Organisational development practitioners: beware the silver bullets
Delegates of my facilitated interventions sometimes express a view that what I do is some kind of 'magic'. They reflect on their experience of me not having said much, asking a few questions, getting them talking and, as a result, them experiencing moments of clarity and deepened relationships. I see these observations as a sign […]
Feedback: the gift that keeps on giving
Stuart Duff, head of development at business psychologists Pearn Kandola, shares his thoughts on the challenges of giving feedback and managing performance. Providing feedback: A leader’s greatest challenge? Feedback. It’s a hot topic across all industries. But still key for a business to progress and for employees to act effectively and develop. There are many ways […]
“Having a company priority focused so heavily on people and engagement is a great privilege”
Taking on a new role is as challenging as it is exciting. In this series we will be talking to HR professionals who are getting to grips with a new job and finding out what attracted them to the role, as well as what their key priorities are for the months ahead. Want to tell us about […]
HR then and now: how a decade has changed the workplace
In daily life, it’s easy to get caught up in the day-to-day issues and miss the bigger trends. Consider the many changes that have happened in the past ten years: in 2006, there was no iPhone, Twitter was still in development, Facebook’s user base consisted mostly of hip college students, and Disney and Pixar were […]
A snowball started rolling: lessons from Norway about gender quotas on boards
What are the main lessons that we can learn from the Norwegian women quota for corporate boards? The quota was introduced in 2002. In most countries in Europe the number of women on boards today are several times higher than it was in 2002. This is illustrated by the EU statistics displayed in the graph below. How […]
The state of family-friendliness in UK financial services
Over the last few years, academics and professionals alike have been documenting the gradual shift toward more flexible ways of working, in part facilitated by an evolution of Government legislation. Research has shown that flexible work can improve staff retention, improve morale and increase productivity. However, the definition of flexible working is broad and ill-defined […]
The grey area of the parent trap and the failure of work to tackle it
I’m going to make a bit of a generalisation and say that there are really only two ways of working in our society. One way is task-orientated and the other way is clock-based. You can imagine this as the difference between a freelancer’s life and an office worker’s life. Task-orientated work If you’ve ever worked […]
Family-friendly workplaces: the role of mental wellbeing
Mind urges employers to create mentally healthy workplaces by tackling the causes of work-related stress and poor mental health at work, supporting members of staff experiencing a mental health problem, and promoting wellbeing for all employees. Workplace wellbeing initiatives can benefit all employees, including parents with mental health problems. Mental health problems can affect anyone, […]
What can organisations do to stop older workers disengaging from the workforce?
Early retirement: facts, forces, and erroneous solutions The ageing workforce is creating unprecedented challenges for organizations and governments. By 2030 the number of people aged over 55 in high-income countries will have grown to 500 million. However, it can also present opportunities for policy makers and employers. PricewaterhouseCoopers suggested that “the ageing workforce offers a […]
Taking one for the team: why it’s time to ditch the dogma of individual rewards
For the past ten years, I have been interested in the area surrounding how and why employees at work are rewarded for their results. This has led me to think about the conventional approach of rewards, and how they are at odds with desirable behaviour. More and more, organisations are aiming for teamwork to improve performances […]
Looking ahead in 2017: What will be trending in HR tech?
In 2016 we saw disruption and change in the UK market for HR systems, and 2017 looks to be the same. But change – and in particular, adoption rates – for new people technology is more cloud than blue sky. Few ideas come totally out of that blue and we can therefore find some pretty good clues about what […]
Soft skills analysis: Theresa May
It can’t be easy to be Theresa May. The comparisons to Thatcher, the near obsession with her shoe collection rather than her policies and the famous “bloody difficult” aspersions to name but three. But what about leadership and soft skills? May has steadfastly directed herself away from a gregarious style of leadership, some might say […]
2017 trends, extreme talent acquisition and the struggle between HR & marketing
Welcome to 2017, and your latest round up of HR articles and blogs for you to enjoy over your your morning coffee or lunchtime break. Let us know what you think of the articles we've shared in the comments below, or tell us what you've enjoyed reading! Strategy – Is Universal Basic Income the answer to an […]
Is there such a thing as a natural born leader?
Regardless of what position you’re currently recruiting for, every great hiring manager recognises the value of recruiting for potential. Ideally, we are all looking to recruit tomorrow’s leaders. We want to know that the time, money and effort spent recruiting an employee today will likely result in a competent, decisive and motivated manager in the […]
“It’s nice to have an ad-hoc conversation where you can help someone”
We're always curious to hear how our members and contributors tackle the challenges that the ever-changing world of HR throws at them. We've got a wealth of experience and knowledge across the site, and what better way to showcase the diversity of our community than to get them to walk us through an average day? Want […]
Why a family-friendly approach is good for business
Having an engaged workforce is all about providing rewarding work in a positive environment, so that employees want to deliver their best for the business every day. To be truly effective, employee engagement strategies must take into account the changing needs of employees as they enter new stages of their life; the biggest of which is […]
Return to work interviews: making them work better
Records indicate that the greater completion of Return to Work Interviews (RTWIs), the lower overall absence rates are. But many organisations fail to achieve a high RTWI compliance because their line managers are either: A) poor at the process or B) lack the confidence to talk to their staff about sensitive health issues. You could […]
Should human resources be managing human rights?
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 […]
Can you treat anxiety at work through working memory training?
Taking an evidence-based approach to improving mental wellbeing in the workplace is important for individuals and HR alike. The research in this article looked at treating anxiety with attention training. Anxiety centres the mind around vigilance and worry, using up capacity normally used to control attention. By consciously focusing our attention, can we mitigate anxiety’s […]
“We need to be close to the business if we want to offer meaningful training”
We're always curious to hear how our members and contributors tackle the challenges that the ever-changing world of L&D throws at them. We've got a wealth of experience and knowledge across the site, and what better way to showcase the diversity of our community than to get them to walk us through an average day? Want […]
