My last post seems to have caused some reaction. A loyal correspondent has sent interesting material from a blog called "Flip Chart Fairy Tales" entitled "the biggest HR project since the 1940s".
In it, one Patrick Butler, clearly an expert in all this, has described the restructuring of the public sector as "the biggest public management challenge since the creation of the welfare state and the NHS".
If folks in the public sector workforce are not among those who lose their jobs, it is argued, they will at the very least, be profoundly and irrevocably affected by the restructuring. "Terms and conditions will be changed, workplaces relocated, employing organisations merged and de-merged, reporting lines and responsibilities changed and, crucially, expectations of performance raised."
Among the immense challenges faced by HR practitioners in public service are the sheer logistics of making so many people redundant, the immense cost, (given that many will get three years pay), the reluctance of many employees to relocate, the potential loss of skills and senior staff who, despite all the evidence, seem to think that such a drastic downsizing can be achieved without any compulsory redundancies.
