It’s not personal, just business – reflections on the CIPD’s Essential Interpersonal Skills Course
You either earn a reputation, are given a reputation, or declared missing in action because no one knows what you do. So stop worrying about the rise of the robots as it’s people you have to impress. You can be a tough and resilient executive, but if you become too scary, those who fear you […]
No laptop, no desk, no phone – a disappointing welcome for 42% of the world’s new employees
A global survey of 4,000 employees from the UK, USA, Australia and New Zealand, has revealed companies fail to provide basic tools on day one. More than one in four (42%) said that they didn’t have a computer or laptop ready for them when they started. While the lack of a computer was the most […]
HR technology implementation: the Building Blocks
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 […]
How can organisations improve job quality?
There’s so much rich insight coming out of the academic sector that HR professionals need to know. At Academics’ Corner we feature the best HR researchers that tell you what they’ve found and what you need to do differently on the back of the research. Get connected to the academic sector through Academics’ Corner and […]
How big data can eliminate bias and elitism in candidate selection
Studies by the Social Mobility Commission have shown that the largest industries are failing to hire talented youngsters from less advantaged backgrounds because they recruit from a small pool of elite universities and hire those who fit in with the culture – still favouring middle- and higher-income candidates who come from a handful the country’s […]
Checking the facts: why background screening is crucial
We may be facing a skills shortage, but that doesn’t mean we should settle for subpar standards when hiring new candidates. Hiring talent is resource intensive and business critical. Although HR teams are under increasing pressure to recruit quickly to ensure the best people are not lost to other businesses – while also providing a […]
Employee mental health and wellbeing – are you doing enough?
With a recent national emphasis on mental health, UK employers have never had a better opportunity to start a conversation on this topic with their employees. And with 7 in 10 employees having experienced a condition that’s related to mental health – from stress to suicidal feelings – there couldn’t be a more important time to […]
Becoming a balanced leader – getting more yin for your yang
Debates about leadership often end up by contrasting different leadership styles, and inviting prospective leaders to detect which one suits them best and then build on it. Be true to yourself, the argument runs. There are numerous lists of styles to choose from: a recent piece in Forbes argued for four of them; Daniel Goleman […]
Creating a work-life balance: Why flexibility needs to be a two-way street
This is particularly true of graduates, who want to stay on top of their work in order to impress their peers. But as we get older and ‘real life’ gets in the way, our responsibilities change. Naturally, your attention is expected elsewhere, beyond the confines of the office walls. Balancing work with home life can […]
The ‘datafication’ of HR – how will this impact reward?
To date, those of you who have adopted compensation management technology have probably done so to gain operational efficiency. Reducing time spent on repetitive administrative tasks such as data calibration and spreadsheet reconciliation, whilst benefiting from improved data integrity and security together with a clear audit trail, have been the key buying reasons to date. […]
Three strategies businesses should adopt to retain talent
More than a third of HR directors have seen employee turnover steadily increase in the last three years according to recent research by recruitment firm Robert Half. The research suggests that despite companies investing time, money and effort into keeping their workforce happy, they are still struggling to retain talent. What do employees value most from […]
Leadership development challenge: implementing AI in the workplace
As Artificial Intelligence (AI) enters the workplace, business leaders need new skills to rise to the challenges and opportunities presented by this disruptive new technology. Task automation is a key area for AI applications. Roles traditionally thought of as requiring a high level human intellect are now being automated. The legal profession is seeing such […]
Anti-bullying week 2017: stopping the timer on workplace bullying
What constitutes workplace bullying? The most likely things that come to mind are threatening, abusive or patronising behaviours at work. Increasingly, these behaviours are reinforced by email or online work forums, and may even continue outside of work on social media sites. This all constitutes workplace bullying, but what is less spoken of is the workplace […]
Digital understanding: “This is not optional. We need to own it.”
HRZone reports on the key takeaways from Baroness Martha Lane Fox’s keynote at the CIPD Annual Conference 2017 in Manchester in November 2017. In her opening keynote, Martha Lane Fox spoke about her profound journey through digital. In 1997, when she cofounded lastminute.com she was dealing with a general consensus among society that the internet was […]
“People analytics teams must balance partnerships with technology vendors and with HRBPs.”
Nicky Clement, VP HR, Organisation Effectiveness & People Analytics at Unilever, spoke at the CIPD’s annual conference about making your people analytics function successful. She said that employees are a ‘strong base’ for data-driven organisations, because “we don’t have to buy datasets on customers. We have the data there. We can survey employees and ask […]
Why HR can’t rely on best practice anymore – part 2
In part one of this two-part thought piece, I questioned the applicability of HR’s use of best practice as a viable way to serve the needs of organisations. I am seeing time and time again that a number of disruptive market trends are driving the chasm between organisational strategy and HR’s mainstream approach further and further […]
Equal Pay Day 2017: How to close the gender pay gap in your company
The 10th November marks this year’s Equal Pay Day, when women in the UK effectively start working for free until 2018 because of the gender pay gap. Despite equal pay regulations being established last century, the gender pay gap still stands at 26.8% today, according to CMI. The pay gap is a historic issue that stems […]
HR – no longer the poor relation of the business
Increasingly, the business expects HR to deliver tangible commercial results. So why then, has HR played the poor relation for so long when it comes to investment in new tools and technologies? Every other department – from marketing to finance – seems to win the case for specialist tech. It’s time for a little queue barging from […]
Sorting the Stakeholders: Who is Who in HR Tech
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 […]
Why HR can’t rely on best practice anymore – part 1
We’ve seen for years now that what makes HR work in our current and future roles is the ability to be commercial, stay curious and be bold in following these things through. However, how many of us can actually say that we do this? There are some shining pockets of practice, but for the most […]
