HR qualification can only be an asset in bid for promotion

I write in response to the article ‘Police HR chiefs slated for lacking insight as pay dispute hits morale’ and the chief people officer at the National Policing Improvement Agency Angela O’Connor’s associated comments on HR in the Police Service (Personnel Today, 27 May).

I am a police officer with 17 years’ service in Kent Police. I have supervisory and line management experience at sergeant and inspector level.

In 2006, I completed an HR management course with the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development and I am now a professionally qualified HR person with chartered status membership.

I undertook the course at my own expense, and predominantly in my own time, because I recognised the benefits of learning HR skills as well as underpinning my previous people management experience with a professional qualification.

Being a manager in the police service today requires many different skills, of which managing people effectively is just one.

O’Connor’s view that it is not a solution to make a police officer do HR, I believe is a little misplaced.

I have shown that, as a police officer manager, it is possible to learn HR, become a professional and apply that learning in the workplace.

I am now studying for promotion to chief inspector, and feel confident that my HR qualification and experience will be invaluable in helping me to prepare for the next step up the police promotion ladder.

Sonia Lassnig

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Inspector, diversity chief of staff

Kent Police