Onboarding for empowerment: how to create a diverse, thriving workforce from day 1

Fun fact: companies that rank in the top quartile for ethnic and cultural diversity are 35% more likely to produce above-average profits when compared to organisations with low diversity. And organisations that are gender diverse are 15% more likely to be profitable. Even funner fact: several studies have demonstrated that diverse workforces lead to better […]

Domestic violence: Why employers should be tackling this silent, pervasive issue

Research launched in November 2017 showed that only one in 20 medium and large UK organisations have a specific policy or guideline to cover domestic abuse among their workforce. Yet the latest Office for National Statistics figures on domestic violence estimate that almost two million UK adults have experienced some sort of domestic abuse in […]

2 minutes with… Helen Williams, HR Leader, Statoil

Helen Williams is HR Leader at Statoil, working within Corporate People and Leadership. She works with leadership development, professional development and performance management and was previously HR Manager at the Tate Museum. Helen will be speaking at UNLEASH 2018 in London on March 20th and 21st. HRZone readers get a 20% discount to UNLEASH by registering through […]

Financial wellness: what will drive demand in 2018?

In 2017, the financial wellness market exploded as more employers grasped the extent of the UK’s problem and how it impacts both the productivity and health of their people. A quarter of respondents (27.5%) to our latest research (The Financial Wellness Playbook 2018) reported that levels of financial stress in their organisation were greater than […]

Auto-enrolment: the great British success story. But how do we maintain the momentum?

The pensions experiment launched by the Government nearly six years ago has become a great British success story.  Nine million people are now saving into a workplace pension, which in many ways is a huge achievement in combating a looming savings crisis. This month marks a significant milestone in auto-enrolment policy, with the end of […]

The Go-Live Milestone: Getting it out there!

In our 12-part series, Kate Wadia – Managing Director at Phase 3 Consulting – guides the HR professional through how to navigate, succeed and lead with HR tech project-work. From the inception of the business case to the handover into BAU, we’ll follow an indicative project timeframe to explain the way and the why of a project step-by- step, […]

Women still await their seat at the law firm partnership table

Joanne Losty, recruitment director and part of the executive team at Excello Law, explores the extent to which gender inequality at a senior level continues to permeate through the law sector, and the critical need for cultural change in order to tackle this. Women in law firms will not achieve parity with men at a […]

Improving pensions engagement: what’s HR’s role in 2018?

One of the growing areas of concern for HR professionals is how financially prepared their employees are for retirement. Typically, lack of employee interest in pensions and savings is a major challenge. HRs face a fresh hurdle this year as the minimum contribution required for qualified schemes s rising from 6 April – a move […]

Benefits uptake: are you doing enough?

Providing employee benefits serves many purposes for organisations including motivation, retention and recruitment of staff. They’re also an important part of building an employee centric culture, where staff feel valued and looked after. There’s plenty of evidence that they matter a great deal to staff too.  Research by CV Library shows that 62% of employees […]

GDPR compliance: practical steps to take control of your HR data

The new GDPR legislation, which becomes law on May 25th, impacts virtually every aspect of how you manage HR data – from the basis on which you collect it to when it needs to be deleted. The practical implications of some aspects of the legislation will need further clarification; such as the ‘right to be […]

Family friendly benefits under threat from new gender pay rules

Despite new rules propelling the gender pay gap into the spotlight, Sodexo Engage’s Iain McMath believes employers must continue to fly the flag for family-friendly benefits to help working parents. The countdown is on; by April, businesses with 250 or more employees will have to publish their gender pay gap in a move that’s likely […]

Pensions communications: change the what, not the how

How can we improve our organisation’s pension communication? The aim of this article is not about making a case for better pension communication. That shouldn’t be difficult. Put simply, from an employer perspective, poor pension communication will make it less likely that members will understand their company’s pension offering. And without understanding, it is unlikely […]

Pensions communication: helping employees differentiate between DC and DB

Pension promises have changed over the last few years. Not many employees are still building up a guaranteed benefit based on a fraction of their salary multiplied by years of service – known as a defined benefit (‘DB’) pension. Most new employees are now automatically enrolled into workplace pension schemes that offer defined contribution (‘DC’) […]

Benefits take-up – the why of getting it right

The employee benefits market in the UK is highly developed. Employees have been getting support with living and welfare costs from their employers since the 1950s and I don’t see it changing. Increasingly, benefits are supplementing or replacing State support which is the most significant macro change in the landscape in recent years. Employee engagement, […]

HR technology: Talking about Training and Communications

In this 12-part series, Kate Wadia – Managing Director at Phase 3 Consulting – guides the HR professional through how to navigate, succeed and lead with HR tech project-work. From the inception of the business case to the handover into BAU, we’ll follow an indicative project timeframe to explain the way and the why of a project […]

“When I was told that I would never walk or talk again it put fire in my belly.”

In the BBC 2 series Employable Me, a programme that follows people with disabilities as they attempt to find work, Speakers Corner opens up a public speaking career for disabled businessman Andy Ibbott. Below, HRZone speaks to Andy about his inspirational journey to recovery and reemployment, and with Managing Director of Speakers Corner Nick Gold […]

Will we see you at Unleash 2018 in London?

Unleash 2018 in London, previously HR Tech World, brings together themes around people performance, technology and cutting-edge HR practice to deliver a programme of speakers and insights to help HR professionals wanting to shape the future of the profession and perform better in the face of a changing world. It takes place on March 20th […]

The Good Work plan: has any real action been taken to improve employment rights?

The HR Dept has been calling for a long time for a simplification of employment status, to protect rights and ensure that business owners do not fall foul of legislation due to ignorance, confusion or bad business advice, giving evidence to a Parliamentary Select Committee last year. Like many, we have witnessed the blatant circumnavigation of […]

2018 HR trends: what’s in store for the industry this year?

HR is changing its focus from automation to business impact and engagement, and that is where we are headed in 2018. We saw the growth of HR analytics in 2017, as well as the use of technology to enhance how companies use their employee data. Organisations now have the tools to make a business impact, […]

How HR can help close the gender savings gap

Despite the 1970 Equal Pay Act and 2010 Equality Act, women today still earn about 10% less per hour than men. Policy is changing, driven by years of activism, enlightenment and regulatory changes, including the April 2018 mandate on gender pay gap reporting, but progress is slow. The pay gap is the red flag at the […]