Will talent be attracted and retained by a social conscience?
Millennials are increasingly prioritizing companies with strong social and environmental values over higher salaries. Research shows 76% wouldn’t join companies with poor reputations, while 45% would accept lower pay for meaningful impact work, making corporate social responsibility key to attracting and retaining talent.
Three strategies for managing anxiety in the workplace
Workplace anxiety affects over half a million people in Great Britain, causing millions of lost workdays annually. This article explores three practical strategies—avoiding multitasking, nourishing your body with healthy foods, and maintaining resilience—to manage stress and anxiety at work.
Tekken 7 vs. Pin-Drop Syndrome: who should be in charge of office volume?
Open-plan offices risk becoming too quiet, discouraging natural conversation and harming workplace culture. Moderate noise levels around 70-80dB can actually improve creative performance, while excessive silence makes unexpected sounds jarring and creates communication barriers among staff.
Book review: Radical Candor: How to be a Great Boss without Losing your Humanity
Radical Candor explores how managers can combine caring personally with challenging directly to become better leaders. Kim Scott’s framework helps bosses avoid ruinous empathy, manipulative insincerity, and obnoxious aggression while fostering genuine feedback cultures. This practical guide appeals to HR professionals and business leaders seeking more authentic, effective management approaches.
5 common subtypes of Pure OCD
Pure OCD attaches to a person’s deepest fears through intrusive, obsessive thoughts that intensify with mental effort. This article explores five common Pure OCD subtypes, including relationship OCD (ROCD), sexual orientation obsessions (HOCD), and others that cause sufferers to seek constant reassurance and engage in compulsive behaviors.
Data-driven recruitment means saying goodbye to traditional recruitment metrics
Traditional recruitment metrics like time-to-hire and cost-per-hire are easy to measure but often fail to capture what truly matters: hiring quality. Data-driven recruitment requires shifting focus to quality-based analytics that reflect actual hiring performance rather than just speed and expense.
“LGBT people still get a raw deal.”
Despite 50 years since partial decriminalization, LGBT people still face inequality in workplaces and beyond. Dr. Siobhan Martin, Mercer’s HR Director, advocates for inclusive dialogue and practical initiatives like “Coming Out as an Ally” events to drive organizational fairness and cultural change.
Pure OCD: Why don’t we know about it?
Pure OCD affects over 50% of people with obsessive-compulsive disorder but remains largely unknown because sufferers experience mental compulsions rather than visible behaviors like checking or washing. Limited media coverage and sufferers’ reluctance to discuss intrusive thoughts contribute to widespread misunderstanding of this debilitating condition.
What does your favourite emoji say about you?
Your favorite emoji reveals insights about your personality and communication style. While the laughing-tears emoji is statistically most popular, emojis serve as a universal language to soften text-based communication and convey emotion that words alone cannot express.
Dynamic working: Flexibility for the next generation of worker
Flexible working is no longer just a perk for parents—it’s now a standard expectation for younger workers. Generation FL-X (millennials and Gen Z) increasingly demand flexible policies as a prerequisite for employment, making it essential for UK businesses to embrace dynamic working to attract and retain top talent.
Should I tell my boss I have OCD?
Deciding whether to tell your boss about OCD depends on your individual circumstances and how the condition affects your work performance. Consider whether your compulsions impact your job and what specific support you need from your employer before disclosing.
Seven dos & don’ts for writing an attractive entry-level job description
Simplify entry-level job descriptions by explaining jargon, avoiding unnecessary acronyms, and using clear language. Business in the Community offers seven practical tips for employers to make job postings more accessible to young people seeking their first career opportunity.
Book review: Enhancing Employee Engagement: An Evidence-Based Approach
This book review examines an evidence-based guide to enhancing employee engagement, evaluating its practical value for HR directors and business professionals. The 137-page volume presents a nuanced engagement model centered on meaningfulness, HR practices, and performance management, though the reviewer notes it combines valuable actionable insights with repetitive narrative and problematic elements.
My journey from IT to wellbeing with Parkinson’s disease
Paul Heywood achieved his lifelong goal of becoming an IT Director at a FTSE100 company, only to be diagnosed with early-onset Parkinson’s disease at 48. He shares his journey through the diagnosis, recovery, and his transition to founding Halcyon Life, a corporate wellbeing and resilience programme.
How the end of jobs could liberate future generations
As automation threatens 80-90% of jobs, governments may need to implement Universal Basic Income and services to support displaced workers. A post-job society could liberate human creativity and innovation if basic needs are met through expanded social safety nets.
A day in the life of: “I try to plan late afternoon meetings where I can to mix my day up, so I’m not on my laptop most of the day!”
Laura Haynes, HR Director at a FinTech company, shares her daily routine balancing on-site client work with consultancy. She prioritizes tackling complex tasks during peak energy hours, takes breaks away from her desk, and schedules afternoon meetings to reduce laptop time and improve posture.
How best to support small businesses with their HR challenges
Small businesses, which account for nearly half of UK employment, rarely have HR specialists and struggle to identify best practices. A national pilot project delivering free, tailored HR support from consultants significantly boosted small employers’ confidence in productivity and workplace relations.
Why do UK workers feel undervalued and what can HR do?
A recent ADP study found that 70% of UK workers would leave for a minimal salary increase, with two-thirds feeling undervalued and lacking purpose at work. HR can address this by investing in employee recognition, fostering workplace connections, and maintaining open communication during onboarding and beyond.
“Wellbeing is about managing the energy of the organisation needed for it to perform.”
Organizational wellbeing requires managing employee energy to drive performance. Unilever’s approach embeds wellbeing into strategy through clear frameworks, leadership accountability, and accessible support tools, ensuring the agenda survives leadership transitions and becomes fundamental to business success.
Four lessons from recruitment for mobile HR
Mobile-optimized HR processes enable organizations to collect meaningful employee data instantly and make better talent decisions. By integrating HR systems and leveraging mobile technology—lessons learned from mobile recruitment—companies can create frequent employee dialogues that promote agility and continuous improvement while remaining compatible across all devices.
