We’ve not had a presidential visit for more than two years in London and we were very pleased that Stephen Moir was able to join the region on Friday 27th June, to speak to us about his recent conference theme of HR evolution or extinction. In choosing this title, Stephen revealed his secret boyhood love of dinosaurs and his yearning to be a palaeontologist…

In a really engaging way Stephen tackled some of the significant issues for public sector HR:

• Selling ourselves as HR professionals better
• Celebrating success
• Working smarter - being more strategic
• Total rewards, rather than just pay
• Linking contribution and rewards better
• Tackling inequality

Our regional members got a chance to ask any and many questions of Stephen and the ‘up close and personal’ approach worked very well.

Rave comments afterwards included, “That was inspirational”, “…best session we’ve had as a region”,”…a very clear vision for public sector HR”.

Big thanks to Stephen. Also big thanks to LGA for so kindly hosting us at their Smith Square offices. So…other regions, if you haven’t booked him up yet, grab that phone or bash out an email…you’ll enjoy the result!

Dean Shoesmith - Chair of London Region / PPMA Vice President (Elect)

Well another week of PPMA presidential life comes to an end and sees me London bound once more - this time for the MJ Awards and a chance to celebrate some of the best work in public services, including the PPMA/LGE/IDeA jointly sponsored pay and workforce achievement award, which I’ve had the privilege to help judge this year - good luck to all the finalists.

However, this isn’t simply another awards dinner/excuse to wear a DJ, but instead makes good on my promise to get out and about to the PPMA regions, with the London Regional meeting on Friday - I’m looking forward to meeting with more of our members face to face and to some challenging questions being posed!

Having mentioned the LGE, this is an obviously interesting week as we await the formal confirmation on the proposed UNISON strike action by local government workers. At a meeting yesterday with Jan Parkinson, MD of the LGE, I and other PPMA colleagues had a chance to discuss opportunities for future collaboration and the possibility of joint policy development on the future reward agenda - all very exciting and a good place for PPMA to be involved.

All in all, another busy, enjoyable and good week for the Association, forging links in the right places, shaping thinking and being seen as ‘up there’ with other professional associations!

Best Wishes

Stephen

Not a rainy evening this time, but a train journey from London to Cambridge and I’m back from my week long holiday in sunny Suffolk - thanks to VP Gill Hibberd for being last week’s blogger for PPMA, she put me to shame in terms of content!

Anyway, to business - today has been a highly successful and busy day with a meeting of the PPMA policy board in London. As always, we managed to get through a mountain of business and dealt with some key decisions on issues of PPMA policy, including discussions about pay and reward, as well as Jan Parkinson’s concept of the public sector worker, which gets my support. We also discussed issues relating to business development for the Association and a potential drive to increase membership levels.

The evaluation of the 2008 PPMA Conference made for a good discussion and you’ll be pleased to hear that many of the suggested improvements have already been factored into Gill Hibberd’s plans for the 2009 Conference (which is already shaping up to be a world class event - in a world class venue - Manchester).

The work being led by Alan Warner on “Raising the Standard in HR”, which was mentioned at 2008 Conference, has been moved further forward and is shaping up to be something quite special - watch this space as they say. Modest chap that Alan is, I’ll let you in on a secret…this work was his original idea and has huge potential. A member of the “Past President’s Club”, Mr. W is still very much alive and innovating!

Finally, we’ll be advertising opportunities for our members to get involved in PPMA work before the end of this month, when we openly select new Lead Officers to take forward the PPMA policy leads for Diversity, Talent Management and HR Transformation. And just in case you didn’t think that was enough, after the board meeting finished, Alan Warner and I met with Karen Day, Editor of the Local Government Chronicle, to discuss issues of mutual interest and opportunities for PPMA to contribute to forthcoming LGC features and conferences.

Now, how’s that for timely communication and feedback…post a comment to let me know what you think.

Best wishes

Stephen

Time for a change already! Stephen is luckily sunning himself on holiday, so it’s over to me to post on his behalf this week. Last time Stephen blogged, he mentioned that he was en route to London for HR Magazine’s Most Influential launch. Well I was lucky enough to be there too, along with other PPMA colleagues, Alan Warner and Angela O’Connor. 

It was a great night for the Public Sector as Stephen, Angela, Martin Tiplady from the Met Police and Bev Shears from Ministry of Justice all made the top 25 ‘Most Influential HR Practitioners’ list. Alan Warner was also mentioned in the ‘One’s to watch’ list (if anyone has any amusing quips on why we need to keep an eye on him, let me know!).

This week myself, John Tonks and Alan Warner met to discuss the way forward with the Commercial Board.  We made great progress and were suitably looked after at the fantastic new modern offices that are part of Hertfordshire’s impressive ‘The Way that we Work’ change programme.  Watch out for lots of developments on the commercial front between now and September.  These really are important changes for us and will give us a much more stable financial base, from which we can build our organisation in the future. A big thank you to Alan for all his enthusiasm in driving this forward on PPMA’s behalf.

In the afternoon John and I went through the plans for the PPMA Conference in Manchester next year.  Things are shaping up nicely now and the conference website should be up and running soon, with details of the speakers etc.

It’s the PPMA policy board meeting next week, so don’t forget to check out the website for an update on what business we get through.  Stephen will be back refreshed and blogging away again next week.  In the meantime have a great week. 

Gill

“It’s a rainy Tuesday evening and I’m heading down to London for HR Magazine’s ‘most influential’ reception for 2008.  I’m expecting to bump into a number of PPMA members tonight and hope that  public sector HR and PPMA gets the recognition they rightly deserve in this respect.”

“I know it’s a hobby horse of mine, but awards and external profile/publicity for PPMA and individual HR functions is important - it’s as much about see and be seen - or being in it, to win it! Watch this space and see what happens next.”

Best Wishes

Stephen