Case Studies
Managing Staff Transfers
Background
TUPE transfers of staff are a key requirement of new contracts in the public sector. It is important for transferring staff to be valued, with their local knowledge and expertise vital to the success of the transfer. We have a good record of managing staff transfers. This is reflected in our commitment to the Investors in People quality mark which we first achieved in 1997 and have been re-awarded in subsequent inspections.
It is important that the TUPE process has more flexibility in the future and is retained as a key element of the mobilisation of new contracts. This allows local issues to be easily understood with areas of importance for the residents and the community transferred to the new provider. This will ensure a higher quality more resident-focused service.
Managing the process
We find mostly people are concerned with their local government pensions, their holiday entitlements, and their continuity of service. Staff who transfer to us have the same pension, offering a scheme that mirrors the local government pension scheme (certified by the Government Actuary’s Department). They enjoy the same holiday entitlements and keep their continuity of service.
Offering these guarantees is only part of a successful transfer; gaining their trust is equally important. One of the most powerful initiatives in winning them over is to let them talk to staff who have previously transferred to us. They say more about Pinnacle PSG than any presentation or documentation can ever do.
Transfers work best where there are excellent communications and we strive to meet staff individually, in groups and with trade unions. These meetings involve HR specialists, as well as our directors, giving everyone early access to the top of the organisation. The partnership agreements we have with the trade unions are highly important.
The initial meetings and communications with staff provide an overview of us, our history, values and culture. We have found that giving staff access to our company intranet prior to transfer demonstrates our openness as an organisation and gives these individuals an early insight of what Pinnacle PSG is like. Oneto- one meetings also allow us to discuss how they will fit into our organisation and how they can contribute to our future success.
Engaging staff
New staff often have new ideas and approaches to our work, and are usually keen to let us know how things can be improved. This is welcomed, so we ask staff to complete a simple form outlining what they think is wrong and how they think it can be put right. Equally, we want to know what they think is right and why it works.
Immediately after transfer, we carry out individual skills audits. Everyone is asked about their role, problems, strengths and weaknesses, and where they see themselves going. We then do everything we can to help them fulfil their ambitions in their own specific contracts or elsewhere within Pinnacle PSG, developing individual and group development plans.
Focussing on performance
The most fundamental change that staff experience entering a commercial environment is meeting and beating a contract specification. This can be a difficult shift in emphasis for them, so we believe it is crucial that we make clear what our expectations are from the outset
All new staff attend an induction programme during the first four weeks of joining Pinnacle PSG. This reinforces the whole transfer process, confirms our focus on performance and welcomes them to the company. Then our performance management processes are applied. These ensure that all staff know exactly what is expected of them and that they do not operate in a vacuum. Our style is very much to be open and discuss performance successes and failures.
Our culture
Although people are often concerned about new working practices or being worked too hard, they quickly realise what we are seeking is flexibility. For example, the introduction of caretakers working in teams rather than individual patches was new to them. But they soon realised that this fostered teamwork, greater ownership of problems and made their jobs more interesting, while at the same time improved the service.
We believe that the TUPE regulations are so important that best practice case studies and exemplar TUPE transfers should be available to mobilisation and evaluation teams.
