Human Resource Management students benefit from Management Research Report conference

(L-R) Anne Gennard, wife of the late Professor John Gennard, Dennis Nickson, Kirsty Black (student), Rosie Stelfox (student), Laura Napier (student), Douglas Carrick (student) and Peter Cheese, CEO of CIPD

The Department of Human Resource Management recently had its annual Management Research Report (MRR) conference for its Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) accredited full-time MSc in Human Resource Management. For the first time this year there were also students from the MSc in International Human Resource management presenting at the conference in a special stream on challenges in managing internationally. Students on the CIPD programme do an individual report, whilst those on the MSc in IHRM do a group report.

During the conference the students presented findings from their research reports produced by working within an organisation to investigate a 'live' people management issue or problem and to suggest realistic and appropriate recommendations based on costed options. As well as presenting their findings to their peers, in the audience were also a number of representatives from many of the organisations that provided placements to facilitate the reports. For the MSc in HRM the three highest marked reports are presented to a final plenary session of all of the conference attendees and are recognised with the John Gennard Prize for academic excellence.

(L-R) : Professor Tom Baum (Director of the MSc in IHRM), Gauri Bhole (student), Sarah Bell (student) Krittima Suphaphet (student) and Dennis Nickson

Following the student presentations there was a presentation from the guest speaker for the day, Peter Cheese, the CEO of CIPD. He gave a keynote address which highlighted to students that this was a challenging and exciting time to be going into the HR profession. In addition to Peter Cheese, other CIPD attendees included, John McGurk, Head of CIPD Scotland; Donald Gordon, Chair of CIPD Scotland; and George Galloway, Chair of the West of Scotland CIPD branch.

Professor Dennis Nickson, head of the department of Human Resource Management, was full of praise for the students for their efforts, saying, "This event showcases the excellent work done by our students in demonstrating their ability to work with an organisation to address often challenging HR issues. We were also delighted to have such a high profile speaker in Peter Cheese. His excellent keynote address really challenged the students in considering some of the key issues facing HR professionals, whilst also highlighting the great opportunities to newly graduating students. I was also particularly pleased that Peter attended for the full conference, sitting in on the presentations by the students and later tweeting how much he enjoyed the event."