City University’s HR manager Daphne Bates has described how her team has
pulled together after a massive fire that caused £6m damage at the university.
The roof and the fifth floor of the London building were destroyed by the
blaze on the evening of 21 May. It made the HR department on the third floor
uninhabitable.
But within two days the 13-strong HR team managed to restore full
operations. They retrieved paper files from the office so they could issue
contracts and deal with problems. Computer records were saved on a main server.
They are now working out of one of the students’ computer units.
Bates said, "It is an absolute nightmare – the accommodation is far too
tiny. We are sharing seven computers at the moment.
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"But the group has been brilliant – it has made me realise what a
tremendous department I have."
