I chaired the last meeting of the PPMA Policy Board for 2008 on Friday, 14th November - many thanks to Local Government Employers’ for providing us with such excellent meeting facilities in the LGA Offices in Smith Square. The meeting had a reasonable attendance level, particularly from Regional Chairs, although the number of Lead Officers in attendance was slightly disappointing - in part a recognition of the busy day jobs that people have, but also an issue I intend to review further. On the plus side, I was delighted to see each of our recently appointed Lead Officers for Diversity, Talent Management and HR Transformation in attendance, all of whom have ambitious plans to move these areas forward for the Association.

Agenda wise, we had some healthy debate and discussion on a range of key issues - including hearing about the 2009 conference from Gillian Hibberd. Progress reports for Regions and Policy Lead areas were received and scrutinised by the Board and our financial health was also considered as an Association. Having completed a full series of agenda items, we also considered nominations for the post of Vice President (Elect) for 2009/10 and PPMA Treasurer. Subject to the views of our members via the AGM next year, I’m delighted to advise you that Jim Savege, currently our Lead Officer for Pay and Reward, has been nominated as Vice President (Elect).

The role of Treasurer will also see a change next year. Steve Traynor, our well known and well regarded Treasurer, has decided to stand down from the role after a number of years serving in this capacity. As many of you may know, Steve has a highly successful private business that is taking up more of his time and given our constitutional position, regarding the Treasurer being a serving public sector HR professional, it means that we do need to nominate another person to take these responsibilities forward. In the meantime, Steve will serve as Treasurer of PPMA until the AGM next year and will continue to provide his sage advice, wisdom and support to the Board and especially to the Principal Officers. At the November Board meeting, a nomination for the role of Treasurer was also received….I have been nominated to fulfil this role for the Association. This might be surprising to some, but I’m delighted to accept nomination to undertake this role in the future and also recognise that I want to provide active participation and support for PPMA going forward.

Finally a brief trailer for this week: This week sees the formal launch of “Raising the Standard” - the specification for HR Directors in Local Government on 27th November. I’m delighted to see this excellent piece of work come to fruition - congratulations to Alan Warner for his vision and drive to see this through. Also on the 27th, I’m pleased to advise you that, on behalf of PPMA, I’ll be hosting a table at the Personnel Today Awards for 2008. This will be great chance to further raise our profile, thank some of our key contributors and supporters and generally celebrate what’s best in people management - hopefully including a range of Public Sector winners!

Hope you all have a good week.

Stephen

Well, it’s been a busy week (again) and I must confess to feeling a bit out of steam as I write this on the way down to London (for the 3rd time this week) to chair my penultimate PPMA Policy Board meeting as President…yes it’s actually gone that quickly! One more Board and then it’s the AGM and Annual Conference in Manchester.

This week a number of Board members met with LGE colleagues and facilitators Andy Cook, from Marshall-James HR, and Chris Johnson from Mercer (formerly at the Cabinet Office and a PPMA conference speaker in May). The session was a great opportunity for us to look at the PPMA/LGE working relationship and future arrangements. We all committed to taking a number of actions forward following this ‘Think Tank’.

Yesterday morning I had the pleasure of speaking at the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) annual H R conference. PPMA member Martin Tiplady, the Met’s Director of HR, asked me to talk about my views on HR, the good, the bad and the future. Not being your shy and retiring type, I leapt at the chance to express some opinions - and had great fun at the Q and A session, where my workplace nickname of P.O.D. was ‘outed’. Yes, it’s true - I am the Prince of Darkness - or at least some colleagues think so! I’m pretty sure other HR colleagues will have equally interesting nicknames - some of which will no doubt be unprintable…

Following the Policy Board, I’ll do an update on issues/decisions made early next week.

Hope this post finds you well, have a great weekend.

Stephen

PS - Book your place for PPMA’s annual conference now on-line!

PPS - VP (Elect) Dean Shoesmith can be seen and read about in glorious technicolour in the current edition of People Management…two HR Heads in one VP (Elect) - good value I’d say!

Well, I’ve just attended one of the most sociable, informative and enjoyable conferences I’ve ever been at! The content was good, including: Prof. Cary Cooper; Grieg Aitkin (RBS Group and PPMA speaker this year) and Cllr. Pat Waters (President of the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities - COSLA) amongst others. If Cllr. Waters and COSLA (LGA equivalent) didn’t give it away…I’ve been attending the SPDS (Society of Personnel Directors in Scotland) annual conference in St. Andrews.

Along with Dean Shoesmith, Anne Gibson and John Tonks, PPMA was well represented (including both Dean and I providing input as speakers on the programme - Dean provided an informative and challenging issue around the ’skills timebomb’). The details are due to emerge later this week, but I’m delighted to confirm that SDPS and PPMA have concluded a formal partnership agreement to bring the two organisations closer together - many thanks to SPDS President Murray MacFarlane and Past President Iris Wylie for their leadership and support to achieve this (I’m proud of being involved as a Scot as well!).

Scotland apart, this week sees a number of key activities, including a PPMA/LGE workshop session on pay and reward and the PPMA Policy Board on 14th November.

Final post - is that the much-awaited 2009 PPMA conference has arrived and what a conference it is! Apart from the great venue of Manchester, Gill Hibberd has put together a stellar programme, including no less a person the David Ulrich. This is a not to be missed opportunity, so economic climate in perspective folks this is a conference second to none, with the chance to select a range of masterclasses, skills workshops and to learn, share and network in a great location! A range of delegate packages means that this offers real value for money. Get booking your places now - I know that I am!

Best wishes

Stephen

P.S. I’d love to get your feedback on any of the topics discussed in this post - it’s very easy to join in the conversation and get your views heard, just click on ‘Leave a comment’ underneath the headline of this post and type away.   

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Jim Savege, PPMA Lead Officer for Pay & Reward has taken part in the first of a series of audio and video podcasts produced for the LGE. The podcasts are designed to inform the Local Government HR Community about the work being done to help resolve the difficult matter of Equal Pay.

Jim says “PPMA continues to work at a National and European level with LGE and other colleagues in seeking to address issues across equal pay and single status - and that whilst we are also wanting to make firm progress on a modern pay and reward agenda, for example on total reward, we are also continuing to support members in recognising that implementation of equal pay proof pay arrangements remains a priority across local government and the sector”.

To view the video, click in the middle of the screen below.

To hear more advice from Jim on the best ways to deal with Equal Pay, click the grey arrow on the media player below.