Chris Gosling, Director of HR, outlines organisational restructuring

“OVER the last few weeks I have been discussing with my senior colleagues in the division how best we can restructure ourselves to meet the emerging needs of the College, respond appropriately to our customers’ needs and develop the potential of our staff.

 As a first step, we are separating the policy and advice function from our operational function and this will have the benefit of clarifying lines of communication and enabling a greater depth of specialism to emerge.

Also part of this first phase of the new Human Resources (HR) Divisional structure will be: the creation of separate HR Services units, (resulting in four HR ‘link’ manager posts plus their supporting teams) for medicine (led by Jo Fallows); physical sciences; life sciences; management school; and academic services (led by Julia Brown); engineering (led by Caragh Molloy) and administration (to be appointed), to reinforce the Faculty structure.

These four units will identify closely with their customer groups, conveying best practice and policy down the line from the centre. Day to day employee relations (ER) will now be undertaken by the HR Services units with reference to our ER specialists for advice and guidance as required. A new senior HR Operations Manager post will be created to provide co-ordination and guidance to the operational units.

The HEFCE-funded HR Strategy means that we need to take action on development, diversity, job evaluation and performance management and I have asked Kim Everitt to lead on these. Kim will manage the functions associated with this work with the new title of Deputy Director (Organisational Development).

John Payne will assume the new title of Deputy Director (Employee Relations) and will continue to provide advice to the Division on ER matters, ensuring appropriate and up-to-date policies and procedures, servicing College-level appeals and managing the external interface such as employment tribunals.

I believe that these new arrangements are an exciting opportunity for all staff in Human Resources and that we shall be able to fulfil a key role in the development of the College Mission. As for the name – Human Resources – this emphasises our strategic role and the importance of our contribution to the College Strategic Intents.  As previously, and as we all know, people are what matter in the end.”