London HR Connection Event: Engagement and the Psychological Contract

Speaker(s):

Michael Wellin

Michael is a highly experienced and creative business psychologist who co-designs and leads organisation interventions to enhance business performance and make organizations better places to work in. Michael is Director of Business Transformation Ltd. ( www.businesstransform.co.uk) where he works mainly in the areas of organisation change and leadership development. He has particular experience of working with top management in professional service firms, IT, finance, engineering and government sectors. In 2007 Michael wrote ‘Managing the Psychological Contract’ which is published by Gower. Michael is a Chartered Psychologist with a BA in Social Psychology, and MSc in Human Resources.

Riccardo Peccei

Riccardo is Professor of Organisational Behaviour and Human Resource Management in the Department of Management at King’s College London. He received a B.A. in History from Harvard University and a B.Phil. and D.Phil. in Sociology from Oxford University. Before joining the Department of Management at King’s in 2000, he taught at the London School of Economics for nearly twenty years. He is currently a Visiting Research Fellow in the Department of Human Resource Studies at Tilburg University in the Netherlands. He has published widely in the fields of HRM and OB. His current research interests, within a multilevel perspective, are in the areas of HRM, employee well-being and organisational performance, the analysis of work and performance in the service sector, information disclosure and employee participation, and employee commitment at work.

Richard Gartside Group HRD at Balfour Beatty

Richard Gartside who has over 20 years’ experience in HR since completing an Economics degree at LSE in the late 80s. Richard began his career in the trade unions holding posts with both the Civil service union IPMS and the Banking Union BIFU before becoming the Adviser to the Select Committee on Employment. Since leaving the House of Commons in the mid 90s Richard has held a number of HR posts including the HRD for Europe, Africa and India for Ernst and Young, the Group HRD for VT Group and the Director of HR Strategy at Lloyds Banking Group.

Hugh Hood, HR Director, Organisation Development at BT PLC

Hugh Hood is Director of Organisation Development for BT Group. This pan-BT role integrates talent management and succession, learning and development, leadership development, organisation effectiveness, and development of the HR function itself.

A systems engineer and HR professional, Hugh’s career spans Defence, Finance, Transport, and Telecoms. Hugh joined BT in late 2006 having spent the previous decade defining and delivering major change for organisations and running the transformed organisations, systems and services. Between 2007 and 2010 at BT, Hugh was the HRD for the newly created BT Wholesale business, performing a key role on the Wholesale Executive Board in the turn around of the business and transformation to an increasingly successful client centric solutions business.

Previous roles to BT include Group HR Director and Director HR Transformation at Transport for London after its creation as an agency under the Mayor of London. He delivered the post merger integration and set up of the HR function. He was also previously Head of HR Service Operations and Head of HR transformation for Barclays bank, successfully delivering major change in HR service operations cost and capability.

Event details:

This is a London HR Connection event

London HR Connection is a Special Interest Group of Central London Branch, offering regular monthly events that offer great speakers on the hottest topics in the world of Human Resources. LHRC events are organised and run by the LHRC team and are separate from the CIPD Central London Branch event programme. These events are chargeable (cost for single event £35 + VAT, cost for six events £85 + VAT). Full details can be found on the London HR Connection website www.londonhr.org, under the Membership tab.

If you are interested in membership of LHRC, and/or in booking a place at this event please visit the website, or contact the LHRC membership coordinator by clicking the link below.

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A Panel-led debate hosted by the London HR Connection in conjunction with the London School of Economics.

“We want staff to perform miracles yet about half of UK organisations are ignoring expert advice and failing to give employee engagement the executive support it needs. CEOs aren’t listening to HR.” HR Magazine December 2010

Following the recent global financial crisis and the austerity measures put in place by the coalition to deal with the country’s debt, the current climate is making the subject of employee engagement a hot topic. This debate will examine the issues employers are dealing with in this climate of uncertainty, disillusionment and insecurity to secure the engagement and commitment of their employee base. In this context we will also be examining the role of the psychological contract in securing full engagement from the employer base. The term ‘psychological contract’ was first used in the early 1960s and remains popular today. It represents the mutual beliefs, perceptions and informal obligations between an employer and an employee and sets the dynamics for the relationship and defines the detailed practicality of the work to be done.

This event promises to be a lively debate with experts from academia, consultants and senior practitioners providing a wide range of perspectives on the challenges ahead for HR.

The event will be chaired by Paul Gollan, Associate Professor and Director of Research in the Dept of Business at Macquarie University in Australia and Visiting Professor in the Department of Management, LSE.

For more information:

• Email Denise Jones, London HR Connection Membership Advisor  

Contact phone number 07952 125 924