Today, apparently, is ‘Human Resource Professional Day’, which is something I certainly was not aware of. Apparently, this is a day to remind us of the growth and development within the field. It has always been a very difficult function to understand and there are many derogatory terms allocated to Human Resources. I think the derogatory terms are really based on an outdated view of what the function is there to achieve and, indeed, there are different levels of effectiveness demonstrated by HR teams. It is often easier as a consultant, once you are being heard, to be able to be robust in advice and hold feet to the fire in the appropriate way; it is a very fine line that we tread.

It is worth realising the HR is not, as in the past, a function of tea and sympathy, but about excellent communication across a huge variety of disciplines which we have covered in our Summary of Services (below). If you have an internal team, you may want to celebrate their input and there are many ways in which you might do this.

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As a more general point, in all exit interviews we hear that the underpinning reasons for leaving are feeling that communication is not good enough and that individuals don’t feel valued. These are aspects that should be fostered by the HR team, and it is very hard quantifying the impact of HR input because some of the work, if it is effective, is preventative.

In the interest of being preventative, the thing at the top of our minds at the moment is the new legislation coming in, as well as initiatives on training in management and leadership capability. These are our top priorities.

Please keep your eyes out for the blogs on preventing sexual harassment and the new obligations on employers which will come into force towards the end of October.

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