Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • Brightmine
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Free trial
    • Request a quote
  • Webinars
  • Advertise
  • OHW+

Personnel Today

Register
Log in
Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • Brightmine
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Free trial
    • Request a quote
  • Webinars
  • Advertise
  • OHW+

Latest NewsHR strategyHR transformation

PPMA president calls time on navel-gazing HR dinosaurs

by Mike Berry 6 May 2008
by Mike Berry 6 May 2008

Public sector HR must evolve or be wiped out, the president of the Public Sector People Managers Association (PPMA) has warned.

In his opening address to the annual PPMA conference in Brighton last week, Stephen Moir said practitioners had to decide whether to head towards a strategic future, or extinction.

“There is no doubt we are at a crossroads for HR, and the path all HR professionals should choose is the one that is evolutionary and the hardest,” he said.

Moir, the head of HR at Cambridgeshire County Council, hit out at what he called “HR dinosaurs” stalking some areas of the public sector.

He said the age of the “lumbering personnel department” that slowed organisations down was dead.

Outsourcing, shared services, new technology and efficiency targets were not threats to HR delivery, he said, and public sector teams had to get to grips with them.

Moir also used his speech to attack “self-obsessed navel gazers” in HR.

He said: “I’m sick and tired of being part of a profession that wallows in self-pity. HR must stop feeling sorry for itself.”

His warning follows criticism last month from the CBI that public sector employment practices were not up to scratch.

But Moir said many state-funded bodies were already seizing that agenda and becoming “faster, fitter and more flexible”.

Angela O’Connor, chief people officer at the National Policing Improvement Agency, said she thought Moir’s speech would hit home.

Sign up to our weekly round-up of HR news and guidance

Receive the Personnel Today Direct e-newsletter every Wednesday

OptOut
This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

“I would worry if our president didn’t say something like that. Stephen Moir is not afraid to deal with the uncomfortable truths within the profession and that takes courage,” she said.

Moir laid out five key themes that practitioners in the sector should focus on: leadership, talent management, equality and diversity, pay and reward, and service transformation.

Mike Berry

previous post
Career fear forces employees to shun opportunity for flexible working
next post
Acas launches new draft code of practice on discipline and grievance

You may also like

UK net migration slashed by half in one...

22 May 2025

The Law Society: Navigating the new world of...

22 May 2025

How neuroscience can unlock employee recognition

22 May 2025

Workplace stress: Why it’s time to rebrand resilience

22 May 2025

Restaurant tips should be included in holiday pay

21 May 2025

Fewer workers would comply with a return-to-office mandate

21 May 2025

Redefining leadership: From competence to inclusion

21 May 2025

Pay awards in real terms could fall for...

21 May 2025

Ryanair demands flight attendants pay back salary increase

21 May 2025

Consultation launched after Supreme Court ‘sex’ ruling

20 May 2025

  • 2025 Employee Communications Report PROMOTED | HR and leadership...Read more
  • The Majority of Employees Have Their Eyes on Their Next Move PROMOTED | A staggering 65%...Read more
  • Prioritising performance management: Strategies for success (webinar) WEBINAR | In today’s fast-paced...Read more
  • Self-Leadership: The Key to Successful Organisations PROMOTED | Eletive is helping businesses...Read more
  • Retaining Female Talent: Four Ways to Reduce Workplace Drop Out PROMOTED | International Women’s Day...Read more

Personnel Today Jobs
 

Search Jobs

PERSONNEL TODAY

About us
Contact us
Browse all HR topics
Email newsletters
Content feeds
Cookies policy
Privacy policy
Terms and conditions

JOBS

Personnel Today Jobs
Post a job
Why advertise with us?

EVENTS & PRODUCTS

The Personnel Today Awards
The RAD Awards
Employee Benefits
Forum for Expatriate Management
OHW+
Whatmedia

ADVERTISING & PR

Advertising opportunities
Features list 2025

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Linkedin


© 2011 - 2025 DVV Media International Ltd

Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • Brightmine
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Free trial
    • Request a quote
  • Webinars
  • Advertise
  • OHW+