace
wellbeing, career development and
volunteering.
Konica Minolta’s career
development programme continues
to evolve, enabling the company
to attract people from different
walks and stages of life, as well as
providing them with a clear career
path and opportunities to flourish
and progress. This includes Early
Careers Business Professional
apprenticeships that gives school
and college leavers the opportunity
to kickstart their careers, develop
new skills and make a positive
impact. Longer-serving members
of the team are afforded time and
support to hone their skill sets in
a specific area, and transition into
another part of the business to
explore their full potential.
In 2023, the company announced
that each of its approximately 600
employees working throughout
the UK will be encouraged to
spend one working day per year
volunteering at local community
projects and supporting charities’
initiatives. To aid in their efforts
Konica Minolta has developed a
Social Impact App that employees
can use on their mobile devices to
help keep track of their volunteering
and fundraising activities and share
them with colleagues.
Konica Minolta is also proud
to have extended its Wellbeing
strategy through the Breathe
Employee Resource Group (ERG),
a group of dedicated wellbeing
enthusiasts that represent working
across all areas of the business.
In 2023, this strategy became a
real focus for Konica Minolta, with
all people leaders participating in
Mental Health Awareness Training.
The course gave leaders the tools
to help identify the signs of struggle
much earlier, as well as how to
signpost to further support, whether
that be through the Employee
Assistance Programme, or external
professionals.
The company also launched two
Wellbeing Toolkits for employees
and people leaders that provide
numerous resources and
signposting methods regarding
mental health, as well as guidance
to help leaders look after the
wellbeing of their team.
Non-executive appointments
Government is taking
longer than it should to
appoint non-executive
directors (NED) to public
positions, and these
delays can leave gaps on
boards, creating risks to
governance, and reducing
the number of high-quality
candidates, according to a
new report by the National
Audit Office (NAO).
The NAO’s Non-executive
appointments report details how
interviewees told the independent
public spending watchdog that both
ministerial churn and cumbersome
processes can delay appointments,
lead to potential appointees
dropping out of the process or
being deterred from applying, and
that it compared unfavourably to
private sector appointments.
The extent of the delays in 202324 is unclear as Cabinet Office
does not yet hold the relevant
data.1 This includes the length of
time it takes to receive approvals
from the Prime Minister’s office for
appointments that Number 10 is
involved in. In 2022-23, there was
on average 203 days between
a recruitment campaign closing,
and a public appointment being
announced. The Governance Code
for Public Appointments says this
should be no more than 90 days.
However, in April 2023 the
Cabinet Office launched a new
application tracking system to
centralise applications, gather
real-time data, and make it
easier for applicants to find new
opportunities. The Cabinet Office
told the NAO that departments
are using the new portal for all
regulated public appointments and
some unregulated appointments.
However, the system cannot
yet provide the insights needed
because not all government
departments are adding accurate
data to the system or using
the system during recruitment
campaigns.
Interviewees also expressed
concern to the NAO that applicants
withdrawing from the process
deprive the government of a
diverse range of high-quality NEDs.
However, the NAO’s analysis
of available data shows that
the diversity of new appointees
has improved in recent years.
Government set an ambition of
50% of all public appointees to
be female, and 14% of yearly
appointments to be from ethnic
minority backgrounds by 2022.
Cabinet Office told the NAO it has
not yet set aspirations beyond
2022.
The government has focused on
broadening the applicant pool for
NED posts, including developing
talent pipelines and undertaking
outreach events around the UK
designed to increase applications.
Other measures include using
media and social media to publicise
opportunities across government.2
Government does not know
how many NEDs in total are
serving on all government boards,
including arm’s-length bodies and
government companies. Cabinet
Office and the Commissioner for
Public Appointments collect data
on regulated public appointments
but the available data does not
differentiate between types of public
appointments, so it does not show
how many appointments are for
non-executive directors.3
Appointments that are considered
to be of interest to the Prime
Minister require consultation with
or sometimes agreement from
the Prime Minister’s office, on
his behalf. However, the Prime
Minister’s interest in certain
appointments is not routinely made
public.
The NAO’s report recommends
that the Cabinet Office works with
departments and their arm’s-length
bodies to improve the consistency
of approach to appointments
across government, through
support, guidance and sharing of
good practice.
It also recommends Cabinet
Office works with departmental
appointments teams to understand
delays and use this data to
streamline the process and improve
how organisations identify the
skills and diversity they need for a
particular role.
Gareth Davies, the head of the
NAO, said:
“Non-executive directors make
an important contribution to the
running of government, providing an
independent perspective, expertise,
and challenge where needed.
Government must do more to
address delays in the appointment
and reappointment process. Failure
to do so poses risks to the quality
and diversity of boards as well as
good governance.
“Cabinet Office’s new system is
a positive step towards identifying
where delays are occurring in the
system, addressing long-standing
issues, and enabling better
decision-making.”
GOVERNMENT AND PUBLIC SECTOR JOURNAL WINTER 2023/2024
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