HR technology: Is early adoption the key to success?

As with any industry, the impact of technology is being felt acutely across the employer provided benefits and pensions landscape. This raises a conundrum for employers of how to distinguish admin-cutting technology which facilitates streamlined best practice, from flash-in-the-pan gimmicks that will soon be superseded by more efficient innovation. Being an early adopter allows you to […]
Three fascinating studies on diversity you won’t have heard of

We’re writing loads of content on diversity in order to help organisations turn the dial, all collated in our diversity content hub. In this piece, we look at three interesting studies on diversity and the conclusions that were drawn. Study #1: Non-white or female bosses who push diversity are judged negatively by their peers and […]
We need to talk about race: why are we making so little progress on ethnic diversity?

We’re making significant progress with gender diversity in the workplace. Yet when it comes to race and ethnicity, advancements have been harder to see. Only 6% of top management jobs are held by black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) leaders. That is simply not good enough when you consider BAME groups make up 12% of […]
Employee perspectives: “I’m quietly hoping for a revolution.”

We wanted to take a look at how employees within the healthcare industry are coping with the NHS crisis – on top of what is already a very challenging sector to work in – and whether they feel HR is supporting them adequately in their role. In this anonymised interview, a registered NHS nurse and […]
Data-scraping social media for personality assessment: will this benefit HR?

Michal Kosinski, one of the leaders in personality assessment using social network activity linguistic analysis, has been making a series of interesting claims about the effectiveness of his approach. He has said that “with a mere ten ‘likes’ as input, his model could appraise a person’s character better than an average co-worker. With seventy, it […]
How leaders are silencing their people

This article was co-authored by Megan Reitz and John Higgins of Ashridge Executive Education. How confident are you that your team are telling you the things you really need to hear? If there was serious malpractice going on in the business, would employees speak up or would they remain silent? Are people on the front […]
Speaking truth to power: the empowering culture

This is one of the key findings to come out of research from Ashridge Executive Education which looks at the dynamics of ‘speaking truth to power’ and provides practical advice on how leaders can improve dialogue in their organisation. Leaders’ ability to manage the subtle nuances that influence why people speak up – or choose […]
Speaking truth to power: the adjudicated culture

This is one of the key findings to come out of research from Ashridge Executive Education which looks at the dynamics of ‘speaking truth to power’ and provides practical advice on how leaders can improve dialogue in their organisation. Leaders’ ability to manage the subtle nuances that influence why people speak up – or choose […]
Speaking truth to power: the directive culture

This is one of the key findings to come out of research from Ashridge Executive Education which looks at the dynamics of ‘speaking truth to power’ and provides practical advice on how leaders can improve dialogue in their organisation. Leaders’ ability to manage the subtle nuances that influence why people speak up – or choose […]
Speaking truth to power: the dialogic culture

This is one of the key findings to come out of research from Ashridge Executive Education which looks at the dynamics of ‘speaking truth to power’ and provides practical advice on how leaders can improve dialogue in their organisation. Leaders’ ability to manage the subtle nuances that influence why people speak up – or choose […]
Book review: Riding the Leadership Rollercoaster

HRZone has a range of books available for review. If you would like to receive one of our business books, free of charge, please contact the editor on editor at hrzone dot com and we can send you a list of what’s available. In return, we ask for a 400-700 word review of the book, […]
If you want to be a great leader, it pays not to be too smart

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 […]
Inclusion is the glue: 5 ways to create a holistic diverse and inclusive company

Corporate recruiters and headhunters spend an exorbitant amount of time and effort to recruit diverse talent. Even when organisations are serious about diversity– as with an ever growing number of companies – it is not enough to merely push for more diversity. By merely creating diverse teams without appropriate organisational and managerial interventions, companies run […]
Be yourself! Individualism in the workplace

The Plainspeak Analyst is Katherine Jones, Partner and Director of Talent Research at Mercer, the world’s largest human resources consulting firm. Her job is to design and deliver insight research and services to Mercer’s global clients. She was previously VP, Human Capital Management Technology Research at Bersin by Deloitte. She has a PhD in Curriculum and Instruction from Cornell University. […]
“Make diversity and inclusion a business topic, not just an HR topic.”

Melisa Waters is Group Head of Engagement, Culture, Diversity and Inclusion at AXA. Advancing gender parity at the senior level is a key priority for this global insurance company. Launched in 2014, its Sponsorship Tandem programme has been successful in helping talented women develop their skills to become the next generation of leaders. Melisa has […]
Employ disabled people: it makes sound business sense

Considering there are over 13 million disabled people and people with long-term health conditions in the UK, it makes good business sense for small and medium-sized businesses to not only tap into this consumer market – which has a spending power of over £80 billion – but also to recruit from this group, as the […]
It’s not just about toilets! How to make a trans and non-binary inclusive workplace

I am sitting on a hot train returning to London having just delivered another awareness and training session, with trans*formation (a network and advocacy group for Trans* professionals) reflecting on how it went. I was overjoyed by the questions from the audience, particularly because I hadn’t been asked about gender-neutral toilets. Far too often the discussion […]
“When seeking to address diversity and inclusion too much focus is placed on those who are ‘different’.”

Steven Cox has recently been appointed as Global Ambassador for Diversity & Inclusion at Fujitsu. Prior to this he was responsible for Fujitsu’s UK Public Sector and Transport Business and was part of the UK executive leadership team. We caught up with Steven to find out how he’s hoping to drive diversity and inclusion activities […]
“If people feel excluded, they will leave – it’s as simple as that.”

Carol Rosati OBE has recently joined The Chemistry Group as Champion of Diversity. She brings with her over 25 years of talent management experience and a passion for creating more inclusive workplaces. Becky Norman, Deputy Editor, HRZone: Can you tell us a bit about your past roles and how your extensive talent management knowledge will […]
Invest in women to beat tech’s diversity problem

You’d be hard pressed to find an HR professional who isn’t acutely aware of the diversity problems that the technology industry has. Everyday there’s another horror story and calls to ‘do more’ to get employees from more diverse backgrounds into technology-based companies and roles – often with few actionable solutions. The technology industry’s gender problem is matched by C-suites of all industries. Following […]