I had the pleasure of attending a CIPD Dinner with Jackie Orme this week on the issue of next generation HR leaders. A fascinating discussion took place about where the next leaders will be coming from and what role the CIPD will play in attracting and developing such talent. As well as our very own Stephen Moir, other people attending included Alex Wilson from BT, Stephen Dando from Thomson Reuters and Lucy Adams from the BBC.

Stephen and I were both supportive of the CIPD targeting fast track development at people entering the profession and in developing a high quality programme aimed at developing future leaders. The report from the CIPD on ‘Next Generation HR’ is certainly worth a read.

This week also saw the release of the long awaited Audit Commission report on CEO severance – ‘By Mutual Agreement’. The document is downloadable from the Audit Commission website and is a very interesting read. The trade press picked it up very quickly and I’ve been making comments that the recommendations on transparency are to be welcomed.

Finally, I’m now busy planning my conference itinerary for next week. I send my very best wishes to Dean for a successful event and given the tremendous energy and effort he has put into it I’m sure it will be a fantastic event.

For anyone out there who has been reading my blog please do come over and say hello if you are at the conference – I would love to meet you.

Gill

You may have picked up in the media that the CIPD have recently issued a paper entitled ‘Building Productive Public Sector Workplaces’. The document highlights the inevitable and lengthy period of public sector transformation that we are going through and positions effective people management as an essential prerequisite for success.

The paper goes on to make a number of recommendations for improvement in people management practice across the sector. For those that haven’t seen the document I have arranged for a link to be sent directly to PPMA members in the next couple of days. Although the paper is, in my view, positioned as a policy and lobbying paper by the CIPD, it has unfortunately been translated into a negative portrayal of public sector people management practice by some parts of the media.

Dean Shoesmith was busy responding to media calls with the PPMA view yesterday but we are also interested in hearing your views on the document. Let us know by commenting in the blog if you agree or disagree with the recommendations? Does it represent a fair and balanced commentary on the sector or not?

I look forward to hearing from you.

Best wishes,

Gill