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Non-quiche for people working in HR, what do you all reckon?

238 replies

flowerybeanbag · 13/06/2008 09:26

Anyone fancy bit of a whinge support group?

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mylittlemonsters · 13/08/2008 22:07

Where do you live?

ForeverOptimistic · 14/08/2008 10:06

Mylittlemonsters - I'm about 30 miles north west of London.

squiffy · 14/08/2008 13:55

ForeverOptimistic... sorry I lost this thread for a while so have only just seen your posts.

FWIW I am just coming to the end of an MSc in HR Mgmt at the London School of Economics, which gets the full CIPD accreditation and I guess the MA thing you are looking at is something similar?

I did the course part time and loved it, though I think I would have found it more of a slog had I been full time. The good things about getting the CIPD this way are: fabulous being back in tutor setting and arguing the toss with the academic staff; good for career opportunities - lots of milk rounds and the course itself attracts specific interest form certain organisations; independant research was great experience. The negatives are: takes longer than CIPD modules and costs more; vast majority of people on the course are 21-24 with zero work experience so soemtimes you feel like you are partly tutoring them; some of the subject matter on the mandatory courses can be tedious (comparative Japanese vs Chinese work models and how they reflect Asian culture, anybody?). There was an awful lot of basics covered as well which could have been quite boring (had I turned up for any of the lectures). but on the whole I loved it. If I was a professional HR bod I would be very careful to choose the right course at the right uni (the HR professionals on my course all thought they had picked the wrong uni and I think it was the London Metropolitan they all cited as perhaps the better option (? I can check this if you want to know for sure). TBH if you already have lots of HR expertise I would also consider very carefully the LLM route as that could be more interesting (and more lucrative).

ForeverOptimistic · 14/08/2008 20:27

Thanks Squiffy, I will look into that course.

priceyp · 15/08/2008 10:57

Hi everyone, met Flowerybeanbag on another thread the other day, and have finally got round to joining here. I am HR Manager on mat leave, no current plans to go back to that job atm. DH in forces so move around a bit. Done, HR training, payroll, general stuff. After a shaky start with my further education I did CIPD, not made it to final year MIPD yet - maybe next year??

But love all aspects of HR, hoping to keep my hand in over the next few months - maybe with your help?

PS am loving MN!!

flowerybeanbag · 15/08/2008 12:51

Hi pricey nice to see you and welcome to our non-quiche! Start doling out some advice on these threads if you feel like it, that's a good way to keep your hand in...

otherwise chatting on this thread also a good plan.

Hope everyone else is ok. Am horrendously busy trying to work and simultaneously organise our anniversary do which is next weekend. We're taking a bunch of friends for a weekend to a big house so I've got lists galore going on with stuff to order, stuff to buy, stuff to do, stuff to bring...Should be good fun though.

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ceebee74 · 18/08/2008 14:33

Hi I am a bit of a lapsed member on this thread - sorry!

Could actually do with some advice myself from you experts on a personal issue.

Childcare vouchers and the new sex discrimination legislation - anyone have any experience/thoughts about it?

The guidance we have received at work is that it is now discriminatory to make any deductions from SMP but if an employee is entitled to and has been receiving childcare vouchers prior to receiving SMP, then they must continue to receive them - even if it means the employer has to fund the cost of this. Now, the guidance seems fairly straightforward in this - but my manager (HR Manager) and our HR director do not agree with it saying it can't possibly be the case. In fact my manager actually said to me that the employer should just be able to turn round to the employee and say 'no you can't have them now you are on maternity leave so we are going to stop them' - which to me seems so blatantly discrimnatory, on the basis of denying a woman on mat leave a perk that is available to everyone else, that I can't actually believe she said it!

Anyway, it personally affects me as I am due to start mat leave in a couple of months and have a feeling I am going to have to fight to continue to receive my childcare vouchers when I start to receive SMP only. Can do without it tbh but my director went away to see if he could find a loophole in the law - so has anyone else come across this yet?

flowerybeanbag · 18/08/2008 14:44

ceebee as far as I can tell you must continue to receive them at the employer's cost, yes. Because it's a salary sacrifice, a permanent variation to your salary, rather than a deduction, the amount of SMP or other maternity pay you get is affected by you having the vouchers in the first place. For example, if you would normally earn £25,000 but because you have vouchers your salary is, say £20,000, the 90% figure used to calculate SMP will be lower as well.

So you must continue to receive them, yes. Where has your guidance come from if your manager and director don't believe it? Have they spoken to their legal advisors/payroll people?

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ceebee74 · 18/08/2008 14:54

Flowery - thanks for the information. Fortunately the voucher scheme we use at work is flexible so I was able to stop receiving vouchers for my qualifying weeks for SMP so that will be based on my full salary - but I am restarting them next month.

The guidance has come from at least 2 different sources (including CIPD website) but they both feel that it is just 'wrong' that an employer has to fund them so therefore they feel there must be a way out - basically they don't want to give me (or any other employee) 3 months worth of vouchers but unfortunately I am the guinea pig !! I don't think they have taken any legal advice yet - this is just from discussions I have had with them but I need to start pushing them for an answer before I leave and want to get my facts straight.

llareggub · 20/08/2008 22:16

Ooooh, interesting one. I must check out at work what our stance is.

Work is very busy at the moment. All I seem to be doing is advising on reorganisations, efficiency savings and redundancies....such is life at the moment, I guess.

SexyMilf · 27/08/2008 12:35

hi everyone, haven't posted for a while but just wanted to check in with you all

By the way CeeBee74 I totally agree with Flowery (as always HR Guru that she is!) v ironic it is child care vouchers they are refusing you as you are entitled to all the same benefits while on maternity leave, otherswise it's clear disrimintation... did you get any closer to resolving this?

SexyMilf · 27/08/2008 12:37

Flowery - how was your anniversary weekend - sounds wonderful? I also had a craxy weekend as it was my DD first birthday and we had loads of celebrations, I had to come back to work for a rest

Pinkjenny · 27/08/2008 13:00

I have an interview on Monday for my dream job. It's providing Human Resources support to schools in Merseyside.

Now, I have never worked in an academic environment before, and am wondering whether you lot can help me.

I am imagining that the support we would offer would be mainly around Performance Management (of staff), Recruitment, Employment Law (e.g. maternity, absence queries).

Can anyone give me any pointers as to what kind of HR support schools might need? There is no job description or person specification and I don't want to go in completely unprepared.

Thanksxxx

flowerybeanbag · 30/08/2008 08:46

Hi all

Anniversary weekend was fabulous, thanks SexyM. Not much sleep involved, lots of champagne and great fun. Dh has been on holiday the rest of this week as well, which has been lovely. He starts his new job on Monday, all very exciting.

PJ sounds fab about your interview on Monday. Wish I had some specific help to give you but I would expect the issues you've identified to be key.

I'd also recommend swotting up on term time contracts, holiday workings out, that kind of thing. I know teachers are usually employed all year round, but support staff usually aren't, so there are issues there around pay and time off to think about, things that might crop up and you may or may not have huge experience of.

Best of luck anyway!

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SexyMilf · 30/08/2008 21:51

PJ - good luck for your interview, a few years back I actually used to work as an HR advisor within schools, it's a great area to work and I loved it. You've identified most of the key areas, but I've thought of a couple of other things that came up a lot when I was in the role, hope this helps...

Disciplinaries, sadly this at times could extend to child protection cases (be warned I've seen & heard some very upsetting things, but this is very rare and colleagues who have worked in this area never had a child protection case), so knowledge of CRB useful also how you might work with other agenices in such a situation ie police, social services, other education authories etc.

Restructures, redundancies - if pupil numbers change so does the staff size, schools plan to birth rates but also need to reflect to shifting changes in the population,

Absence Management - obviously it depends on the schools but I had some schools I supported with lots of teachers who were on long term sick leave for stress

Recruitment is key - hard to recruit good heads and some subject teachers, also some support staff posts can be a challenge to recruit to, were I was working caretakers and lollipop ladies/men were hard to find

Salary Scales - lots of different methods of paying the teachers and support staff and different allowances for teachers - I'm a little out of it now but google TLRs (teaching and learning responsibilities) for more info

I hope this helps, don't worry too much about the discplinaries, thought I should mention it so you are aware this can arise but it is not common so there are so many safeguards in place very few abusers can get into schools. Good luck let us know how it goes

flowerybeanbag · 01/09/2008 19:23

PJ how did it go?

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flowerybeanbag · 22/09/2008 15:50

Hello have we all vanished? How's everyone getting on?

I am busy busy. Just writing my profile for my website. After overwhelming feedback we've decided to reluctantly put personal profiles of us on there.

I need to know another way of saying 'extensive experience'. I do have extensive experience of all the things I'm mentioning in it but I can't keep saying that!

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mylittlemonsters · 24/09/2008 23:33

substantive

demonstrable

broad

in depth

across industries and business sectors

????

flowerybeanbag · 25/09/2008 08:47

I'm liking substantive and demonstrable mylittlemonsters thanks!

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SexyMilf · 25/09/2008 12:04

Good luck flowery - sounds worse than writing a CV

RuthT · 25/09/2008 20:47

Yipee dh has got the condensed hours agreed.

flowerybeanbag · 26/09/2008 19:42

Thanks SexyM. More or less done I think, just need to upload them now at some point over the weekend hopefully, in between going away to France. Funny isn't it, you just potter along doing your job and don't realise just exactly how much experience you are amassing as you do it?!

That's excellent news about the condensed hours Ruth! Any more news or thoughts on your own plans?

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RuthT · 26/09/2008 20:20

Ah well that is another story. Just done the accounts and have a number of scenarios along with if x happens then y etc.

I am really getting into this being home thing, then work call and there may be another more senior role that would involve a house move. (assuming successful). hav just sorted dd into school nursery and don't want to move her so finding the thought of it hard. Plus it means me working socks off and dh not.

Course job may be awful, I may not apply and I may not get it.

If I get more time will post more info, it's a conumdrum.

flowerybeanbag · 26/09/2008 20:23

Sounds interesting. Yes do post more if you get a chance.

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callmeovercautious · 26/09/2008 22:40

Hello all. Wow loads has been happenning then

The Childcare voucher theme has worried me slightly, I set ours up and had not considered the mat leave side. It is on my list for Monday

Flowery - talking about your site - would you like a reference to put up there? The guys you worked with for us have been raving about you apparently Let me know.

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