I was fascinated to see in the CIPD’s annual pay survey that 57 per cent of public-sector workers still expect a pay rise in 2010 despite the overwhelmingly gloomy signals about the state of the nation’s finances.

This expectation is linked to our recent decision at Ealing, Hammersmith and West London College (where I chair the governing body) to tell staff that we have not yet decided whether we can afford to make a pay rise for this academic year. One response to the principal contained these words:

“This information came as something of a surprise and, like many staff on moderate incomes, I will now have to readjust to having less money than I was ‘sure’ that I had.”

I think the implied rebuke that we might have communicated our thoughts a little earlier is fair, but the response confirms my belief that we were right to upset any lingering expectations that there would certainly be a pay rise. There may yet be a pay rise, but balancing our books this year is a real challenge and we fear more instability before the year is out, whoever wins the election, as the government struggles to manage its books and adjusts the college budget accordingly. I don’t want any of the college’s staff to build their plans on the expectation of a pay rise: we have a duty to be straight with them.

Helping staff to adapt to changing reality, especially when that new reality is less comfortable than the old one, is a key part of what we do as leaders and managers - and a key part of the job of HR.