Julian Duxfield, HR director at the Department for Transport (DfT) leaves today (Thursday) to start a new role as HR director for Group 4 Securicor’s cash services business.
Duxfield has been at the department for four years and was formerly HR director at brewing giant Carlsberg. Before that he spent several years in the consumer goods industry with Unilever.
His departure is the latest in a string of changes among top HR professionals within government departments, with some long-serving civil servants reshuffled and others replaced by HR talent from the private sector.
The DfT came under fire from MPs earlier this year for “astonishingly high” levels of sickness absence.
The Commons Public Accounts Committee accused the department and its agencies of allowing staff to take an extra 13 days’ holiday each year by claiming sick leave.
In July, the DfT’s capability review highlighted problems with performance management and a failure to hit diversity targets.
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The role of the department in overseeing HR and other business processes in its agencies was labelled unclear, with some “duplication and inconsistency”.
A “forward-thinking HR strategy” needed to be developed as a matter of urgency, the review team concluded.
