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In January's network I expressed a desire to focus the HPMA on improving capability, practice and impact. Discussions with members and stakeholders suggest support for such a focus. In January I also outlined some of the things I felt we had to do to be successful and the first is understand the needs of our members. In this issue I would like to share what I am hearing about your 'big ticket items'.
The biggest issue facing members appears to be the challenge of improving productivity and quality at the same time. Whilst it may be easy to achieve one of these it is often at the expense of the other. Achieving both together – the QIPP agenda – is extremely difficult and needs to be at the top of our list of big ticket items. This has moved on from the classics of turnaround, such as vacancy control, agency usage and absence management to more fundamental changes such as major redundancy programmes, service reconfiguration and organisational re-structuring. Whether it’s the creation of the new commissioning landscape or major savings programmes on the provider side, delivering these large scale programmes is a complex and challenging task on a scale many have not experienced.
Enabling improvements in quality and productivity in parallel leads us to another ‘big ticket’ item – staff engagement. The bottom line case for staff engagement has been made (MacLeod and Clarke, 2009) but it feels we have a long way to go to make this a reality and realise the benefits across the NHS. This is not so much about the more traditional ground of effective staff communication mechanisms and partnership working – although union colleagues do not necessarily see these as widespread – it’s more about the day-to-day behaviour of leaders and managers.
Influencing leader and line manager behaviour is both integral to all those above as well as deserving a mention of its own. This stretches from getting managers to do the basics such as appraisal and absence management to the more developmental such as leading teams and managing talent. This is not only critical for improving organisational performance but also managing HR capacity as much of the demand for our service comes from the dysfunctions of the organisation.
Whilst in the current climate reducing HR service demand may only serve to deliver our own savings target, without it we have little chance of delivering an effective service using less resources. Trying to support the organisation with this massive change agenda at the same time as delivering reductions in our own capacity is another area presenting a major challenge to our senior members. The pressure to implement ‘back office’ reviews or explore shared services arrangements is an increasing distraction but a reasonable challenge.
From my discussions so far, these appear to be the big issues on which the HPMA should focus in terms of improving capability, practice and impact. However, if you think we’ve missed something or want to add to the debate please give me your thoughts at president@hpma.org.uk.
February 2011
Kevin Croft
HPMA President