HR missing as CBI trumpets people power

The need for education and skills is central to the CBI agenda according to its head of HR, but personnel officers were notable by their absence at its annual conference.

People issues permeated the two-day event in Birmingham, but there were no HR speakers, despite a panel discussion dedicated to people issues.

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Susan Anderson, the CBI’s own head of HR, defended the lack of speakers from the profession. She said it was important that people saw company chief executives and industry leaders leading a focus on staff issues.

“Human resource folk say ‘we do people over here and you do those other things over there’, but what happens [at the CBI conference] is that people are part of all of those events.”