How will HR remember the Coalition?
August 17th, 2010
As red in tooth and claw as it slashes its way through the public sector, with an equivalent effect on public sector HR functions? As a slayer of bureaucratic sacred cows? Or as an implementer of increased employment rights (The Equality Act, increased Agency Workers Rights, increased Maternity and Paternity rights and taking away the default retirement at 65 to name a few?) Both probably. It is unlikely to tear up employment protection or the creaking, complex and overweight employment tribunal system. But one area of HR activity that is set to grow is the active management of performance at work. Forced on by the removal of the default retirement age, capability is now the name of the game. Can’t do or won’t do? The new economy is sweeping away the old hiding places and any lingering room for complacency. How HR will remember the Coalition will depend on how HR practitioners respond to the performance challenge. There will some who can – and plenty who can’t.
