Hello PPMA members and friends

Unbelievably it’s now 3 weeks since our special 50th Anniversary #PPMAHR25 event in Manchester. At the conference we distributed our special Anniversary Supplement in conjunction with the MJ and it was jam-packed with articles including reflections from some past presidents, stories from our new Peers of the Year, Gold Award winners, recent survey results and an insightful article from Pam Parkes. In case you haven’t seen the supplement, we’re going to be sharing the articles over the coming weeks here on this blog. We kicking off with Pam’s front page story about the future of  HR’s Role.

The 50th anniversary of the PPMA marks a milestone where we should rightly celebrate the work we do in nourishing and nurturing the careers of the HR practitioners who play a critical – and often unsung – role in ensuring our organisations have the people and capability they need to deliver the public services our communities expect and rely on.

At the same time, as we face the most significant changes to our sector since the birth of the PPMA, we must also look forward at the path which lies ahead for us, as individuals and as a community, and ask ourselves: what should our ambition be? And how can we ensure that in another 50 years we can look back at the PPMA as a network which continued to bring value to individuals and the organisations we serve?

Having worked in HR in this sector for many years, I’ve witnessed how our profession has evolved through each round of change. But what strikes me now is that while we’ve always adapted, the convergence of challenges we face today – from the critical need to attract people to the sector, to the AI revolution and future reorganisation of local government – demands a fundamentally different response.

In the face of these challenges there three clear areas where we must focus: understanding the scale of the change and what it means for our people, ensuring we are the architects and champions of future transformation and helping our organisations adapt at the pace required for them to thrive.

If you were to design a local authority from scratch today, it wouldn’t look like the organisations we currently work. So, our first job is to help proactively reimagine work design.

Local authorities grappling with unprecedented demand need HR professionals who can envision how roles might evolve in an AI-enabled workplace. This isn’t just about automation but fundamentally reconsidering how we structure teams, deploy talent, and create meaningful career paths in a new environment.

Second, we must work beyond traditional HR boundaries. Today’s challenges demand practitioners who are fluent in technology, analytics, and organisational psychology. If we want to break out of our perceived role of people administrators rather than strategic partners, then it’s our responsibility to challenge that narrative through the value we create.

Third, we must invest relentlessly in our own development. The HR professional of tomorrow needs competencies that many of us weren’t taught. Building capabilities in change leadership, digital fluency, and data-driven decision making isn’t optional: it’s essential for our continued relevance.

The PPMA has always been a crucible for innovation, best practice and new ideas that HR practitioners can take into their organisations. And we must renew that ambition at this time of change.

But this can’t be a passive arrangement. We can only build our worth as individuals and deliver the value our organisations need if we continue to actively engage as a network to challenge each other’s perspectives and seek out new ways of doing things. That is what will give us the confidence to take the best insight back to our organisations, the ability to disrupt established thinking and the resilience we need to support future change.

Those who invest now in understanding emerging technologies, who experiment with new approaches to talent, who build capabilities in change leadership are the colleagues who will thrive in uncertain times. They will also ensure their organisations deliver better public services.

So as we mark this significant anniversary, the challenge for every PPMA member is to redefine what you think HR can and should do for your organisation, understand the way other organisations are fronting up to change and equip yourself to make a difference. Don’t just respond to change – drive it while not losing the ‘human’ in Human Resources.

The hardest way of doing this is on your own. So, as we look forward to the future of the sector, let’s make sure that the connections, learning forums, and collective expertise that the PPMA can offer are what power our evolution as individuals, as a profession and as a sector.

The future is calling: How will you answer?

Pam Parkes, PPMA President