The following articles feature PPMA President Gill Hibberd:

1. BBC defends its dominance over HR Directors pay published 2nd February 2010 on hrmagazine.co.uk
2. Fit-notes will cause arguments about ’suitable work’ definition published 2nd February 2010 on personneltoday.com
3. Councils search for ways to cut costs without compulsory redundencies published 8th February on personneltoday.com

The following article features PPMA President Gill Hibberd:

1. Minimum Wage may be frozen for younger workers published 12th January 2010 on AP Partnership’s Blog

Last week saw a flurry of activity following the Chancellor’s pre-budget speech containing a number of controversial measures to control public sector spending. I was quite literally inundated with calls from the media asking for a PPMA view on the proposals. It is very satisfying that we are now demonstrating our objective of being the ‘voice of public sector people management professionals.’ I think the degree to which our view on such issues are sought is testimony to our success with this objective.

I feel that the tone that the government is trying to set around public sector pay transparency is entirely the right direction of travel. However, the focus on senior pay and overburdening control by the Treasury is difficult to justify. I’ve posted most of my comments on the blog so you can follow my view and let me know if you agree or not!

On Thursday this week I had the pleasure of speaking at the first of our regional launches of the tHRu portal. The product has been supported by a number of ‘experts’ and in particular EurekaStep, KPMG and IES have been involved. I also want to thank Martin Reddington for his support. Above all I want to thank and congratulate Martin Rayson for bringing this product to fruition. It really is a superb addition to our product portfolio for members. I would highly recommend attendance at the regional events if you haven’t already booked!

Finally, can I wish everyone a very happy Christmas and a successful New Year. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the privilege of being your President over the past 8 months and I hope 2010 proves to be the most successful ever for PPMA.

Best wishes

Gill

The following articles feature PPMA President Gill Hibberd:

1. Perils of a public sector pay cap - published 13th December 2009 in The Sunday Times
2. Public sector faces job losses ‘on unprecedented scale’ published 11th December 2009 on peoplemanagement.co.uk

I’m back from a very restful break – to a mound of emails and papers! Hope that you are all enjoying the summer and are managing to find time to take a break yourselves at some point. With this in mind I am reminded of the wise words of Dave Ulrich at our conference earlier this year when he talked about us looking after our health and being responsible for our own well-being!

I’ve been catching up on news that I missed whilst away and see that the debate on public sector pay still rumbles on. The reality of the current economic climate has to hit home at some point and the need for pay restraint must surely apply as equally to the public sector as it does in the private sector. BA have taken the interesting stance of asking its workforce to volunteer to work for nothing for periods of a week to a month. Can you imagine the response that would be received in the public sector to similar suggestions? Personally I think it’s an innovative response to difficult times and we will all be challenged over the coming months to be more and more creative in the solutions we need to find to keep out organisations afloat.

My first opnion piece in People Management magazine on the issue of the bureaucracy we create in HR seems to have caused a stir! The week after it appeared a flurry of letters were received by People Management on the subject from various commentators – exactly the response I was hoping for. I know that not everyone will agree with my views but it’s always healthy to have a debate and to take on board the views of others.

My next piece will be on the issue of organisational design and should appear in the August edition of People Management.

One of the great jobs I get to do as PPMA President is to judge the overall winner of the Personnel Today Awards, which will be announced later in the year. The rather large judging file has just landed on my desk – watch out for more news on this later in the year!

I’m also putting together a plan for the next PPMA Board meeting which I hope will cover the big issues of the future of reward in the public sector as well as looking at the future world of work and what the challenges might be.

I will be back with more blogs soon, In the meantime enjoy what little sun we seem to be getting!

Gill

Hi All

Well this week has really been interesting! I decided to “go for it” in responding to some comments published in Personnel Today (PT) last week about my views on not freezing public sector pay and challenging my own remuneration package.

The published piece wasn’t quite the nuclear option I originally drafted and deleted, but I think anyone reading my opinion piece would get the point. Locally this attracted some press interest because I chose to publish my salary. Which brings me to a point - why should actual public sector pay be hidden behind a fog of FOI exemptions and pay bands? It shouldn’t.

We all pay taxes and the public should expect openness from their public servants about their pay. However, openness about pay levels doesn’t justify uninformed criticism - pay has to be set in the context of the role concerned. Additionally, if people think that some public servants are paid too highly, then I respect the fact that they have an opinion. However, people also need to respect the fact that if public sector pay is frozen and higher earners have their pay regulated by Whitehall (I refer you to John Healey’s recent comments), then public services will once again become less able to draw in talented people and retain them at all levels. Time for a healthy debate with the public, politicians and others I think.

We’ll see what the reaction is in PT next week. Thanks for the messages from far and wide I’ve already received in support of my opinion piece. I’m sorry if some PPMA members think I’ve been too controversial, but being in a leadership role occasionally means putting yourself up to be shot at…and I made that choice consciously. PPMA has to, in my view, say things sometimes that others can’t and won’t. Public sector bashing is THE story in the media and I, for one, won’t sit quietly and be bludgeoned to death.

On other PPMA matters, I had the pleasure of representing us at the Association of County Chief Executives last night and in another guise as their Honorary Secretary for the day, standing in for my boss. It was very useful to be in this august company and to be part of discussions about issues of the day, include Lord Laming’s Report and all things CAA.

To prove that there is life outside work, I’m now heading off for a long weekend, in advance of my final PPMA Policy Board meeting as President next Friday.

Best wishes

Stephen

For once, I’m writing a blog update whilst sat working from home - what a pleasant novelty! 

Even more surprising is that this week there isn’t a huge amount to report on the PPMA front. Last week’s attendance at the Personnel Today Awards was hugely successful and the PPMA guests appeared to have enjoyed themselves, as did the PPMA members in attendance. I was delighted to see that there were a number of public sector finalists, including my former colleagues in South Tyneside - well done to all the public sector entrants who made it to the final stages and especially to those who won!

Other than updating on the tail end of last week, from a personal perspective PPMA business appears to be winding down towards the Christmas break - but I’m pretty sure that it will quickly ramp up again in the New Year. The one bit of business to highlight was a discussion I held this morning with our lead on Pay and Reward, Jim Savege, and Andy Cook from Marshall-James HR consulting. Our discussion was about employee relations training for HR teams and we agreed an outline proposal that I’ll be writing to PPMA Regional Chairs about to consider further.

Before closing for this week, I would like to make a personal comment about the national press and what appears to be an increasing anti-public sector line.  Newspaper articles have covered all sorts of issues from public sector pay and pensions to job titles - if I didn’t know better, I’d say that a general election was impending (you can call me a cynic at this point). When messages such as these start to appear in the broadsheets, it’s pretty clear that lobby groups and political parties are starting to flex their campaigning muscles.

Compound this with the additional public sector efficiency targets and increases in employer national insurance contributions, etc. then public servants and public sector employers are very much under the spotlight, especially our colleagues working in children’s services across the country.  With the backdrop of the credit crunch and interest rates at a 57 year low, this is not only going to be a tough time for HR teams supporting employers and employees alike, it’s unlikely to get any easier in the meantime. So, rather than crumble or hide away, HR really has to step up the pace and help the public sector as a whole weather the gathering storm.

Best wishes

Stephen

The summer has certainly been with us in force this week (at least in Cambridgeshire) and other than melting, I’ve had a week of relatively low key PPMA commitments. 

Yesterday, Jan Parkinson from the LGE kindly visited Cambridgeshire and we were able to talk about both PPMA/LGE business and a range of specific issues facing Cambridgeshire County Council - I can’t afford to forget my employer after all!  In particular, we were able to share intelligence about the concept of the public sector worker and some interest in this that appears to have been expressed by the Cabinet Office - something that from both a PPMA and Cambridgeshire perspective, I’ll be following up.  We also, of course, discussed the status of the local government pay award and the proposed “nothing ruled in, nothing ruled out” discussions with the trade unions, like you I await with interest the outcomes from the next round of discussions, which will involve Jim Savege, our lead officer on Pay and Reward.

Today I received an e-mail from the Director of HR at Communities and Local Government (CLG), Clive Norris. CLG’s Permanent Secretary, Peter Housden, has asked Clive if he could explore opportunities for the Communities Department to develop a more shared agenda across the public service - but specifically between the Department and local authorities, such as on matters of joint interest related to public service improvement or diversity for example. This sounds like a very positive opportunity to forge stronger links for the PPMA directly with CLG and is something I’ll be following up on in weeks to come.

Finally, I’m delighted to say that the ‘Edinburgh Summit’ with SPDS colleagues - previously mentioned in the blog has been agreed for 15th August. Both I and John Tonks, PPMA’s Executive Officer, will be heading to Edinburgh to discuss closer collaboration with our friends north of the border.

I hope this update finds everyone well - and if you haven’t already done so, get writing those applications PPMA Lead Officers in waiting!

Best wishes

Stephen

Well it’s been a funny couple of weeks, we’ve had the 2 day local government strike and depending upon which part of the country you sit in, this seems to have been managed within relatively minimal disruption and at least the employers and the unions appear to be willing to talk with “nothing ruled in, nothing ruled out”. I’m seeing Jan Parkinson from the LGE next week and will see what further insights I can glean from her.

On the local front, I’ve been personally tied up with recruiting two Heads of Service for my Directorate - one for Corporate Development (including Corporate Policy, Partnerships and OD & Learning) and a new Head of Communications. I’m delighted that I’ve got great appointments for both positions - who says local government hasn’t got talent! Talking of talent, we’ve finally advertised for our vacant PPMA Lead Officer positions… I’m waiting for the flood of calls to come through (I hope the expectations didn’t frighten everyone away).

As seems to have become the norm, it’s also been another round of media enquiries on behalf of PPMA - I have to say that our Board Members are really doing a great job to raise our profile at present, with Gill Hibberd, Dean Shoesmith, Alan Warner, Jim Savege, Richard Crouch, Sue Steen and Martin Rayson all being quoted, pictured and opinionated all over the place and in different sorts of media - well done to them all (I’m continuing my modest efforts in this respect on your behalf as well).

On the congratulations point, I’d also like to publicly congratulate our Pensions lead officer, Jack Markiewicz, currently Service Director for HR at Nottinghamshire County Council for his new appointment as Director of HR & Change at Swindon Borough Council - which for the good memories amongst you, was actually advertised at the PPMA Annual Conference by our Colleagues from SOLACE resourcing.

And finally, I’ve completed a site visit to the venue selected for the PPMA Policy Board overnight meeting in September. This is an annual occurrence for the Board Members to get together and look at key business planning issues for the Association, as well as conducting our normal quarterly meeting. Needless to say the venue is always on the ‘Presidential Patch’ which this year will be in Cambridge. I’m intending that if the weather is nice enough, we’ll do a bit of team-building involving the river Cam and punting……stand by for a September blog entry along the lines of raise the Titanic!

I hope everyone has a great summer and I and other Board Members will continue blogging away - keep reading and comment away!

Best wishes

Stephen

So here I am sitting here after having done three pre-recorded radio and TV interviews about the strikes set for the next two days, and an afternoon with more media queries and interviews to deal with. That is alongside having to scratch my brow - along with many other senior colleagues - on how to deal with the very harsh and firm line being taken by Unison about exemptions for the strike. ‘Yet another day in the life of a Director responsible for HR’, I hear you say.

PPMA are keen that a positive conclusion is reached to this year’s local government pay negotiation - not least because it holds the prospect of a three year deal - which will give our members some stability - as well as the long overdue delivery of reviewing and reforming the core employment terms and conditions. It’s heartening to be involved in so many conversations with colleagues which, whilst sometimes slightly cynical about quite how far-reaching this reform will turn out to be, are all fully supportive of the need to modernise and reform the employment and reward framework across the sector.

Total Reward and Contribution Based Pay are fast becoming more than just concepts offered up at conferences, given the amount of Authorities making firm and steady progress in these areas. The demands and expectations that people have of local government services - quite rightly - are rising, so we do need to modernise and reform to be able to meet that expectation. Linked to this, the concept of ‘The Public Sector Worker’ is becoming a reality in terms of how we need to work, given the amount of integration and collaboration across public sector organisations that is taking place - so we do need refreshed reward and employment frameworks to be able to deliver the goods here.

So, looking forward, it’s good that we’re in firm discussions with the Trade Unions about reward. It’s good that their members are expressing their views. We recognise that the offer is not generous, and that the credit crunch and general economic climate is bringing with it a rising cost of living. But as with many employers, local government are looking at how to deal with that alongside sustaining services, rather than moving into job losses or increasing council tax rises. Let’s keep moving forward, and get into the modernisation agenda on the back of this - so that, simply put, we can deliver better, sustainable services to the public. PPMA will continue to represent its members views nationally as a positive part of making progress.

Jim Savege - Lead Officer, Pay and Reward