OHR report recommends creation of 54 new jobs costing £3m

Review finds office lacks clarity over purpose and is under-resourced

A report into government's Office of Human Resources is recommending increasing the body's headcount by almost 50%.

The 192-page document compiled by Grant Thornton has been published following calls in Tynwald.

The review found the office currently has a lack of clarity over its purpose, vision, strategy and operating plan, as well as unsustainable spans of control for its senior leadership team and is under-resourced.

To remedy the issues, Grant Thornton recommends OHR create 54 new roles at a cost of just over £3m, in addition to the 117 positions currently held within the department.

The report warns that neither recruiting nor investing in technology would mean OHR continues to struggle to meet its service user needs, and would continue to fail to deliver any strategic value.

Other recommendations include creating a HR director specifically for Manx Care, taking line management duties away from business partners and bringing in a new help desk to handle queries from service users.

Grant Thornton conducted interviews with a number of senior civil servants as part of the review, including the then-interim chief secretary, chief officers of all government departments, the attorney general and two trade unions.

Service users also provided feedback, with some stating they found it difficult to have confidential conversations without the content of those conversations returning to government, while there was also a variance in the perceived quality of advice received from OHR.

Staff were asked how satisfied they were with the service - 3% stated they were very satisfied, while 14% were very unsatisfied.

The report, dated March 2023, has been published after Douglas South MHK Claire Christian received support for her motion seeking its publication at this month's sitting of Tynwald.

Chief Minister Alfred Cannan, who ordered this review in May last year, had sought a delay to the publication, asking that it be released in April 2024 once government has had time to respond to its findings, but his amendment didn't gain support.

Government has confirmed a full response is being prepared, and will be published in April next year.

A response to a recent Tynwald written question revealed the report cost £20-50,000.