The Met Police has slashed its HR headcount by 330 without making any compulsory redundancies, Personnel Today has learned.
The cuts form part of a revamp of the function aimed at freeing up £15m a year, which will be ploughed back into front-line policing.
HR director Martin Tiplady told Personnel Today that the reduction in headcount – which amounted to nearly one-third of his team – had been achieved by 15 voluntary redundancies, retirements, and not replacing staff who had left the force.
“Six months ago we were down to 100 people [that were deemed excess],” Tiplady said. “We notified them that they had not got roles in the new department and managed a process of redeployment and a scheme of voluntary redundancy.
“I am delighted to say all bar a very tiny number have actually been successfully redeployed either outside of HR but within the Met, or within HR as further vacancies have come up. There haven’t been any compulsory redundancies.”
The three-year project, known as Transforming HR, is planned to go live next spring and will push transactional HR work into a shared service centre.
Employees with HR queries will be encouraged to firstly use the intranet’s ‘People Pages’, which clarify and explain policies and procedures. The tool features FAQs and covers areas including pay and benefits, health and safety, work-life balance and career development.
“This was rolled out five months ago and is very well used and has gone down well,” Tiplady said. “The work-life balance page, for example, has all the information on flexible working [that is needed]. Before it was manual and completely inaccessible.”
A 24-hour helpline, manned by HR staff, will also be launched to cater for more complex enquiries. A team of specialists in areas such as pay, occupational health, and employee relations will also be on hand to answer questions.
Elsewhere, the Met’s most senior HR staff will oversee people management across the business.
“One of our divisions has 20,000 people,” Tiplady said. “They [senior HR staff] will manage the relationship between HR and that department in terms of what they need to be working on in policies and practice.”
