Personnel non grata

Some academics at Queen Mary, University of London were less than impressed with a document sent out by the HR department, titled The People Strategy 2006/8 . It includes plans to create "career families", which would "cover all roles and help staff understand what they need to do to progress through their relevant career structure. The college will engage the energy and commitment of staff through its culture and systems."

One academic said: "This is the sort of thing that HR are doing to make themselves very busy. It wouldn't be so bad if they actually cared as much as they are trying to portray."

diary@thes.co.uk