Non-job of the week
Mar 2011 09

Non-job of the week15

After last week’s non-job, an Interim Head of Parking Services, I received many messages of support. One even wrote this in the comments section:

I NEVER agree with Andrew and the TPA but I ruddy well am on this occasion. This kind of money for a head of parking is quite simply obscene and completely unjustifiable. Outrageous.

Unfortunately – and perhaps surprsingly – there were still some who thought paying £600 a day was justified. I was told I had missed the point; this was an interim job; doesn’t he know this is the going rate? Yes, I did realise this was an interim job. The clue was in the title. If this is the going rate, then councils should make sure they drive it down. Some people really don’t get it.

Never mind, as I said, the majority of comments were supportive from people genuinely shocked a council would pay so much, even if it was ‘just’ for a maximum of twelve months!

This week’s non-job is once again from Surrey County Council. I don’t know what council taxpayers there think, but I get the impression SCC is overflowing with cash, and the services there are second to none. I know there are plenty of taxpayer funded officials in all councils gifted in the dark art of spin, constantly telling us what a great job their council is doing, but Surrey seems to excel in this area more than others. The council is looking for an Internal Communications Officer, at over £32,000 pa, to join its award winning communications team. Here follows the gobbledegook job description:

Excited by the idea of making a difference?

Confident managing a number of client relationships at any one time?

Adept at taking a brief and turning it into a communications plan?

Got a flair for creating and delivering clear and engaging communications?

Understand our role as communicators during times of change?

Our award winning internal communications team is looking for someone who can help develop and deliver engaging communications; with a particular focus on change communications.

You’re a team player, and able to work independently, developing and implementing integrated internal communications campaigns to a high professional standard.

You have an understanding of the role communications has in informing and engaging colleagues, turning strategy into action and maintaining and enhancing our brand. Hands-on and able to think strategically, you use your excellent writing skills, creative approach and strong interpersonal skills to support internal customers, at all levels, across the organisation.

Through your understanding of the communications mix, you use a range of communications channels to reach audiences, to evaluate the success of each, and modify your work accordingly.

What will this post holder be doing? What change are they responsible for communicating that cannot be communicated through existing channels? Apparently this is an award winning team. Who gave the award? I bet it wasn’t Surrey taxpayers!

It is bad enough to watch out money being wasted on communications officers telling us what a great job the council is doing, without having to pay for internal communications departments. This is not what we pay our council tax for.

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  • Macaw090

    More ill-informed nonsense from the TPA. What a surprise. You are beginning to rival the DM for lazy populist journalism.

  • Adam

    With 1,000s of employees spread all over the county, don’t you think it is important that they are kept informed of issues that affect their jobs?

    Surrey taxpayers aren’t exposed to internal communications, so how could they give an award? Perhaps if you understood the value of internal communication you would’nt be so quick to dismiss the role.

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/Nick-Heath/60503038 Nick Heath

      Name one private organisation similar in size to SCC that has an internal comms department. If SCC was the size of Microsoft, i’d understand.

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/Nick-Heath/60503038 Nick Heath

      Name one private organisation similar in size to SCC that has an internal comms department. If SCC was the size of Microsoft, i’d understand.

      • Steve Collins

        Happy to oblige Nick:

        Logica UK, General Dynamics UK, Green Flag breakdown, Bloor Homes, individual (not corporate centre) bits of Lloyds TSB and Hewlett Packard, Triodos Bank, First Choice – there are many others, these are only the ones I know about personally.

        In fact Nick, internal communications teams have been firmly embedded in SME’s of around 5,000 employees for years – these days if you don’t have an IC presence you are the exception rather than the rule.

        I hope this helps.

  • Steve Collins

    What will this post holder be doing? – Umm – you’ve just answered that yourself, Andrew.

    What change are they responsible for communicating that cannot be communicated through existing channels? – How do you know that it isn’t being communicated through existing channels? In fact, how do you know that this is not a new role but is simply one replacing somebody that has left SCC?

    Who gave them an award? I don’t know – why don’t you ask them if you’re that desparate to find out?

    And please use the old grey matter, Andrew when you ask about ‘what change’?

    The change that involves large reductions in funding, many job losses, amalgamation of services and departments, closures of facilities etc etc. Do you think that SCC employees should just guess about what’s happening to their jobs and working practices?

    As you know, I’m the person that you have quoted agreeing with you about the outrageous salary offered for the London parking job, Andrew. But I’m afraid that after that brief episode you have reverted to commenting on things that you clearly don’t understand or do not give enough thought to.

    Non-job? Tenuous.

    Your lack of understanding about some of these roles would be rapidly cleared up if only you’d speak to your TPA colleague Lee Rotherham, the former corporate communications manager for English Heritage – he should be able to enlighten you….

    • Andrew Allison

      Steve – I asked what will this post holder be doing because the job description really doesn’t tell you. I didn’t ask what change will they be communicating, so I think I did use my grey matter. The changes are obvious, as you correctly observe.

      There simply isn’t a need for a council to have an internal communications department. Every council I have looked at is top heavy in middle management. I have received numerous e-mails from both current and former council employees who have said the same. Staff are trying to get on with their jobs, and those with time on their hands use it to interfere in what others are doing in an attempt to justify their existence.

      Of course staff want to know if their future is safe, and what changes are about to happen in their department. All they have to do is read the documents the council makes available to the public. Line managers will inform them, having been consulted by heads of department.

      I do understand how councils work and I do give it enough thought. Internal Communications Teams are not necessary, and this is a non-job.

      • Steve Collins

        Andrew,

        Indeed there is no need for a council to have an internal communications team or department but there is a need for an internal communications officer. Such officers are not middle-management.

        You appear to misunderstand both the processes behind job losses and how these are communicated to the public. Councils do not issue ‘documents’ to the public outlining that x number of jobs are going in this department and y number of jobs in the other. They give a broad approximation of posts to be lost overall. There are no ‘documents’ issued to the public in this regard. Of course, line managers must inform staff whether they are in danger of losing their jobs and the future shape of their department, but shouldn’t they also know about the situation across the council?

        I’m also a little disturbed that you seem to think that staff should found out about their futures and livelihoods by reading the local newspaper, bearing in mind your antipathy towards internal communications within a council.

        Councils perform a vast number of tasks – most of them mandated by central government dictat and they employ thousands of people to execute these tasks. I fail to see the benefit of these people working in silos, unaware of news and information from other parts of the organisation.

        Why do you think that the majority of private sector organisations of comparitive size have an internal communications function – for fun? As a luxury? That wouldn’t go down very well with owners or shareholders would it?

        No, the private sector has internal communications functions because they recognise that the flow and accessibility of information within an organisation is important to the smooth and efficient running of that organisation, especially during a time of change. It is an important business function.

        If councils are to achieve value for taxpayers by being put on a sound business footing, and to drive out waste and inefficiency then an internal communications function – it doesn’t have to be a team – is important.

        Internal communications within a council is important – therefore not a non-job.

        I do agree that the job spec was gobbledegook, however. Painful to read!

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  • Allan Dunn

    Dear Steve,
    I read your comments, and you do have a good point.
    However I’m sure you would agree that the artice ‘non-job of the week’ from the TPA team is a good thing, as it alerts us all to the overwhelming evidence of excessive government jobs creation which has been going on for the last decade or so.
    Perhaps this artice may not be such a perfect example, but there are many others.
    If you have the time, please make a contribution yourself and help us all bring these true ‘non-jobs’ to the public’s attention.
    Thank you in anticipation !

    • Steve Collins

      Yes indeed Allan. My non-jobs would include any more than one diversity officer, climate change officer and European officer per council – having the bare-minimum would conform to central government legislation.

      I am also strongly against political advisors/researchers/assistants being paid out of taxpayers’ money. Either councillors should do their own research (as most of them are retired anyway) or their respective parties should pay for them.

      And of course there’s the daft ones like ‘shifting furniture around officers’ and ‘Olympic liaison officers’ for councils outside of London – anything daft and contrived like that should go.

      • Allan Dunn

        Yes Steve, thank you for your reply.
        I do agree with what you say, but wonder how we can raise the public’s awareness of these taxpayer ripoffs ? As you can see, this forum doesn’t have many members participating, and I am sure that if ‘joe (and josephine) public’ was asked his/her opinion on these matters, they would also agree. Then I hope there would be an overwhelming surge in pressure on councils and government to cut out this waste.
        I am self-employed, working 7 days a week, but would be happy to help contribute to some scheme or programme to raise awareness. I can only think of an advertising campaign on billboards or TV but this would be very expensive. However, I would be happy to contribute £20 or so for a few months (maybe a little more ?) as I am too busy to actively campaign. It’s a pity that our retired councillors (the sensible ones) dont ‘grasp the nettle’ and get stuck in !
        Any ideas ?

  • PT

    I’m surprised that S.C.C. haven’t considered bringing in a team of consultants to advise the internal communications appointee in this vital council role.

  • fed up with councillors

    As a fomer employee of Nottinghamshire County Council who resigned from my job on the 22nd December 2010 after sending aletter of resignation on the 30th November 2010. I have been paid since December, I only pointedt his out to the HR department who nothing of my resignation. I then emailed my local councillors, both who failed to reply. I then sent an email to the council leader and within ten nminutes I had a reply. My resignation was in HR on the 21st Feb. 2011 three moths after my letter of reignation.they will invioce me for the money paid which i accept. here is the question how many people have resigned from employment and are still being paid for doing nothing, here we have locla councillors cutting left right and centrwe claiming enormous exspenses and youj can sit at home and be paid for doing nothing because they do not even know you have employment it beggars belief. So your council may be paying for people who are not working for them and how much is that costing us.

  • http://www.ioic.org.uk Steve Doswell

    It is important to scrutinise the way government spends our money, but this week Andrew has got it wrong.

    Good internal communication is vital for any well run operation and this is recognised by the many organisations across both public and private sectors that employ internal communication specialists. They know that it helps them be more efficient by making sure employees clearly understand what they should be doing, how, when and why. Without it organisations are more likely to suffer from duplication, delay and confusion – all things which I imagine the TPA would like to see less of. The TPA should be congratulating Surrey for looking for someone to make sure that things are clear and employees know what they should be doing and why.

    You need not take our word for this. There’s plenty of research that shows a correlation between effective internal communication and an organisation’s performance.

    As for their award, it may well have come from us. The Institute of Internal Communication’s role is to set high standards in internal communication and to recognise those who achieve them. Ours is a respected professional body committed to a fast-evolving yet long-established practice – for our recent 60th anniversary we received a letter of support from the Duke of Edinburgh, someone not known for tolerating inefficiency or new fangled ideas.

    We acknowledge the sincerity of the TPA’ efforts as a watchdog sniffing out government waste, but this time, Andrew, you’re simply barking up the wrong tree.
    Steve Doswell, Institute of Internal Communication