The Department of Human Resource Management recently partnered with The Ghost Partnership, a leading-edge HR consultancy, to give their students the opportunity to attend the HR Network Dinner. The dinner is the premier event for HR professionals in Scotland, attracting over 700 attendees. The students were given the opportunity to attend the dinner by entering a competition devised by The Ghost Partnership. Teams had to choose a UK based organisation with 500+ employees and develop a business case to support the corporate rhetoric that ‘people are our greatest asset’. As part of the challenge, students had to consider issues such as how to promote HR as a driver of value rather than a cost centre and identify and prioritise the core skills and behaviours required in senior HR roles for the future. The teams presented their findings to senior partners from The Ghost Partnership, John Nicholson and Alan Crozier, in a Dragons-Den style meeting. The winning team of Laura Hall and Caitlin Simpson are pictured above with Andrew Cooksey (from The Ghost Partnership) and Nick Prentice (a communications consultant who works with The Ghost Partnership).
Professor Dennis Nickson, head of the Department of Human Resource Management was full of praise for the students’ efforts in engaging with the competition: TThis is the second year that we have run this competition in conjunction with The Ghost Partnership and it presents a fabulous opportunity for our students. We are very grateful to The Ghost Partnership for providing this unique opportunity and also for engaging so enthusiastically with the students who enter the competition.
“Several teams entered the competition and it was a very difficult task for John and Alan to pick a winning team, such was the quality of the presentations. All in all, it’s a great learning experience for all the students who entered the competition as well as allowing the winning team to not only enjoy the dinner but to network with a range of leading HR figures.”