About WME

“West Midlands Employers – advocating, building and championing a strong public sector workforce for an ambitious West Midlands Region”

WME is excited by the transformation taking place within the public sector and the opportunities for service innovation this brings for all of us.  We want the West Midlands Public Sector workforce to realise its full potential and be regarded amongst the best. We want our sector to be a vibrant place to work and our region to be a great place to live.

Our ethos is ‘public for public’

WME has been around for many years and is owned by its 32 subscribing Councils. It is a voluntary not-for-profit regional employers’ organisation working on behalf of public and voluntary organisations in the West Midlands to harness their collective strength as employers.  We are funded through a mixture of membership subscriptions and income generated from our commercial services.  We are one of 10 regional organisations, and each region has an equivalent body representing employers’ views nationally, providing confidential advice and guidance to local authorities and acting as the Region’s interface with the national employers on terms, conditions and pay negotiations.

WME has evolved its role to provide considerable added value as a platform for the delivery of highly successful shared services and other workforce related products.

Our purpose to “Advocate, build and champion people centred organisations for a resilient and diverse public sector workforce that benefits everyone in the West Midlands.”

We will:

  • Advocate and influence for our organisations, working as a highly respected partner to speak as the ‘voice of employers’ in the region and offer solutions to workforce challenges
  • Build the future public sector workforce by bringing our specialist expertise and insight to the right conversations at the right time to be a key partner in the ongoing development and attraction of the public sector workforce
  • Champion the West Midlands as an attractive place to live and work and as a trusted honest broker, we will bring organisations together to strengthen and diversify our workforce

Our priorities ‘our workforce and our organisations’

We are committed to supporting an ambitious West Midlands region and we recognise that every ambition, change, or service delivered by our public sector organisations involves people – they are our biggest resource and our biggest source of potential for innovation and transformation.

In 2020-25 we have three priority areas of work:

  1. Tackle regional workforce priorities

We will support organisational development and culture change and establish a dedicated regional fund with capacity to deliver against targeted priorities, to build a more resilient and diverse workforce and attract and retain talent in our region.

  1. Deliver a strong portfolio of shared services and products

We will grow our Leadership, OD and HR support offer. We will look to expand our recruitment and resourcing services even further and give you access to all these services at competitive and often discounted rates.

  1. Reposition WME as a strong Membership Organisation

We will put you at the heart of everything we do to ensure we are a strong Membership organisation focussed on the priorities and services you tell us you need. We will offer a valuable Shareholder Membership Service that ensures you have access to our support where and when it matters most, including better access to information, data and specialist workforce advice.

#TeamWME are eager to work with you all to make the West Midlands public sector the best midlands’ workforce  

Our values ‘iHEART’

As individuals we are proud of our WME values and will work hard to demonstrate our iHEART approach in all of our interactions with you.

  • We influence change and innovate to build a better public sector
  • We are honest and do the right thing
  • We strive for excellence every single day
  • We are ambitious and want to do spectacular things to make a difference
  • We respect individuals and support our public sector family
  • We are trusted colleagues and you can depend on us

Membership of WME offers something for every organisation, and we provide our services, support and development to all employees in those organisations.  If you would like to find out more about WME go to www.wmemployers.org.uk or contact us at info@wmemployers.org.uk