While speaking to eGov monitor, Angela O'Connor highlights the role of PPMA, the impact of shared services on personnel as well as articulating her view on the long term management of public sector human resources.
Q1 Can you tell us a little about the work the PPMA and the “People Knowledge” toolkit? PPMA is the Public Sector People Mangers Association. We are the organisation for those with an interest in people management issues in the public sector. Our main objectives are to:
- Raise the profile of the people management function in the public sector.
- Lead the development of and commitment to best people management practice.
- To influence events through contact with local and central government organisations.
Our members include people management specialists in local and central government, the police, fire services, and other public sector bodies. The people knowledge is one of our new developments which will appear on our recently redesigned website. The people knowledge is PPMA’s toolkit for public sector managers. It will contain the expertise of some of the leading HR professionals working in the public sector. Examples of the very best practice will be brought together into a modular toolkit addressing areas of challenge for the modern people manager. Available exclusively to PPMA members it will build month by month into an indispensable guide to all aspects of our industry. Our judging panels are already assessing the first submissions. Q2 What challenges is flexible working presenting public sector HR managers and what benefits can it bring to the sector? The public sector leads the way in flexible working, we recognise the need for all staff to try and find the right balance between work and other commitments. Many staff will face times in their lives when they need to adjust their working arrangements. These can include:
- Taking on caring responsibilities
- Becoming ill
- The birth of a child.
If we are to retain the talent that we have available in our organisations we need to understand the requirements of our staff and do as much as we can to meet their needs. We offer in the public sector many forms of flexible working and these include:
| Flexible hours Part-time working Job sharing Home working |
Compressed hours Maternity/Paternity leave Special Leave Career Breaks |
The challenge we face is ensuring that we can balance our service delivery with the needs of our staff. The delivery of services to the public must come first, but within that there are many ways to ensure a variety of flexible approaches to work. Q3 What impact will shared service have on the public sector and what challenges will that present? Sharing services makes sense, introducing shared services as a solution because it is the latest fad does not. There has been a tendency recently for a whole range of organisations to look to the shared services concept as a panacea for their woes. Some organisations did this in a sensible way by looking at detailed options appraisals, consideration of the benefits of in-house (vs.) outsourcing. They also looked for real improvements in both productivity and cost before making any decisions. Other organisations have jumped on the bandwagon deciding that shared services is the option for them without any consideration of the particular context of their organisation, sector or business. When organisations make uninformed procurement decision they will have many years to live to regret them. My worry is that shared services could become an easy excuse for dealing with an underperforming service, which will result in organisations not taking accountability for sorting out the mess before they launch it in another direction, and these decisions can be made with mangers unaware of process cost, productivity levels and all other business information. There are some fantastic partnerships working at the moment across the public/private sector and these are the ones where real thought was give to the benefits for the public in service improvement and cost reduction rather than the application of a tick box mentality of the latest fad. Q4 The changes in public sector working as a result of reform involving amongst other things the private sector and the adoption of e-new technology have lead to strikes and disgruntlement in some parts of the public sector. What steps do you think should be taken to ensure that these changes take place with the support of staff where possible? Whenever changes are introduced to working practices/systems etc there needs to be an understanding of how staff feel. Change can be frightening for people and can be alleviated by sensible and constructive discussion at an early stage. What most staff will want to know is “how will these changes affect me?” Openness, honesty and understanding increase the chances that staff will work with us to implement change. There has to be an understanding though that support is not always possible, for example where there are job losses. There are ways however of reducing the distress this causes and allowing people to leave with dignity. Q5 How do you think the management of public sector staff will develop in the long term. The best managers know that staff perform well because they want to rather than because they have to. The best managers are emotionally intelligent and know how to motivate, develop and reward staff appropriately and they model excellence by putting our customers first. I would like to see management become more of an adult/adult relationship and less of the parent/child one we see in many organisations.