Profile

Chris Mannion

Role: Senior HR Officer
Department: Specialist Services and Learning Disabilities Directorates

Chris completed his degree in psychology at the University of Leeds and joined the NHS graduate scheme following several years in retail management. During his time on the scheme he has worked at Harrogate & District Hospital, enjoyed a two month placement at an office of employment law solicitors and most recently have been based at Leeds Partnerships NHS Foundation Trust (LPFT). During this time he has been involved in a diverse range of projects and work ranging from managing employee relations cases and developing policies and procedures through to higher level projects such as working with a HR Director to help them develop their strategy for the coming years.

LPFT is the main provider of mental health and learning disability services to the people of Leeds and it's surrounding areas and is also Chris's first NHS employer as he leaves the scheme. In his new role as Senior HR Officer he is responsible for providing HR support to the Specialist Services and Learning Disabilities Directorates. Usually this means supporting managers with absence management, disciplinary and grievance matters. In addition to this he is lead on a number of projects such as developing a HR telephone helpdesk and preparing a bid for funds to help us improve staff engagement. This role will help him to consolidate the skills and knowledge he have gained from the scheme and will hopefully be a good way to adjust to 'non-scheme' life whilst he also looks to finish his Masters dissertation on clinical leadership. His long term ambition is to be a HR Director and as part of achieving that goal he wants in the future to spend some time working for the Department of Health and in a general management role.

Transcript

Hi everybody, my name's Chris and I joined the scheme in 2007 as a HR Trainee, I have just moved onto my first course following the scheme and have been asked to talk to you a little bit about some of the work I got involved in, about the scheme in general and hopefully that will help you decide whether its right for you.

The scheme is very broadly split into 3 placements. The first placement is within an NHS organisation, second placement is a flexi-placement that you get to negotiate; and you get to go out in or out of the NHS depending on what you want to achieve, so for me that involved working in an office of employment solicitors and then for the third placement back into an NHS organisation again.

So back to first placement, first thing you do is an orientation, you'll meet some of the staff, you'll meet some of the patients, you'll watch some services being delivered, and you'll get an understanding of what goes on behind the scenes.

Then you move into your HR Department, and you'll get involved in working alongside some of the recruitment teams, some of the Administrators understanding what they do, and then very quickly though you'll move on and get involved in more complex pieces of work, employer relations cases, project work and as time goes on the level of work you get involved in will increase in complexity.

You'll work with all different people at all different levels of the organisation, I've carried out work alongside the HR Director and I've had access to senior people, the Chief Executive and other members of the Trust Board. It's a very interesting experience and you learn lots doing it.

All along, in the background to this studying towards your professional qualification, you're undergoing lots of development activities, and getting you ready to make sure you are in a good place for when you are applying for the first job at the end of the scheme.

It's a very intensive two years, lots going on but something that I really enjoyed and something I would definitely recommend, good luck.