Director of HR- Ask Me Anything!

[HRDirectorAMA]

Director of HR, currently working in public sector, with an operational team of 5 and about 600 employees.

Ask me anything...

Is there a gender pay gap in your team? Are women represented in senior roles?

If yes or no, could you comment on how that came about?

Where do I stand legally with declaring a disability (mental health) condition on job applications - is it something that I legally must do?

how did you get in to hr? Is it something that you could go in to later in life?

I don't have any men in my team but if I did they'd be paid the same as any female employee.

My company has a 15% gender pay gap but a -5% pay gap at management level; our SMT (of which I am part of and female!) is a 60:40 split. Our pay gap is due to there being a higher number of female employees and therefore the median pay being lower than the median pay of the few male employees.

I have qualms about the GPGR- we could 'fix' our gender pay gap by recruiting 5 men into our lowest paid roles (which offer the most flexibility for family commitments) but is that the right thing to do when we would potentially be stopping 5 women getting their foot back on the career ladder whilst wanting to be able to do the school run...?

@Hawkie legally you don't have to declare it however your potential new employer doesn't know what they don't know so you can't expect them to make reasonable adjustments. We welcome applications from disabled people and happily make adjustments; some more creative than others!

@Achafi accidentally. I started off in administrative roles and realised I was nosy enough to want to be an HR Advisor, then an HR manager and now my current role.

I started with a CIPD level 3 qual, then completed the level 7 PgDip. I now also have a masters and employment law qualifications- I secretly love studying but it has cost me around £15k!

If my company relocate further away, can I ask them to compensate me for the extra petrol costs to get there.

Do you actually care about your employees at all or is your job basically covering the companies arse legally?

If I want to get into training and development is it best to try to get into hr first?

@Freshprincess it depends on your contract; we tend to pay the difference in mileage for an agreed period (2years)

@Flowerpower321 yes, I do although many of my colleagues in the sector don't. We're all human, humans sometimes make mistakes and I try to treat everyone, irregardless of the situation as I would want to be treated.

I was interviewed for a job in the public sector and told I was successful. I was informed, in writing, that an offer would be issued in May. I still haven't received it.

Based on this supposed offer I resigned my previous role and am now out of work. I've been treated appallingly.

The HR team I've been corresponding with (based in Newcastle) don't know what the hold-up is. They are embarrassed about what has happened and just say that it's not them but they won't provide details of what the problem is. I don't even know the name of the hiring manager as it was a panel who were just drafted together.

There are no issues around security clearance or immigration or vetting as I've worked in the public sector recently and have active clearance.

What can I do?

Quick HR question

One of my partners colleagues has a disciplinary hearing next week and has asked my partner if he'll go in with him as "the colleague" he's not overly keen a) he doesn't want to get involved and b) says he's no idea what to say as he knows the bloke didn't follow the policy and if he gets sacked he'll feel bad and it's nothing to do with him!!!

They work in a office that handles cash and basically he had his safe key 🔑 on his bundle of keys and it dropped off but the security policy states that safe keys shouldn't be kept on a bundle but locked in your locker and then accessed when required (odd but that's the policy)

He's wondering what he should do, whether management will take a dim view of him for "siding" with someone who failed to follow the instructions but also what he'd actually be expected to say or do???

I didn't think to look in the contract, I'm not sure it would be. It's a small company, we don't have a HR department, we never had contracts up till 2 years ago. We had a project manager (with no HR background) come in and draw them up. Wouldn't be surprised if they are free template off the Internet.

Did you pay for your qualifications or did the company pay?

How will Brexit affect HR in general?

@ZigZagIntoTheBlue that's a tough one- in my experience L&D is an HR function but requires a different skill set- it's a lot of coordination and 'soft skills'. HR is one route in but I think events and PA roles would give you transferable skills.

There are specific L&D courses but the CIPD courses mostly cover it as a module.

@Disquieted1 that's rude and unprofessional. I would start looking for another role ASAP.

If they made an offer to you and you have not breached a condition of the offer you are entitled to claim notice pay as you would have been entitled to under the contract they verbally offered. Unfortunately, if there's no discrimination angle there is no other legal claim.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing but you should never resign a position without a formal, written, unconditional offer in your hand.

@Bellabutterfly2016 your partner has a right to say no as much as his colleague has the right to ask. I can't answer how the particular management team would react to his attendance- that will differ depending on culture.

His role would be to support his colleague; he should be able to put the case forward and sum it up but shouldn't be asked direct questions nor answer direct questions.

@Unobtainable I paid for mine as it allowed me to move companies and use my payrises to fund the next stages!

I suspect Brexit will have a small impact- mainly on attracting talent. Many of our employment laws are UK law and often more favourable than other EU countries.

Hey thanks for the reply!

My partners main concern is that he wasn't even at work when the incident happend (he was on leave), this guy has been there 5 years and should definately know the rules about this and my partner is well respected and hopefully up for promotion soon and he doesn't want to jeopardise anything by sticking up for someone who quite frankly should have known better.

Also without sounding awful, he knows the guy, works with him etc but they don't socialise or anything out of work - they're not friends or anything.

I'm thinking he asked him as he didn't "witness" the incident as he was on leave but a bit randome - plus how would he explain the events of the day if he wasn't even there?!?!?!

He doesn't want to be the bad guy but also doesn't want to damage his own professional relationship with management. It's tough

Thanks.
Last time I trust Her Majesty's Government I'll tell you!

Have you ever had to manage out an employee but disagreed with their managers reasons?

@Disquieted1 If your offer was based on a security clearance than the checks can take anywhere between 3 and 9 months depending on the level required. They will only send the written offer out after you have passed clearance.

Have you ever been involved in a company actually admitting they’ve messed up? Where I work, HR does truly function to protect the business from its employees at all costs. It’s soul destroying and i’m leaving because of it.

They don’t seem to understand that treating people with common decency would generate so much good will.

Case in point- staff reward event (which I know we’re lucky to have). Invite email said that if we accepted and then dropped out we’d be liable for costs. Morning before event, DS was horribly ill. I talked to them, explained, and was told that I’d be charged for my ticket if I dropped out to care for my sick baby. Tossers.

@DesperatelySeekingSnoozing yes I have. My job is advising and influencing managers- sometimes they make the wrong decision (or the right decision but for the wrong reason).