Q&A with: Wiltshire County Council's HRD

Barry Prie is HRD of Wiltshire County Council and head of the Public Sector People Managers Association (PPMA). He explains how austerity has led to innovation and creativity when approaching organisational change in the public sector. 

What unique challenges do People Managers in the public sector currently face?

As professionals we face the same strategic people priorities as our colleagues across the private and voluntary sectors. I think the main difference is the speed of change we have to work at is much higher than the private sector and that the level of efficiencies  we have to deliver in order to meet the deep financial cuts brought on by austerity is probably more challenging than you would typically find in the private sector. The additional challenge is that we work in political organisations and this brings its own interesting management and leadership dilemmas. Add to that the fact that we work with and consult with increased numbers of stakeholder groups in order to get our work done and you have a pretty challenging backdrop to our work.