Your HR Department provides particular expertise with Colleges of Further Education. We are aware of the issues affecting the further education sector. We understand the need to serve the needs of learners but at the same time to meet the wider needs of the local community and most importantly achieve the required financial and commercial objectives.

Support is sometimes provided through the HR Function, sometimes direct to the Principal or Chief Executive and sometimes to the Board of Governors. This covers such issues as restructuring, assessment centres, succession planning, Senior Post Holder recruitment, Director recruitment, management development, Governor support and development, review of HR function, performance management etc.

Some examples of the types of work we have done in the sector are as follows

Appointments to Executive positions following restructuring – this involved the use of a competency-based assessment process to enable comparison between internal and external candidates.

Review of the HR Function – this involved interviewing a range of executives, managers and employees within the College to establish their needs and expectations of the HR function. We then recommended a revised structure and handled the resulting change management issues.

Senior Post Holder Recruitment – this involved the production of job description, person specification, advertisement, first interviews and submission of short list. We then designed the assessment day, briefed and trained assessors (mostly Governors) and chaired the selection panel. We also handled the negotiations with the chosen candidate and his subsequent appointment.

Introduction of Performance Management – this involved the redesign of the performance appraisal process and the training of the management team in how to handle performance issues using a coaching style.