Autumn
2008 Training Course/Seminar Series
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Human Resource Planning and
Performance Measurement in Central Banks
4-day intensive residential programme, 26 - 29 August
2008
Venue: King’s College Cambridge University
Course chairman: Iain Thomson, Managing Director,
Squared Circle and
former Head of Training & Development, Bank of England
Series adviser: Charles Goodhart, CBE, Professor Emeritus, London School
of Economics, Financial Markets Group
Dear
Delegate,
As you may know, only too well, young officers who leave after a few expensive years of training for the private sector represent a poor return on investment for a central bank.
This, compounded by the increasingly competitive market for hiring talent, represents the most pressing challenge facing human resource functions in central banks today.
Others soon crowd in: How to measure performance, from the individual to institutional level? How to reward it? How to map recruitment, training and career frameworks to the rapid changes in central bank roles and functions? How to improve the range and quality of services offered and demonstrate value internally?
More broadly, as governing boards, governments and the general public demand assurance that official-sector organisations, including central banks, are using their resources in the most effective way, the human resource function plays a crucial role in fulfilling central banks’ key obligation: accountability.
This course, Human Resource Planning and Performance Measurement in Central Banks, equips human resource managers with the tools to meet these challenges.
The four-day programme of interactive roundtable seminars and workshops offers concrete examples of development, reform and innovation, and opportunities to explore those questions that are most important to you.
The panel of expert speakers will be chaired by Iain Thomson and draws on practical central banking experience, as well as views from private sector and academia. As over 1,500 central bankers and regulators can attest, this format encourages delegates to quiz speakers and each other, raise issues and discuss solutions to the specific challenges they face.
The independent standpoint of the conference sponsor, Central Banking Publications Ltd, naturally encourages free discussion of sensitive issues in a confidential environment and allows a broader coverage of issues than courses and conferences organised by official institutions. I look forward to welcoming you to Cambridge in August.
Yours faithfully,
Robert Pringle
Managing Director
Challenges facing HR today – attracting, retaining and motivating talent
Led by the chairman, Iain Thomson
Today’s globalised markets mean
competition for talent has never been tougher. For central banks, which
often have to compete with the more generous rewards available in the
private sector, this can prove especially challenging. How can central
banks ensure they maintain their appeal? What innovative policies are
available to retain those who may think about leaving after a few years?
In this opening session, the chairman will lead a discussion to identify
the key issues of interest to the group and identify the challenges
to be addressed in the ensuing discussions and workshops.
Implementing recruitment and resource-based strategies
Philip Dewe
Deputy Master and Head of
Organisational Psychology, Birkbeck College, London University
Long gone are the days when central banks could simply offer lifetime
careers. Now, central banks need to compete for specialists in increasingly
international labour markets, and to welcome hires across a range of
career 'entry points'. In this session, the speaker, a leading authority
from Birkbeck College in London, will outline new research and thinking
on the management of human resources and what these can offer central
banks in terms of their strategic approach to human resources as well
as day-to-day management.
Where HR fits in the modern central
bank
Breakout groups led by the chairman,
Iain Thomson
Few would argue against the need
to invest in the next generation by ensuring that they leave school
as financially capable citizens. Yet how in practice can this be done?
This session will draw on the speaker’s experience with the Personal
Finance Education Group in the UK, in supporting financial education
with children and young people through four major initiatives funded
by the Financial Services Authority, HSBC, the Department for Children
Schools and Families and the Institute of Chartered Accountants.
Iain Thomson held senior positions in exchange control, foreign exchange, open market operations, and training, at the Bank of England before a two-year secondment to the Central Bank of Swaziland, sponsored by the IMF. There, he was director of foreign exchange reserves, and responsible for advising the governor, developing local capacity to manage financial markets. On return to the UK, he was involved in helping various central banks to modernise, before becoming Head of Training & Development. After leaving the Bank in 1999 he set up his own consultancy firm, working in 33 countries so far.
Customers
– who are they, and what do they want?
Stuart Allen
Deputy Secretary, Bank of England
Far-reaching developments in the roles
and activities of central banks in recent years have put a premium on
appropriate personnel development and training, manpower planning and
the human resource function generally. But what actually do senior executives
and governors want from human resources? And what about the needs of ‘external’
customers? This is the focus of this keynote address by a widely experienced
senior manager at the Bank of England, who will look at the competing
and changing demands placed on the function. Discussion will address the
contribution and value that human resource management initiatives can
make to the requirements of those who use HR services in their management
of the institution as a whole.
Towards a framework for continuous development
and learning
Speaker to be confirmed
Every company seems to make a bold statement along the lines of "people
are our most important asset". Yet in many cases staff are seen more as
expendable liabilities. In the development of careers, senior management
must balance organisational and individual needs and wants. Collective
and individual development must be seen as investment, on which returns
are desired, required, sought and expected. Here HR has a key role to
play. Delegates will be invited to consider how they can encourage both
organisational capability and commitment, and individuals' responsibility
for continuous learning.
Manpower and succession planning
Pascal
Cescon
Deputy Director, Labour Relations, Banque de France
Increasingly, central banks are implementing change programmes aimed at improving efficiency and focusing on core activities. For institutions that have developed with career structures modelled on jobs for life, or are moving from operational to a more 'knowledge-based' workforce, this presents many difficult and painful choices. In this session, discussion will focus on experiences of how central banks have managed the adjustments in staff profile and headcount both internally and with stakeholders including unions, politicians and the media.
Reward
strategies
Workshop led by the chairman, Iain Thomson
This session will harness the collective thinking of participants to analyse
the aims and objectives and intended outcomes of pay, reward and retention
policies. Discussion will focus on the comparative merits of the main
tools that HR functions have available to them: job and work security,
the public service ethic, intrinsically challenging and important policy
work, and extrinsic reward strategies.
HR as internal consultant
S.H.A.M. Abeyratne
Assistant Governor, Central Bank of Sri Lanka
When planning institutional change, central banks may look to an external
consultant for guidance on strategy and implementation. Yet many of the
skills needed and insights into the key issues exist internally. This
session will discuss how, in the context of a change programme, the HR
function can play a key role in providing consultancy advice on and support
for formulating and implementing a strategy that will have real and lasting
effect. The speaker will cover a particular case study and will encourage
the group to share their experiences and desires to be able to take an
even more proactive role as an internal consultant.
Berend van Baak
Director of Personnel, European Central Bank
Obtaining accurate and comparative measures of performance for staff across an institution that performs such a wide variety of tasks and services is far from straightforward. However, this is essential to managing, improving and rewarding performance. The absence of a profit motive removes an obvious tool, and so central banks must look to other benchmarks. In this session, the speaker discusses a series of approaches central banks can adopt.
How HR can act as the 'corporate glue'
or 'organisational conscience'
Jacquie
Findlay
Director and Senior Partner, HR4U Ltd
This session will consider the roles
HR can play when external shocks or conflict, and increasing specialisation
and the reduction of staff numbers in traditional central bank areas of
operation, bring in tensions which may call into question the central
bank's identity and values. HR is in the unique position to act to bring
together departments which may traditionally have different outlooks.
In addition, HR may need to act as the 'conscience' for the central bank
when ethical, strategic balance, win-lose possibilities between competing
departments, or group or individual employment law issues arise. As a
mediating force there are a variety of tools available, and the speaker
will address how these can be effectively deployed.
Marketing HR
services
John Matheson
HR consultant and former Head of HR,
Bank of England
This session led by a former Head of HR at the Bank of England will challenge delegates to make an honest assessment of the services their function provides and how they market these internally. As the area of the central bank which sources and ensures the welfare of its key asset, HR has a range of offerings beyond the traditional image of a box-ticking bureaucracy. How can it communicate this?
Making the most of human capital
John
Agius
Director, Resource Management Division, Central Bank of Malta
As the institutional make-up of central banks shifts, so increasing emphasis will be placed on HR departments in coping with strategic changes. In fact, institutional change represents an opportunity to leverage human capital. This case-study session will demonstrate ways of making the most of HR capital against a variety of institutional and economic backdrops.
Raising the HR profile - practically,
politically, and through planning
Workshop
led by the chairman, Iain Thomson
The remit of human resources by definition reaches across all areas of a central bank. No other area has this distinction and yet HR is often misunderstood or fails to receive the credit it deserves. In this session, the speaker will discuss how HR functions can raise their profile in the institution through the delivery of useful management tools, networking with and support for senior management, and sound strategic planning for the organisation as a whole.
Course conclusion: action
plans and concrete tips
Roundtable
discussionled by the chairman, Iain Thomson
The day and the course will conclude with a session led by the chairman drawing in the main points of discussion throughout the seminar. The aim will be to compile the elements to build and assess a value proposition for the HR function within the central bank. Delegates will be encouraged to pool their thoughts and prepare action plans to take back to their home institutions.
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