HR profession: Extending our reach

"Yes it has been a tough 12 months, but we’ve navigated it well,” says the CIPD’s chief executive – adding, with an emphasis that makes it clear this is an article of faith for her, “because we planned well.”I’m interviewing Jackie Orme in the institute’s central London office, a single floor with half-a-dozen rooms in a shared building near Victoria station. Although it’s mid-August, the place is buzzing. There’s a short course being held in one room, a policy meeting in another, and I have a slot in a typical Orme schedule of back-to-back meetings. No sign of an economic slump here, or even of a midsummer lull.