City HR Blog

Well, the clocks have gone back, the nights are drawing in, and it now seems that we are on the countdown to the end of the year.

We still have three events to go this year.  The Compensation Symposium, being hosted by Simmons & Simmons is now 80% full, with a presentation on latest trends in City reward, tax and contracts of employment (aligned to reward proposals).   Our keynote speakers are Suzanne Bliss of Towers Perrin, Paul Scarborough from PricewaterhouseCoopers and Richard Pilsworth from Simmons & Simmons.  This is a members only event.

Bookings are coming in for the next Member Forum - Snow White and the 12 Months of the Year.    This is a satirical look at the past year in Human Resources, as seen through the eyes of Snow White, who has been sent to work in the City due to tax haven problems in her own kingdom.  As we romp through a variety of scenarios that have been encountered during the past year, many familiar faces from the world of HR will be appearing alongside the Employment Law Team at Hammonds and City HR. The pantomime will end on a serious note, with handouts being available on the HR topics that we have covered, as well as the promise of a happy ending.  Or is there?

Following on from the Pantomime, will be the Member Christmas Party, which will also be at Hammonds.  All members and friends are welcome and you don’t have to come to the Panto.  It starts at 6.30 pm.  Please do come along and enjoy some drinks and eats with your HR colleagues and our excellent range of City advisors, the latter of whom add so much value to our activities at City HR.

Next week I am due to sit down with two City Heads of HR to draft the HR aspects of an Olympics Policy that City organisations might want to adapt for their own purposes for 2012.   This will be available in the first quarter of next year. 

Right, that is about it then for this week.   Just off to structure final ideas for the City HR Events Programme 2010.  If anyone has any strong views or ideas, please let me know before 17^th November.

All the best, Andrea#

Andrea Eccles

Director - City HR

City HR Association

27 Austin Friars

London EC2N 2QP

Tel: 020 7670 1934

Email: andreaeccles@cityhr.co.uk

On 12^th October, the City HR Association held its 3^rd Annual Conference at the Stationers’ Hall.   Many described this event as the “best one yet”.  

The proceedings were officially opened by the The Rt Hon The Lord Mayor, Alderman Ian Luder, who outlined the City’s Role in the Global Economy and illustrated the important role played by HR professionals in maintaining and re-building their organisations.  This was followed by an excellent presentation by Professor Lynda Gratton on strategies for organisational revival which included Leadership, Resilience and Team Co-operation.    Most delegates would have liked Professor Gratton to talk for longer than her allocated hour, and for the benefit of those who were unable to attend the conference, I highly recommend her website www.hotspotsmovement.com

The programme continued with a discussion panel on Performance, accountability and reward before delegates broke into two groups to explore HR’s role in re-building City organisations.  Group 1 looked at this from an internal perspective:  how we do this from an organisational and employee perspective.  Group 2 looked at this from an external perspective: how do we do this taking into consideration the collective views of the Government, Regulators, other Public Bodies, the Media and the Public itself.  A framework for re-building the City was developed and this will be available as a download from this website from 23^rd October.

Later sessions looked at issues high on the HR agenda, specifically compensation in the current City climate, diversity and the results of the EHRC report and preparing for the upturn – the steps that HR needs to take to attract and retain the best when coming out of recession.

The conference closed with a major City HR announcement.  Stephen Sidebottom has stepped down as Chairman after 8 years of leading City HR and has assumed a new role of President, with specific responsibility for Corporate Social Responsibility.   Robert Potter, Group HR Director at Jardine Lloyd Thompson has been appointed Chair and thanked Stephen for the enormous contribution that he has made to our Association.  The new Vice Chair is Nigel Holmes, EMEA Head of HR at Societe Generale Corporate and Investment Banking, and David Barnett remains as Hon. Treasurer.  Old and new committee members have all taken responsibility for either an HR discipline, a sector or an international region, so please visit Meet the Committee section under the About section on our website for full details.

It was a fascinating day.  The gallery on our website contains photos of the event so please look at the Events section of the website to get a glimpse of the day.

Catch up soon, Andrea