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Hertfordshire County Council

Welcome to Hertfordshire County Council. Here you'll find a summary of your terms and conditions as well as the employee handbook.

Take a moment to read through the terms and conditions that apply to you.

This is your guide to our employment policies and benefits. It looks at the services we provide, some of the great things you can expect as an employee, and what we expect from you.

About your employee handbook

The purpose of this handbook is to give you information about Hertfordshire County Council (HCC) and what you can expect from us as your employer, and in turn what is expected of you, during your employment with us.

We value our reputation for putting equality and diversity at the heart of everything we do so you should always ensure you conduct yourself corresponding to the policies and procedures set out in this handbook. Detailed information on all the policies and procedures referred to in this
handbook can be found on our intranet. If you do not have access to the intranet please talk to your manager or contact The HR Service Desk to obtain a copy of the policies.

This employee handbook should be read alongside your contract of employment. The content within this handbook is non-contractual and may be subject to change as the council revises its policies. If there is any inconsistency between this guide and your contract of employment, the
terms of your contract of employment will take precedence.

Our values

The County Council’s values guide how each employee must approach their work and make decisions and how they must act towards each other, residents, partners, and suppliers.


The following values underpin the County Council’s culture and behaviour as an organisation:

  • we improve Residents’ lives
  • we work with Integrity
  • we act Sustainably
  • we champion Equality and Fairness


‘We RISE to the challenge’ is the overarching message at the heart of our four values, connecting them together and helping to make them memorable.

People Strategy

Our People Strategy sets out our commitment to our colleagues’ development and wellbeing. To plan for now and look to the future each Directorate has a Strategic Workforce Plan which includes our people priorities. These workforce plans will have a strong focus on the wellbeing of our people along with ensuring that equality, diversity, and inclusion are embedded into everything we do. 

Equality and diversity

We are committed to achieving diversity and equality of opportunity both as a large employer and as a provider of services to the people of Hertfordshire. We strive to incorporate equality and diversity into everything we do, so it is an integral part of our business, and not an ‘add on’.

We recognise that in our society, groups and individuals continue to be unfairly discriminated against and we acknowledge our responsibilities to actively promote equality and combat discrimination.

All members of the community and other employees have a right to be treated with fairness and equity; therefore you should ensure that any policies relating to equality and diversity are complied with in addition to the requirements of the law.

Our Putting People First Policy demonstrates our wholehearted commitment to continued action in tackling inequality and promoting diversity.
 

Our services

Hertfordshire is a buoyant, prosperous county with one of the strongest economies in the country. We have a national reputation for developing community involvement and being a large and progressive employer. We work closely with our partner organisations to provide a number of services across Hertfordshire.

Services for adults

We work closely with the health service, district councils and voluntary organisations to plan, commission and deliver prompt, effective social care services. Our staff provide and arrange support, care and protection for adults who can’t manage without help, putting the users of our services and their carers at the centre of all that we do. We believe that everyone has a right to live as independently as possible and our efforts are focussed on helping people to gain and maintain control over their own lives wherever possible.

Services for children

Our services place the needs of the child at the centre of our work. We provide an extensive range of services to support every stage of development from the birth of a child to life long learning for adults and deal with all aspects of child and family education and welfare.

Services for all the community

We are dedicated to protecting life and property. Fire-fighters and safety officers work to keep our communities safe by promoting fire safety and issuing fire safety advice and certificates to businesses as well as rescuing people from fires, accidents and tackling chemical spillages.

Trading Standards protects consumers and businesses by investigating unfair and illegal business practice and helps ensure Hertfordshire has safe, strong and healthy communities.

We also seek to make Hertfordshire a better place to live, work and travel around. We look after the roads and public rights of way, promote public transport, manage the county council transport fleet, dispose of household waste, conserve and enhance the countryside and oversee plans for transport, major housing projects and mineral extraction. In addition
we run a large scale warehouse and distribution operation as well as a procurement function.

Our libraries provide books, CDs, DVDs and new technologies through a network of libraries. We also store historic papers and photos to help residents and visitors investigate Hertfordshire’s past.

Support services

Our support services ensure strategic management of the organisation. Services include Finance, Human Resources, Property, Performance and Improvement and Technology.

We also bring together support services for our external and internal customers, and our work with partners. This includes Economic Development, Communications, Corporate Strategy, Customer Service Centre, Shared Internal Audit Service, Legal Services, Member Services, Scrutiny and Statutory Services.

Herts Rewards

Working for Hertfordshire entitles you to a large variety of rewards and benefits. All non-schools employees of Hertfordshire County Council have access to the Herts Rewards portal which can be accessed from any computer or smart phone or via a telephone helpline. Please note,
eligibility criteria may apply to some local benefits.

There are 3 strands to Herts Rewards which are outlined below:

1. Lifestyle

  • Flexible working arrangements.
  • Discounts on you everyday shopping at supermarkets, DIY stores, clothes shops, mobile phone outlets and department stores through reloadable gift cards and discount vouchers.
  • Discounts and cashback at many well known restaurant chains, entertainment venues, gyms and leisure centres.
  • Discounts on holiday and leisure activities in the UK and abroad.
  • Microsoft Home User Programme – saving you money on home software.
  • Discounts on selected nurseries.
  • Occupational maternity / paternity and adoption pay.
  • Leave provision.
  • Support groups including the Herts disABILITY Network, Black and Asian Support Group (BAAS), HCC Carers Group and the Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) Support Group.
  • Carers – 2 for 1 cinema tickets.

2. Financial

  • Pension scheme with generous employer contributions.
  • Independent financial advice.
  • Childcare voucher salary sacrifice scheme.
  • Season Ticket Loans.
  • Lease Car Scheme.
  • Credit Unions.
  • Give as You Earn.
  • Ill health insurance.

3. Health and wellbeing

  • Occupational sick pay.
  • Discounted health insurance.
  • Cycle to work salary sacrifice scheme.
  • Carewell, a free and confidential 24 hour Employee Assistance Programme, which provides advice and support, including a counselling service.
  • Access to discounts at local gyms, health and fitness centres.
  • On-site wellbeing activities and classes.
  • Health screening via salary sacrifice
  • Discounted healthcare, dental care and optical care

To find out more and to register, visit www.hertsrewards.co.uk.

 

Wellbeing

Whilst we appreciate that you may occasionally be prevented from attending work through ill health, we have a responsibility to maintain service delivery and minimise disruption. We are therefore committed to managing sickness absence and believe that it is the responsibility of managers, union representatives and you to work together to promote a positive attendance
culture. The council is committed to helping you achieve a good work life balance and offers a wide range of rewards and initiatives through our wellbeing strategy Healthy Herts If you become unwell.

If you are unwell and unable to attend work you must speak directly to your line manager within an hour of your normal start time. You should give a clear indication of the nature of the illness and a likely return date. If your absence is for seven days or less you must use the council’s self-certification arrangement.

Keeping in touch when you are unwell

You must keep your manager informed throughout your period of sickness absence, on at least a weekly basis. The form of contact and frequency will be agreed between you and your manager.

Returning to work

A return to work interview will be carried out by your manager on your return in order to discuss the reason for absence and establish any further support needed. If your sickness absence reaches the health review prompts detailed in the Managing Ill Health Policy your manager may invoke a formal review to look at any further action required to improve your attendance and wellbeing.

A healthy workplace

The council recognises and accepts its responsibility as an employer for providing a safe and healthy working environment for all of its employees. In accordance with its duties under the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974, HCC regularly reviews and publishes its Statement of general health and safety policy to all employees.

The policy covers HCC’s overall objectives for health and safety management; the responsibilities of staff at all levels with regard to health and safety. A local health and safety model policy is also available, to assist managers create a policy for premises they manage or, if considered appropriate, for their team or service. As part of your local induction your manager will provide you with any specific health and safety information necessary for your role and explain how identified risks will be controlled.

Our Working Time Guide ensures that you do not work excessive hours and have adequate breaks from work.

 

Ways of Working

Our Ways of Working vision reflects how the way we work is changing. We are building a culture where outcomes come first and there is flexibility in how we achieve these outcomes.

Our Ways of Working prioritise outcomes over locations. Many of us will work at home or in the community, combined with using office spaces when we need them.

With this flexibility comes better work/life balance, a reduced environmental impact, financial savings and opportunities to deliver services differently to better meet the needs of a changing Hertfordshire.

 

Developing your career

We are totally committed to giving you every opportunity to pursue your own personal development, raise your standards of performance and enhance your career prospects.

We will support you to undertake the learning and development you need to help you achieve and maintain a high standard of performance in line with the council’s values and behaviours and so help the organisation deliver the best possible services to the people of Hertfordshire.

It is also vital that you recognise that learning is a personal responsibility therefore you are expected to take an active part in your learning and development.

Learning and development opportunities

We offer a wide range of on and off the job learning and development opportunities including courses for generic skills and courses for technical skills and professional development delivered by service departments’ learning and development teams.

We encourage the use of eLearning, which provides an opportunity for you to learn flexibly at a time that suits you and at a point when you need it. iLearn is our eLearning platform that allows you to choose from a wide range of online training modules that can be completed at your desk or from home via your own PC.

Career development

We actively encourage the use of career schemes to enable employees to develop and progress within their chosen career path.

Performance Management Development Scheme (PMDS)

You will have an annual review of your performance based on key objectives for the year and our values and behaviours. Any development needs identified will form part of your personal development plan.

Job opportunities

See current job vacancies

Secondments, job swaps and shadowing offer flexible approaches to working by giving you the opportunity to experience different working practices in a variety of different ways. The scheme enables increased awareness and knowledge of other teams and departments, broadening your perspectives and allowing you to develop transferable personal and professional skills.

Standards of conduct

Hertfordshire residents are entitled to demand the highest standards of conduct from all employees of the county council. We must ensure that nothing we do shakes the public’s confidence in our integrity.

Local government is rightly proud of its reputation for its standard of conduct and it is up to us all to ensure that these high standards are maintained in Hertfordshire. Your activities as members of external companies or voluntary organisations are also subject to the standards set out in the Code of Conduct. This section lays out some key points for your reference.

Political neutrality

We serve the county council as a whole, in this way you must serve all Councillors and not just those of any political group and must ensure that the individual rights of all councillors are respected.

You must follow every lawful expressed policy of the county council and must not allow your own personal or political opinions to interfere with your work.

Relationships

Mutual respect between you and Councillors is essential to good local government. Close personal familiarity between employees and individual councillors can damage the relationship and prove embarrassing to other employees and councillors and should therefore be avoided. You should
always remember your responsibilities to the community you serve and ensure courteous, efficient and impartial service delivery to all groups and individuals within that community as defined by our policies.

Social Media

You are reminded that social media is public not private, even when communicating with friends and family. You must not post content on social media that is confidential to the organisation, its employees, its suppliers or its customers.

You must not post content that is derogatory, defamatory, discriminatory or offensive in any way, or which could bring the organisation, its employees, its suppliers or its customers, into disrepute.

Disclosure of Information and Confidentiality

Employees must treat all information about individuals, including other employees, customers and service users with confidentiality and in accordance with Data Protection Law. Employees must take all reasonable steps to protect and safeguard confidential documents and must comply with the Data Protection Policy and any other policies relating to confidentiality and security of information.

Employees must not use any information obtained in the course of their employment for personal gain or benefit, and they must not pass such information on to others unless they are legally entitled to receive it. Deliberately accessing personal data if there is no legitimate reason for doing so is a criminal offence and could result in disciplinary action.

Corruption and use of financial resources

You must be aware that it is a serious criminal offence for you corruptly to receive or give any gift, loan, fee, reward or advantage for doing, or not doing, anything or showing favour, or disfavour, to any person in your official capacity.

You should also ensure that you use public funds entrusted to you in a responsible, lawful manner and in accordance with our financial regulations. You should strive to ensure value for money to the local community and to avoid legal challenge to the county council.

Hospitality

Offers of personal gifts should be refused with the exception of small gifts of a promotional nature. Offers of hospitality should be treated with caution and you should be guided by the county council conventions on gifts and hospitality which are contained under the Code of Conduct.

What you wear

Whatever your role, we expect you to dress in a manner that is appropriate for your job function and the environment in which you work. Managers are responsible for setting and maintaining these standards.

Ways of working

Your manager will work with you to clarify your Ways of Working profile ('work anywhere', 'out and about' or 'fixed base'), which will determine how flexible you can be. Further information is available in our Ways of Working policy and guide.

You also have permission to consider your own personal circumstances in deciding where to work. The home environment may be a factor in deciding on work location. It is advisable for you to come into the office where it would help your mental health or where it is unsafe/unsuitable to be working from home, as well as where the business requires such attendance.

You are asked to consider:

  • Only using offices when needed
  • Doing things digitally or virtually, where possible
  • Working at home or in the community before choosing to work in the office
  • Avoiding unnecessary travel or printing.

Grievances

We encourage open communication between you and your manager to ensure any issues are resolved quickly and to the satisfaction of all concerned.

We respect and value the diversity of individuals and embrace equality and diversity in everything we do in line with the council’s organisational values. Harassment and bullying is unlawful, and failure to comply with the required standards of behaviour will not be tolerated or condoned in the workplace.

As with all issues, you are encouraged and supported to find an informal resolution wherever possible. If the problem persists, you can use our Grievance Policy.

Disciplinary procedure

We are committed to being a fair and reasonable employer. You are required to demonstrate appropriate standards and at all times conform to our policies, practices and procedures.

Wherever possible, we will seek to resolve issues about conduct on an informal basis. In most cases, managers will identify any shortcomings in conduct or behaviour via day to day supervisory performance management processes, providing appropriate feedback and support.

Whistleblowing

Our Whistleblowing Policy ensures that you are able to raise concerns of any reasonable suspicion of illegal or improper conduct without fear of recrimination. Concerns of illegal or improper conduct include:

  • conduct which is an offence or a breach of the law
  • alleged miscarriage of justice
  • serious Health and Safety risks
  • the unauthorised use of public funds
  • possible fraud and corruption
  • sexual, physical and verbal abuse, or bullying or intimidation of employees, customers or service users
  • abuse of authority
  • other unethical conduct.

HCC has a dedicated confidential email address for whistleblowing complaints: whistle@hertfordshire.gov.uk.

Retirement

We believe that employees of all ages have valuable contributions to make to the organisation and for this reason we do not enforce a specific retirement age to allow people to continue working for as long as they are willing and able. If you wish to retire at 65 years of age you are entitled to do so, however there are also options if you want to retire early or ease into retirement gradually.

Redundancy

Change is a fact of life for us and from time to time it will be necessary to change jobs and services which may result in the need for redundancy. In these circumstances we will aim to do this fairly, providing advice and support for you if you are at risk. For further information please refer to our Organisational Change Policy.

Exit interviews

When you leave us you will be asked to complete a leavers questionnaire (or for certain hard to fill roles be invited to an exit interview). This gives you the chance to have your say about why you are leaving.

Exceptional leadership and management skills are vitally important to us. Part of our talent management strategy will be to conduct formal exit interviews and to keep in touch with those talented people who leave.

 

01992 555000 (internal 25000)

 

A single contact number for all support services including Human Resources, payroll, pension and lease car related enquiries, to help you reach the right person as quickly as possible.

You can also contact the HR Service Desk on this telephone number for support on queries such as, conduct at work, managing attendance, flexible working, HR policy related queries.

You can log a query via the HR Service Desk Self-Service Portal accessible via the intranet and council’s webpage.

 

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