[ Leading Cork to Take Its Place as a World Class City ]
Cork City Council work activities which were temporarily scaled back or deemed by the Government to be non-essential services were in time permitted to resume with the caveat that all work activities are undertaken with the required COVID-19 Control Measures. Prior to doing so, Health and Safety developed a suite of Risk Assessments for Cork City Council Work Activities During the COVID-19 Pandemic and in doing so, introduced measures to facilitate the phased implementation of work activities in a controlled and systematic manner so as to ensure that the council were fulfilling their statutory duty of care to employees as per Part 2 Section 8 of the Safety, Health & Welfare at Work Act 2005 and also to ensure that the workforce were protected and thus minimising the risk of spread of infection. This Risk Assessments introduced consistent measures across all Cork City Council work activities in line with the Government’s recommendations on physical distancing and also ensures that employees make every effort to comply.
With the introduction of Level 5 restrictions, council employees were required to work from home, many using their own resources to maintain service delivery. The People and Organisation Directorate arranged the redeployment of over 150 staff from across the entire Council workforce to the Social Distancing Park Ranger Programme thus ensuring that the City’s parks, recreation areas and amenity walkways could be enjoyed by the public in a safe way. In addition twenty staff were redeployed at the request of the HSE. The City Council partnered with the HSE and the Irish Cancer Society to deliver SunSmart, a pilot skin cancer prevention awareness campaign for outdoor workers. Skin cancer is the most common cancer in Ireland with over 11,000 cases diagnosed annually, and outdoor workers are exposed to between 5-10 times more UV radiation than indoor workers. The People and Organisation Development Directorate, facilitated by the Business Process Service Improvement Unit in Corporate Affairs & International Relations, undertook significant process re-design. Our recruitment process moved entirely to using on-line interviews, documentation for interview boards moved from paper format to electronic format and guides for candidates attending on-line interviews were created. Our experience with implementing these changes was shared with other local authorities in the sector as an example of best practice.
People Management
The impact of COVID-19 was significant in shaping the work of the Cork City Council throughout 2020 with workforce agility and innovation ensuring that the Council’s staff were available to assist in the response to the pandemic while continuing to deliver essential services to the people of the city. As an employer the Council acted to ensure the safety and wellbeing of employees through the development and implementation of policies, procedures, and guidelines to minimise the impact of COVID-19. The provision of support to staff and line managers was significantly enhanced with a dedicated COVID-19 support line, the provision of online resources and webinars for staff in addition to the introduction of regular communications from the Chief Executive to all employees’ mobile phones. The council’s partnership process was used effectively to support two way communications in relation to service delivery and health and safety considerations throughout the COVID-19 crisis.
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