Recruitment bias: would you hire the handsome fella first?
Despite good intentions, research has shown that a candidate’s looks can often bias the interview process – sometimes without the interviewer even realising it. So how can HR professionals avoid this situation and ensure their organisation is hiring the best person for the job? In today’s working environment we are increasingly aware of encouraging diversity […]
Have we got authenticity wrong?
What do successful leaders need more than anything? Well according to the Harvard Business Review in January 2015, “Authenticity has emerged as the gold standard for leadership.” Most leading companies provide programmes or coaching to develop “authentic leaders”. And reams of paper and internet columns have been devoted to describing what authenticity is and how you achieve […]
People management: how modern business culture is killing leadership
By undermining traditional social structures, organisations are harming both company performance and individual wellbeing. It’s no secret that there is a genuine issue today with culture and productivity, with leadership (or lack of it), with talent acquisition and also with people development. These issues are all of course, closely interlinked as they stem from the […]
Employee engagement: the new rules for 21st century teams
Creating a happy, loyal workforce without the need for beer and beanbags. There are many studies that have shown the commercial benefit to an organisation of happy workers – they stay in the job longer, work more efficiently and better together and take less stuff from the stationary cupboard. Spend time nosing through Glassdoor or […]
Scientific People Analytics: a look at Value Profiling
This article is the second in a four-part series exploring how Scientific People Analytics (SPA) can be used to support human capital decisions made by organisational managers. In order to understand how SPA can be used to guide and support management decision-making, it is necessary to look at why and how managers make human capital […]
The Pimlico Plumbers case: tipping the balance in favour of gig economy workers
Philip Richardson, Head of Employment Law at Stephensons, examines how the recent Pimlico Plumbers ruling will impact the rights of gig economy workers in the future. The recent decision by the Supreme Court in the case of Pimlico Plumbers vs Smith has been heralded as spelling the end of the gig economy and the casual […]
Find me a job Alexa! Recruitment with cloud-based voice services
Are cloud-based voice services the future of candidate engagement? Voice-based devices like Amazon Alexa and Google Home are opening up massive new opportunities for recruitment for corporates, agencies and jobs boards, as well as for candidates themselves. By 2020 it is predicted that the connected home market could be worth almost US$150 billion globally, and […]
Reputation management for HR professionals
A positive reputation is not just a ‘nice to have’ for HR professionals – it’s an essential requirement for effective leadership. You may not be in control of your reputation, but it impacts you in every conversation, every day. It might seem unfair and unreasonable, but it’s true. People form opinions about you quickly – […]
Managing the wellbeing needs of a multigenerational workforce
Demographic change is expected to significantly impact the UK labour market over the next two decades, and it’s not unusual today for an organisation to have five different generations working side by side. According to the CIPD, the pension crisis, growth in service industries, migration patterns and the expansion of university places are all […]
How to use technology to support healthy living and boost the employee experience
The essential elements of living a healthy, happy life have been consistent for years: move more, eat well, get some sleep and balance your life. Meanwhile the world of technology is evolving at a pace faster than most of us can keep up with. One area of huge interest is the question of how to […]
Appraisals: why employees should assess their manager’s performance
The traditional top-down assessment method is on its way out – today’s workplace needs a more nuanced approach to appraisals. The debate on annual appraisals is ongoing and for good reason; HR and managers are realising the benefit of continuous mutual dialogue throughout the year, and not just once at the end of it. HR […]
Recruitment and retention: How hospitality businesses can stay ahead during post-Brexit anxiety
Brexit will present significant challenges for staff recruitment and retention in the hospitality sector, but despite the uncertainty there are things that employers can do now to prepare for it. The hospitality sector is well known for its high staff turnover, which is on average around 30% a year, and its dependency on EU workers […]
Scientific People Analytics: are you in the know?
This article is the first in a four-part series explaining how to implement Scientific People Analytics (SPA). SPA is the application of the scientific method to people analytics as opposed to the non-scientific approaches currently used by most companies today. Part 1 of the series provides a rationale for using SPA. Part 2 explains why SPA […]
Recruitment tips: Three things you should know about hiring generation Z
If you thought generation Z were just mini-millennials, you were wrong. Recruiting from this talent pool requires a different set of tactics altogether. As the mother of two university students who have been applying for summer jobs and internships, I’ve recently been getting an earful about the recruiting process for entry-level work. My son Jacob, […]
Work/life balance: ditch the clichés
In an always-on world, can we really ever completely separate our work life from our personal life? Rather than striving for the impossible, is it better instead to take a more holistic approach to achieving better health and productivity in all aspects of our lives? Although many of us strive to achieve it, improve it, […]
HR calibration: how to make your HR teams work in sync
By applying the method of calibration to HR, policies can be implemented more effectively and teams can find harmony. Find out how to get started… HR policies, like employment law, can sometimes be ambiguous – this is not through poor writing or lack of clarity. It’s due to allowing scope for sensible and professional interpretation […]
Why new fathers are too scared to take paternity leave
Uptake of shared parental leave among new fathers is low. What’s holding men back from caring for their children? I recently read a troubling statistic, suggesting that as few as one in 50 men are taking advantage of a Government scheme designed to make it easier for new fathers to take paternity leave. The scheme […]
The era of employee experience: how AI and chatbots innovate HR
Companies have already started improving the customer experience using AI technology and now it’s time to utilise that technology to enable employee self-services as well. The next big tactical battleground, according to Gartner, Forbes and others, is employee engagement and improving employee experience (EX) with HR services. For a company to grow, it must invest […]
People management: making way for future employees
Automation and artificial intelligence might be changing how we do business, but it’s people who give businesses their edge. People are your greatest asset. This has been a buzzword in business for decades, but with technology displacing people from jobs and the spotlight increasingly on commodities, many business leaders are likely wondering, how much longer […]
“HR has a responsibility and a right to be the soul and purpose of the business.”
In an interview with Brian Kropp, Group Vice President in the HR Practice of Gartner, we explore the ways in which technology is transforming the HR industry – from the decline of the engagement survey to the rise of listening tools – and uncover how the HR function must adapt to remain purposeful within business. […]