I’m just about to go off to the annual MJ Awards in London tonight at which PPMA and the LGE are jointly sponsoring the category of People and Workforce Achievement of the Year.

Shortlisted organisations in this category are Birmingham City Council (2 shortlisted entries), Fenland District Council, Hertfordshire County Council, Lancashire County Council and Winchester City Council. Good luck to everyone and well done for getting to the shortlist stage! I’m also hosting a PPMA table at the awards tonight which is an opportunity for PPMA to say thank you to our key sponsors and regional chairs/Lead Officers who put so much time into the work they do for PPMA. I’m looking forward to a great evening!

Last week saw the publication of my first opinion piece in People Management Magazine. I challenged colleagues to think more radically about the bureaucracy we often create around HR processes. My answer was to go back to basics and think about the real purpose underlying many of the procedures we have created. If you missed the article you can follow this link to an online version.

It’s PPMA Board meeting this Friday. It’s my first Board event and I’m taking a slightly different approach by holding a debate on one of my key manifesto issues. This week sees a debate on the future of reward in the sector and I’m delighted that our friend and colleague, Jan Parkinson, will be joining us form the LGE. Watch out for future blog posts on the outcome of the debate!

Have a great weekend everyone.

Gill

Last night I attended the annual ‘HR Most Influential List’ reveal at Claridges in London. What a great night it was for the public sector too!! The overall winner of the most influential practitioner was David Fairhurst from McDonald’s restaurants who gave a very passionate speech about employer branding at our PPMA conference recently. Other public sector people who managed to hit the top 30 were:

No.2     Clare Chapman from the NHS
No.3     Martin Tiplady from the Metropolitan Police
No.5     Angela O’Connor from the NPIA
No.14    Stephen Moir from Cambridgeshire CC
No.17    Gillian Hibberd from Buckinghamshire CC
No.23    Graham White from Westminster City Council
No.24    Anne Copeland from the Department for Children, Schools and Families
No.25    Kevin White from the Home Office

Eight out of 30 is not bad at all for the public sector. It was great to see friends from both the public and private sectors at the event last night and I never forget how lucky I am to be able to represent PPMA at such important events.

Well done to everyone in the top 30!

Have a great weekend!

Gill

P.S. The list is due to be published in the next edition of HR Magazine.