HR skills and capabilities: making sure HR analytics benefits the business
HR analytics requires more than just data and technology—organizations need skilled professionals across multiple roles to translate insights into business value. HR business partners play a critical role in consulting with stakeholders to define problems in business terms, communicating findings, and bridging HR with other functions for integrated solutions. Success depends on communication, influence, and understanding the analytics process alongside domain expertise.
How will data and analytics change the legal sector?
Data and analytics are transforming the legal sector by automating client checks, enabling intelligent pricing tools, and using AI to analyze vast amounts of structured and unstructured data faster. These technologies will accelerate service delivery, improve proposal creation, and help law firms identify market opportunities proactively.
Why mothers are paid 3% less at work per child
Research on French private sector workers reveals mothers earn approximately 3% less per hour for each child compared to childless female colleagues, while fathers face no such penalty. This “motherhood penalty” reflects gender inequality in the workplace and suggests human capital depreciation plays a significant role in wage disparities.
Women are more suited to leadership, but find it harder to reach the top
Research shows women score higher in four of five key leadership traits, yet remain underrepresented in senior management roles. While women excel in communication, innovation, and goal-setting, they face barriers in high-pressure industries that resist flexible work practices and career progression support.
Reality bites: when culture and brand don’t align
Research reveals a significant disconnect between organizational brand values and employee understanding, with 64% of workers lacking clarity on company purpose. When senior marketing and HR leaders fail to align on brand messaging and culture, the gap between external promises and internal execution undermines reputation and sales performance.
HR data and GDPR: what you need to know about consent (and why not to rely on it)
GDPR imposes stricter rules on HR data processing, but relying on employee consent is misleading and problematic. Due to the power imbalance in employment relationships and the regulation’s strict consent requirements, employers should instead rely on legitimate legal grounds like contractual necessity and legal obligations to process employee data.
The insidious problem of men not taking parental leave, resilience and the mental stress of Brexit
Men avoid parental leave due to fears it will damage their careers, research shows. Organizational culture that penalizes flexibility and job insecurity from Brexit compound these concerns. Addressing workplace stigma around caregiving is essential to improve male participation in family responsibilities.
How HR can lead digital transformation
HR is uniquely positioned to lead digital transformation by bridging technology and culture across organizations. With cross-functional oversight and responsibility for employee engagement, HR can drive both the strategic technology shift and the cultural changes necessary for successful digitalization, while positioning itself as a value-add function beyond traditional cost-center operations.
How to make your flexible benefits system a success
Flexible benefits systems help UK organizations attract and retain top talent while managing costs. Web-based platforms make these schemes accessible to small and medium-sized companies, allowing employees to understand their total compensation and customize benefits to suit their lifestyle.
What’s the difference between winning a gold and silver medal? Self-awareness…
At the Olympic level, the difference between gold and silver medals can be just centimeters. According to performance experts, self-awareness in coaches and athletes—not just training facilities or nutrition—is the key performance multiplier that separates medal winners from the rest.
Treading on eggshells? Autism in the workplace
Employing autistic spectrum employees can enrich workplace culture and improve communication, but requires personalized support to succeed. With proper accommodations and reframed strategies, autistic workers can thrive while organizations tap into a diverse, underutilized talent pool.
Getting beyond “one-and-done” in performance management
Organizations are shifting performance management from annual reviews to continuous conversations focused on development and career preparedness. A recent Mercer study found 88% of companies globally changed their approach in 2016, with 64% of employees now having career conversations with managers at least twice yearly.
The dark side of marginal gains, interrogating your inner voice & the nature of persistence
Psychologist John Amaechi explores how persistence relies on delayed gratification and completing mundane tasks, why personal growth feels daunting, and how to help people discover their own wellbeing rather than imposing definitions on them.
Public sector engagement: personality and employer branding
Employer branding shapes how public sector employees perceive their organizations and directly impacts engagement and retention. Using personality-based assessments, organizations can uncover whether employees view them as supportive and visionary or confused and bureaucratic—revealing the gap between external brand promise and internal employee experience.
Public sector engagement: workplace tensions and job pressure
Public sector employees face mounting job pressure and workplace tension due to budget cuts and resource shortages. Since 2010, local authority spending has declined by 37%, forcing staff to manage excessive workloads with fewer resources, affecting service quality and employee wellbeing.
Public sector engagement: the role of conversational practice
Based on an innovative and forward-thinking whitepaper, this blog series highlights several key parts of how a new empoyment deal for public sector staff could revitalise the sector and tackle disengagement. The TEDD® model views the organisation as a ‘conversational arena’, recognising the importance of day-to-day conversations between managers and their team in managing performance. Such […]
Public sector engagement: what should employees be contributing?
Public sector employees contribute job engagement, capability, and organizational commitment to their roles, but disengagement persists despite seemingly positive engagement scores. Research reveals that true engagement involves psychological presence, competence, and quality conversations with managers—factors that significantly impact performance and retention.
Public sector engagement: what should employers offer to employees?
Public sector employers must strengthen their psychological contract with employees by offering training, development, fair treatment, and job security. As budget constraints increase workloads without proportional rewards, employers risk disengagement and talent loss unless they communicate clearly and manage employee expectations during organizational change.
An introduction to our blog series: developing a new employment deal for local government
This blog series explores the Employment Deal Diagnostic (TEDD®), a model that conceptualizes the employment relationship as a balanced exchange between employer and employee. Drawing on academic research, the series examines how quality employment relationships are shaped by contributions, conversational practices, and workplace dynamics in local government.
Mental health at Crossrail, the ROI of wellbeing and wellbeing optimism
Crossrail’s mental health programme is breaking workplace taboos in construction by encouraging open conversations and training wellbeing champions. The initiative addresses growing mental health challenges while demonstrating how organizational pride and tailored interventions drive meaningful health outcomes across diverse workforces.
