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LettersThe HR profession

Leeson case shows crucial role for HR

by Personnel Today 11 Oct 2005
by Personnel Today 11 Oct 2005

I read the feature on Nick Leeson (Rogue to recovery, Personnel Today, 20 September) with great interest as my mother was an employee of Barings Bank at the time of its collapse. I remember phoning her before she left for work at the time and she said: “There’s no way that one person could do that.”

But of course, that’s exactly what had happened.

Your feature demonstrates that employees are not simply cogs in a machine that will keep turning no matter what. HR has a vital role here (as well as an ethical responsibility) in raising managers’ awareness of the importance of ‘people-maintenance’ activities, and supporting them in this when necessary.

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The Leeson/Barings case highlights just how crucial HR practices are to organisational performance, covering issues such as recruitment and selection, training and development, performance management, work-life balance, employee relations, organisational culture and so on. This certainly proves HR’s potential value to organisations, but have the lessons been learned?

Sarah Lucas
Personnel and training manager, Social Security Department, Guernsey


Personnel Today

Personnel Today articles are written by an expert team of award-winning journalists who have been covering HR and L&D for many years. Some of our content is attributed to "Personnel Today" for a number of reasons, including: when numerous authors are associated with writing or editing a piece; or when the author is unknown (particularly for older articles).

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Personnel Today
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