The pressure is on to reduce the huge debt incurred to fight the recession and the debate on public spending cuts is raging between the political parties on which front line services will be maintained and which will face drastic cuts.

Councillor Alan Rudge, cabinet member for equalities and human resources considers how local government can meet tough targets for public sector efficiency savings and still provide service excellence at the front line 

In the current climate efficiency savings are paramount for both public and private sector organisations and there has been much debate in the media that 'efficiency savings' is just another term for job cuts.

This could be no further from the truth when it comes to managing a  public sector organisation such as Birmingham City Council that is larger than many well known UK FTSE 100 and Blue Chip companies with 60,000 staff and a remit to provide the people of Birmingham with the high quality effective services they require  each and every day. 

Meeting the challenges of the future requires a flexible, agile and committed workforce. It is a common held misconception that public sector workers choose this career path for an easy life, if this were the case then the groundbreaking changes that we have been undertaking at Birmingham City Council would not be possible. The truth is that a strong case of vocation with dedicated professionalism and commitment is what drives local authority workers to provide outstanding public service.

Birmingham has the ambition to be the best place to live, learn, work and visit- a global city with a local heart. This ambition is pursued very much in the spirit of Joseph Chamberlain, our city's forefather and a truly great politician who pioneered innovation and improvement.

The Human Resources department recognises that BCC is a service organisation run for people by people and the key to achieving sustainable high performance is to make each and every individual's input count.

The leading edge people management practices that we are developing via the Excellence in People Management (EPM) project are now being recognised on a national scale and Human Resources have won an unprecedented number of awards over the last twelve months. Entries for these awards have come from both the private and public sector proving that Birmingham City Council can compete against top private sector companies and win.

The joint projects that we  are undertaking with recognised leading institutions also illustrates the quality of the work that we are doing and how well it is regarded by others. The workforce intelligence and planning team are involved in ground breaking research that is taking place alongside private sector companies with the Chartered Institute of Personal Development (CIPD), University of Birmingham and Aston University. This work will enable us to develop services, toolkits and analytical capabilities that will help us understand the needs of present and future workforce development.  

Sixteen awards in total have been won by the Human Resources department since Councillor Rudge took over the portfolio in 2004, with BCC's pioneering employee engagement programme BEST winning many of the honours and receiving three major accolades in as many months this year.

In June they were the winner of the 'Outstanding Employee Engagement Strategy' at the HR magazine's HR Excellence Awards and were also awarded at the same ceremony the coveted 'HR Excellence Gold Award' - awarded to the overall winner from the winners of the 16 category winners. 

The success of the BEST programme is evident in the results of the initiative - the part of the entry that the judges were most impressed with. More than 75% of staff who have taken part in a BEST workshop says that they feel more engaged and motivated. A staff-wide weighted survey revealed the proportion of employees 'motivated' in their current role had improved from the 56% in 2006 to 83% in 2008.

A study by Kingston Business School has verified 76% of staff are 'strongly and frequently' motivated and the number of staff agreeing they feel proud to work for Birmingham City Council is an impressive 90% in 2008.

Birmingham City Council were one of a handful of local authorities or public sector organisations to win one of these awards, the other winners included such well known private companies as Bupa, Sainsbury's, McDonalds and Asda.

In April, the BEST programme team was announced as 'Winners' in the Human Resources Innovation of the Year Category at the Public Sector People Managers Association (PPMA) Awards for the innovative approach to delivering the programme.

BEST also won the accolade for 'People and Workforce Achievement' at the Municipal Journal (MJ) Awards in June. At the 'Midlands Excellence Awards' in January the BEST programme team were 'Highly Commended' in the Innovation Category for their work and delivery of the programme.

The BEST programme has most recently been shortlisted for the Personnel Today Award for Employee Engagement and is once again competing alongside public and private sector to win this award.

Other HR initiatives that have won awards include the 'Advancing Women Programme' introduced to ensure equality of opportunity for women who wish to progress within the organisation, this programme won the award for the 'Best Public Service Initiative' at the Training Journal Awards ceremony this year.  

The change agents programme is another innovative approach that has been shortlisted several times including the 2009 Management Journal Awards held in June. This flagship talent pool was shortlisted for the CIPD Pay and Workforce Achievement Award last year and again in the 2009 CIPD Awards in the Talent Management category.

All of these accolades are important, not so we can indulge is some self congratulatory back slapping or celebrate awards for awards sake but so that the people of Birmingham can see that we are serious about transforming and improving the quality of service for our citizens. HR plays a vital role and supporting that process of change and improvement that will enable us to achieve our goals and this is even more important when we are faced with the economic realities of the current downturn.

Engaging people's hearts and minds to harness the success that comes from a committed and loyal workforce does not happen by magic. We believe that it is the responsibility of the organisation to increase and sustain motivation, job satisfaction and commitment in order to improve performance.   

Proving that you can be regarded as one of the best in your market place is an important part of this process and that is why we will continue to celebrate the achievements of our staff in winning these awards and recognise it as a vital part of making sure we are better equipped to lead the organisation and help the council deliver Excellence.