Have standards collapsed across HR? Why are so many HR professionals confused about what their job is – and who is to blame for the mess?

Some shocking practice has been exposed recently, raising urgent questions about standards, ethics and legal compliance across the UK’s HR industry.

Are we seeing pockets of incompetence – or do the worst cases (such as Sandie Peggie and the Darlington nurses) point to rot so deep and widespread that it is now the competent HR professionals who are in the minority?

To explore these questions, Tanya de Grunwald is joined by Heeral Gudka, director of the DEI consultancy Convergent, and author of a white paper titled Freedom of Expression and Belief Conflicts are the New EDI Frontier.

Reflecting on their experiences at the UK’s biggest HR conference – the CIPD Festival of Work, in June – Tanya and Heeral conclude that robust debate and high-quality training has vanished, and been replaced by sponsor-driven content designed to generate income for the conference organisers, not to give HR professionals the challenging learning experience they need.

Perhaps most worryingly, Tanya and Heeral recall a shocking panel discussion at the conference about the Equality Act, where a CIPD staff member said the recent Supreme Court ruling (that ‘sex’ means biological sex, according to the law) ‘erodes trans rights,’ and creates confusion for employers. Then he made a flippant comment about ‘policing’ women’s toilets. 

And the lawyer on the panel – representing Lewis Silken – appeared to express similar confusion and incompetence.

No wonder this industry is in a muddle, if these are the people who have been appointed to set standards…

Enjoy the episode!

Heeral's company:Convergent https://convergentconsulting.org/

Heeral's white paper: Freedom Of Expression and Belief Conflicts Are The New EDI Frontier https://convergentconsulting.org/foe-paper/

CIPD panel discussion: What Would A Future Focussed Equality Act Look Like?Full recording: https://bit.ly/45jVC5A