Dear PPMA friends and colleagues,

We’re absolutely delighted to have Karen Grave as our new President and in this blog post she shares her reflections with us on #ppmahr18 and sets out the organisations priorities for the coming year etc.

“Well what a week we had last week in Newcastle-Gateshead.  The team are just about recovered, but we are still buzzing from the wonderful reception we had to #ppmahr18 – I’m still mesmerised by gold stilt walkers!  I’d like to thank again the very many people who have taken the time to write to me (and the team) to say how much they enjoyed conference last week. That means such a lot to us, particularly as we ran a 3 day event and were snowed under with the increased capacity we had this year.  Our event partners at Sage Gateshead, Hilton and Jury’s Inn and our entertainers did us proud.

It’s difficult to pick out highlights from what was a week full of amazing experiences, but there are some memories that stand out for me this year:

Our outreach to students in partnership with Manpower. The power of that event has to be seen to be believed – meeting/working with young people and opening their eyes to our wonderful world of public service is one way that we can overcome the challenges in recruiting young people. My professional view is that strategically this can be a game changer and I want to work with our regions to look at how, together with Manpower, we embed this programme as part of our overall Let’s Talk You, Talent Offering.

The inclusivity, warmth, passion and camaraderie of conference – right from the pre conference event, through to the end has been expressed more than anything else. I am very proud that we were able to achieve this. We covered some tough topics. Jasvinder was an utter inspiration and I am still reflecting on her moving keynote opener. Whether it was the content of her speech or our pre conference event, or the sun – we certainly created amongst us a supportive, compassionate environment where a number of us where able to share some very heartfelt emotions.

And of course our MOU announcement with CIPD, HPMA and UHR. I’ve been working with Nicky and Helen (and Peter Cheese) for many months now on the detail of this agreement. We very much welcome David D’Souza now who will take this forward on Peter’s behalf. We all know that moving forward, collaboration and ensuring that our collective professional voice is raised is key to how we help organisations deal with the increasing challenges we face.

Our existing plans to develop our PPMA brand, offerings, increase our membership, harness the wisdom and experience of our Past President community and raise our collective professional voice will continue. However, there are a number of additional areas that will take up the attention of PPMA Policy Board and Principal Officers this year. We need to take a look at how we are governed and structured. This is partly driven by a desire to maximise the benefits from the MOU but also to ensure that we are nurturing and supporting the next generations of PPMA leadership. There will be lots more to come on that during the next months.

I’d like to thank again our sponsors, speakers, partners and delegates for all of your support. I’ve said many times before – and I am sure I will continue to do so – that we cannot do this without the support of all of you. I do want to encourage all of you to participate. Our Board and Principal Officer roles are, as you know, voluntary. We put in the most enormous effort to build a community that supports each other and retains a laser focus on workforce issues. We can’t do that without your involvement – so please take the time to read the blogs, participate in our research programme, support our regional events and talent management programmes. Keeping engaged keeps us honest by making sure we focus on the issues that matter to you. Don’t forget that Steve, Leatham, Kim, Grace, Policy Board and I work for you!

On a very personal note, I want to thank you for your extremely kind wishes following the death of my father. Although his death was expected, it has still nevertheless been a whirlwind since last Autumn. My last conversation with Dad was yet another exercise in bringing him up to speed with conference planning.  He would have been as proud of what we all achieved last week as I am to be your President this year.”

Warmest

On the 8th working day before #PPMAHR18, we wanted to say an additional word about our PPMA Excellence in People Management Awards Public Sector HRD of the Year award.

This is an award that is really important to us for all sorts of reasons. Whilst there are other national award programmes where HRD’s are recognised, we wanted to showcase the unique challenges public sector HRD’s face.

There is a fine line between ensuring that people risks are managed well without the HR & OD function being seen as blockers and the policy police. They also have to gain the confidence of the senior leadership team to ensure that workforce is at the heart of organisational life – and critically that truth is told to power.

It might seem an obvious statement but there are many Chief Executives and other Leadership colleagues who don’t necessarily share that view.

Tom Riordan, Chief Executive at Leeds City Council spoke really powerfully at the opening of our Northern HR Forum last October. He said that for him HR represents the “Praetorian Guard of Leadership and Values”. We at PPMA love that and wholeheartedly agree with Tom.

Our two shortlisted entrants, Caroline Anderson from Land Registry and Jill Parker from Doncaster Council absolutely fall into that category. Both of the submissions entered on their behalf were utterly inspiring. They are both worthy candidates for this award.

The winner of this award will carry the added knowledge that every single judge in this year’s programme participated in assessing this category.

Best of luck Caroline and Jill! We are really proud of you.

On the 9th working day before #PPMAHR18, we want to remind you about some of our shortlisted award entrants.

We absolutely love our Annual Excellence in People Management awards programme. It’s an opportunity to celebrate the incredible work going on across the sector. But as important as the celebrations are, the best thing about the awards for us is that it provides an opportunity to share great practice and prevent us from reinventing the wheel.

In financially challenging times, the capacity to share and learn is a massive advantage for each of us as practitioners, but also for our employers. Reinventing the wheel is a waste.

Longstanding members of PPMA will know that we updated our award categories again last year. We also put a real focus on evidence. So it’s not enough to have just done a great piece of work, it’s more important to show what difference it made over time.

This past year we’ve put a huge effort into making sure that the Awards process is known about right across Public Service. We’re really pleased with the response this year. We have had entrants from Local and Central Government, Blue Light and NHS colleagues.

We hope to see even more next year, but for now please take a look at the fantastic shortlisted entrants for each category.

Wish them well – they have all put a huge amount of effort into their submissions.

Dear PPMA colleagues and friends.

So it’s that time of the year again where we gather and announce our PPMA Annual Excellence in People Management Awards shortlists!  Sponsors, Judges, PPMA Policy Board members and entrants gathered at The Guardian Offices in London to hear who had been shortlisted.

It’s always an important time for reflection and acknowledgment for all the great work being done by HR & OD professionals.  Karen, our VP commented on how thrilled PPMA Policy Board was to see the range of entries this year and how inspiring it is to see entrants from Local and Central Government, Blue Light and Health.  Our members will learn so much from these organisations – sharing best practice is the quickest – and most cost effective way – for our organisations to learn.

You can see all of the shortlisted entrants in the slide presentation below from the day:

We are so looking forward to seeing all of our shortlisted entrants at our Annual Gala Dinner on Thursday April 19^th at Hilton Gateshead, when the winners will be announced. Please don’t forget to book your dinner places – our booking page is here.  We hope you will also join us for conference itself – we have a fantastic, packed agenda with great speakers.  Check out our conference pages

Dear PPMA friends and colleagues.

Our Annual Excellence in People Management Awards 2018 judging process was held at The Guardian offices in London on Wednesday 31^st January and in this post, our Vice President Karen Grave gives us an update on the day.

“The judging was a great success and as ever, The Guardian, continue to support our efforts in ensuring that the process is independent and transparent. In 2017 we changed the judging process to involve of a broad range of senior judges, which gave it an additional credibility that continues to resonate this year.

I’m delighted that many of this year’s judges are returners.  In speaking to several them, including Danny Mortimer, Chief Executive of NHS Employers and Julia Scott, Chief Executive of the Royal College of Occupational Therapists, it’s clear that they found the experience valuable.  I was particularly struck by a conversation with Helen Scott, Executive Director of Universities HR, who told me that she found the experience of judging very humbling.

The involvement of senior executives, all leading lights in their fields, is totally inspiring – it reinforces our view that submitting an entry is a fantastic opportunity to have your worked reviewed by highly respected and talented leaders. It gives PPMA confidence that Chief Executives across Public Service organisations truly understand how HR & OD teams can improve overall organisation performance.  We know that many them have gone back to their own organisations to share ideas about what they have seen in our entrants with their teams.  For our entrants, that’s an amazing compliment.

This year’s crop of entrants has been the broadest for a while.  We’ve had submissions from a range of Local and Central Government, Health and Blue Light organisations!  All of the judges commented on this. This is a testament to the efforts that Caroline and PPMA Policy Board members have made in raising our profile nationally. It bodes well for future years.

Our next milestone is Wednesday 21^st February when we will be announcing our shortlist for each of our 14 categories.  I cannot wait.

We’ll be updating our website on that day with all of our shortlist and like last year, we will also have a highlights video posted a few days later.  Don’t forget that we will be announcing our amazing winners at our Annual Gala Dinner at the PPMA Conference in Newcastle Gateshead on April 19^th.  In the run up to the dinner we will be spotlighting each of the awards categories and the shortlisted entrants.”

Karen Grave, PPMA Vice-President

Dear PPMA colleagues and friends.

Incredibly we held our PPMA Excellence in People Management Awards 2018 last Friday!  After a very successful 2017 Awards process, we wanted to capitalise on the momentum that had created.

We met again at The Guardian with 2017 Award Winners, Sponsors, PPMA Board members, PPMA members and returning judges to take a look at what happened to our 2017 Award winners and look forward to 2018.  As you would expect, we are really excited to be starting this again and we’ll have a short video coming up at the end of this week.

In the meantime, there are a few things to share:

• We have 14 categories this year, an increase of one on 2017 – we have added a new award for the ‘Best Creative Campaign’
• We’ve aligned our Peer of the Year award cycle with our main Awards, although we judge this category differently as is it as integral part of our Penna: PPMA HRD Talent Programme
• We are asking entrants for 2 categories – the President’s Award for Special Contribution and Public Sector HRD of the Year award to be sponsored by a PPMA Policy Board member.  You can email vicepresident@ppma.org.uk for more information
• Finally, we are introducing a £25 (plus VAT) charge for each entry in any category.

Our President, Caroline Nugent told us at the launch event that she had made a huge effort to ensure that our 2017 Winners were involved in supporting PPMA events since they won their awards.  She also said that it’s really important for our Award Winners to have an opportunity to contribute to PPMA after they have won awards. The opportunity to share why they won their awards is a great way to share great practice with colleagues and she hopes it will act as an incentive for other people to submit their work.

Karen Grave our VP, also strongly believes that it’s really important to share as much best practice as we can. There is some absolutely amazing HR & OD work going on across Public Service and the PPMA awards offer a great range of categories and one way to raise our profile as a profession, is to make sure that as many people as possible know about the work we do.

Once again, the Awards process is being hosted by The Guardian. PPMA is very grateful for the support of Stacey-Rebekka Karlsson and all her team.  And of course, we could not do this without our Award sponsors, judges and our entrants.  We’re looking forward to another great year.

You can find out all the information you need on our awards page.  Make sure you are familiar with the Awards timelines – the awards close on Friday 5^th January 2018.  So, get cracking, we can’t wait to receive your entries.