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HR Zone Members Newswire Issue 81
11 January 2005
http://www.hrzone.co.uk
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SITE HIGHLIGHTS **** SITE HIGHLIGHTS **** SITE HIGHLIGHTS ****
1. Feature: Employees’ ‘right to be consulted’
2. Editor’s Comment: Forty winks in 2005?
3. ‘Snake bites back at boss’ wins HRZone Competition
4. Lunch hour extinction ‘supersizes workers’
5. Any Answers: benchmarking, race equality, agency workers
SITE HIGHLIGHTS **** SITE HIGHLIGHTS **** SITE HIGHLIGHTS ****
******************* Featured sponsors *********************
Eversheds – Age Discrimination Conference
http://www.hrzone.co.uk/redirects/eversheds.html
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Editor’s note
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Jo Minns, HR Consultant at the Royal Bank of Scotland scoops the
top HRZone Christmas Party Clangers prize for her snake attack
on boss story.
Among the entries were tales of a bucking bronco trouser split,
CCTV recorded romance, bikini clad temps, 9pm watershed wipe
out, high jinks injuries, social faux pas, forgotten addresses
and a cancelled Christmas.
To see just what Minns got up to with that snake click here:
http://www.hrzone.co.uk/item/135337
HRZone would like to thank all entrants for revealing their most
embarrassing festive tales and innermost party secrets –
congratulations once again to our winner, enjoy the bubbly!
Regards,
Annie Hayes
Editor
mailto:editor@hrzone.co.uk
Welcome new members
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This week, HR Zone welcomes members from the following
organisations, among others, to the site:
The Fuller CV; Tyco Building Services Products; City Interim
Ltd; Marsh and Parsons; Expotel Hotel Reservations; St. George’s
Retreat; Nexant Limited; FedEE; IntroNet; Affinity Consultancy;
Eversheds; FWL Technologies Ltd; THINQ Learning Solutions;
Norwich Union; Royal Bank of Scotland; Clutterbuck Associates;
National Blood Service; Groupama Insurances; JPMorgan Chase &
Co; ScottishPower UK Plc; ING; The National Trust; Capita IHRS;
Spector Lumenex; Oxford University Library Services; Oracle
Corporation UK Limited; Countryside Agency; Executive Grapevine;
Royal Mail; London General Transport Services Ltd; GNER
Eversheds
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Age discrimination law will fundamentally change the way that
age is currently used as a criterion for making employment
decisions. With this in mind Eversheds has organised a second
Conference to examine the challenges this new law will pose to
employers. A diverse range of perspectives are covered and all
the speakers have personal experience of the issues employers
must contend with. To find out more please click here
http://www.hrzone.co.uk/redirects/eversheds.html
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Feature: Employees’ ‘right to be consulted’ – bosses take note
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For many bosses, employees should be seen but not heard. But
from this April those employers that believe staff shouldn’t
have a say in the running of the business could be in for a
shock.
http://www.hrzone.co.uk/item/135240
Editor’s Comment: Forty winks in 2005?
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A new survey shows that half of workers spend the night worrying
about work; Editor’s Comment asks whether we’ve lost sight of
the bigger picture.
http://www.hrzone.co.uk/item/135403
Lunch hour extinction ‘supersizes workers’
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Failure to allocate time to ‘lunch’ is having a toll on workers
waistlines as more and more reach for sugary snacks to plug the
hunger gap.
http://www.hrzone.co.uk/item/135442
Capital creeks under gender pay gap revelations
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New analysis shows that the yawning gender pay gap is widest in
London; on the issue the GMB warned that taking a back seat
would result in the ‘fight against poverty’ being lost.
http://www.hrzone.co.uk/item/135369
Workers give bosses GBP 4,650 for free
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The TUC claim that workers are doing themselves out of pay; on
average, employees who work unpaid overtime should earn GBP
4,650 for hours worked over and above their contracted
obligations.
http://www.hrzone.co.uk/item/135346
TUC and CBI in dogfight over ‘absence’ claims
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The TUC has lashed out at claims that UK workers are a nation of
skivers throwing dubious ‘sickies’ to get off work, sky-high
long-term absence figures are down to more stressful jobs in the
public sector they say; a claim refuted by the CBI.
http://www.hrzone.co.uk/item/135392
Any Answers answered: Benchmarking performance management
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Q – Has anyone got any suggestions or sources of benchmarking
that measures the HR contribution to performance management –
monitoring the prevention/cost/resolution of the more formal
side of things?
John Brown
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A – Benchmarking will tell you some interesting things in
general terms, not all of them might be useful. I suspect that
if you need to focus on the contribution your own HR function is
making to performance management you can and should look only
internally, except in finding some tools or techniques to help
you.
Knowing how much better or not you are compared to somebody else
may be answering the wrong questions for the key stakeholders in
your organisation. Benchmarking is not, in my experience, a
panacea.
Martin Schmalenbach
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http://www.hrzone.co.uk/item/135393
If you have a question – or can offer an answer – go to
http://www.hrzone.co.uk/anyanswers/
Any Answers
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Any Answers is the place to go to share your professional
experiences with others. A selection of new Any Answers
questions posted this week:
Michael Mallows is looking for tips and advice on training
public sector workers on Race Equality Impact Assessments.
http://www.hrzone.co.uk/item/135359
Agency workers: Nigel Bould wonders how to ‘get the square peg
in the square hole?’
http://www.hrzone.co.uk/item/135401
Lynn Middleton invite members to share their thoughts on
appraisal forms.
http://www.hrzone.co.uk/item/135390
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