It’s been a busy couple of weeks on the PPMA front. A flurry of media activity have resulted in me commenting on a range of issues from pay restraint to the minimum wage for young people to flexible working to the trend in new job titles for senior staff in the public sector.

I’ve also been out and about representing PPMA. Monday saw me back in my old stomping ground of the North West region where I gave a presentation on the role of HR. Big thanks go to Alison and Lisa for making me so welcome. Its great to see the region thriving and developing. I’m also grateful to our friends and colleagues at The MJ, Dave Lawrence and Heather Jameson, for their sponsorship at the meeting.

Today I’ve been to Birmingham to speak at a national Organisational Development programme run by the IDeA and Stanton Marris. I spoke on the topic of organisational design and there was a lot of interest from participants who are about to start their own restructure programmes. The whole issue of transformation, cost cutting and organisational design will be covered in a number of skills sessions at the PPMA Conference so if you haven’t yet booked your place please take a look and reserve your spot!

Best wishes

Gill

It’s the PPMA Policy Board meeting next week and I’m busy preparing the agenda with colleagues. It looks as though it will be a lengthy and busy meeting with a number of meaty issues being discussed such as the next steps in the PPMA Business Plan, the future of reward in the public sector, PPMA and social networking, membership development, etc.

As usual, I will post a blog following the meeting to update members on the outcomes.

This week sees the start of the annual CIPD Conference which has moved to Manchester. A number of PPMA people will be speaking there including myself, Sue Scrivens from Gloucestershire CC, Leatham Green from East Sussex CC, Jim Savege from Cumbria CC, Angela O’Connor from the NPIA, Cathy Butterworth and Christine Brereton from GMP, Richard Crouch from Somerset CC, Martin Tiplady from the Metropolitan Police. What a fantastic showing for the public sector and PPMA!

My session is on Transforming HR Efficiency in the Public Sector and if it’s a topic that is of interest to you, you may want to look up the research publication from the CIPD entitled The Challenge for Public Sector HR - Responding to the Operational efficiency Programme. It will be published this week to coincide with the conference.

Last week I attended and spoke at the East of England regional PPMA Conference. Not only was there and excellent turnout but Anne Gibson had also pulled together fantastic line up of speakers.  If that’s anything to go by, I am looking forward to her annual PPMA Conference in 2011 already!  Which also reminds me to also mention this year’s conference. As you will have seen, Dean is busy booking a number of excellent, international speakers. It is really lining up to be a fascinating and challenging conference - one not to miss!

Bye for now

Gill

Hi, sorry I’ve not updated the blog for the last couple of weeks, it has simply been a bit manic. However, manic has been good in terms of ground covered, issues progressed and then some rest and relaxation.

Within the last few weeks, the following has all taken place:

1) PPMA Policy Board meeting in Cambridge. A resounding success in which decisions were made to appoint 3 new Lead Officers to the Policy Board - these will be announced via the PPMA website and via an all member e-mail, but I’m delighted we have been able to make these great new appointments. The Board also covered a lot of additional business, including updates from out regional chairs and lead officers - some great work going on across the country and regional chairs have now been provided with a digest of lead officer reports to share with PPMA members. Discussions also took place about our future association development activities and we agreed to commission a major new programme of HR Transformation work. Finally, this was also a chance to let the policy board see a bit more of the splendours of Cambridge and to thank them for their hard work and support this year - you’ll be pleased to hear that there was no drowning involved whilst punting.

2) Harrogate and back twice in the last 2 weeks to speak at the CIPD conference on performance management and then latterly to chair the first day of the Northern HR Briefing - organised by our PPMA North East, North West and Yorkshire and Humber regions, ably supported by the three regional employers’ organisations. This was a great conference with good speakers and allowed me to meet more PPMA members face to face, including 2 friends that I used to be at college with and another chum that I worked with in Lancashire Police in years gone by - they know who they are!

3) I’ve also had the pleasure of addressing the Eastern, Essex and Hertfordshire PPMA regional meeting on my theme of “Evolution or Extinction”. A real matter of pride for me since this was the region that nominated me to become PPMA President. Thanks to Anne Gibson and the team for the invitation. Other regions take note - that’s technically 4 regional visits in 2 weeks if I take the combined benefit of the Northern HR briefing and this visit together…presidential terms only last so long - book yours now to avoid disappointment!

4) Finally a visit to the capital with Gill Hibberd to meet the new CIPD Chief Executive, Jackie Orme. A good meeting to discuss matters of mutual interest and opportunities to strengthen our working together in the future. We’ll follow this up with the CIPD in 6 months or so to see what’s happened.

So other than the usual round of media and articles, you can see PPMA and I haven’t been up to much! In need of a well deserved rest, I’m handing the blog over to the capable hands of our VP, Gill Hibberd, for the next 2 weeks.Speak to you all when I get back with a suntan!

Best wishes 

Stephen

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)