In defense of night: we treat it with disdain yet spend 26.5 years asleep
Society is starting to pay attention to sleep. This is important because for something so critical to our survival and wellbeing, sleep has a chequered history with researchers. “Scientists in the 1950s said that ‘sleep is of no medical importance,” says Guy Meadows, Clinical Director at Sleep to Perform. “That’s an actual quote. Now in […]
Red light for BA performance appraisal system
Industrial action is nothing new to British Airways, Britain’s flagship airline. No surprise then when we hear of possible action over the introduction of a new performance appraisal system. For BA’s Director of People and Legal, Maria da Cunha, this must be a disappointing result given her commitment to a more engaged workforce. In […]
Make employee feedback more actionable and productive
Most organisations support their employee engagement programmes with an annual employee survey – using the resulting engagement scores to measure success. While this provides the ability to track engagement over time, and potentially benchmark against competitors, there’s now a drive to gather faster, more specific and actionable feedback that delivers more value. With generic, standardised […]
Shoring up employee relations in the Brexit aftermath
The Brexit revolution continues to send reverberations throughout UK workplaces. The political turmoil creates understandable uncertainty and anxiety in organisations of all shapes and sizes. Employees are unsure of the future and this presents both an opportunity and a risk for employers seeking to provide reassurance to staff on the road ahead. Trust and confidence […]
Employee engagement at a 100-year-old retail motor group
Helen Burrows is HR Director at Marshall Motor Holdings, which comprises two businesses, Marshall Motor Group and Marshall Leasing. Marshall Motor Group is a top-ten UK motor dealer group which was established in 1909. It currently operates more than 100 franchised dealerships, representing 24 different manufacturing brands in 25 counties across England. It has a […]
Here’s why your digital transformation is failing
This article was co-written by Aoife Kilduff, European Insights Lead at YSC, and Nikita D’Souza, Research Consultant at YSC. The ‘digital age’ is not a new era. It is the world we have been living in for the past 20 years. However in recent years, the effect the ‘digital age’ has on the way we live […]
What are the causes & nature of employee disengagement?
According to Gallup, just 13% of employees are engaged at work. Increasing this number and finding out what makes people engagement at work is therefore high on HR's priority list. But the first step is really understanding workplace disengagement and the factors that causally contribute to poor perceptions and experiences in the workplace. These reports, articles, […]
Employee engagement trends: our curated list of insight reports
Employee engagement trends continue to point to a significant and evidenced link between the levels of engagement and overall organisational performance. With this in mind, we've collated some of the best and most respected reports into employee engagement trends in one place so you can access what you need. Whether you're building a business case […]
Wearable technology: HR’s newest great tool or just a fad?
Anything that promises to improve employee engagement, productivity and profitability in an organisation will naturally grab the attention of HR and business leaders. That’s why we so often hear that wearable technology – electronic devices that can be worn on the body – is the latest must-have addition to an organisation’s HR technology toolkit. A […]
Breakfast Insight: A Simple Model of Motivation
Breakfast Insight is your short dose of new ideas and food for thought, perfect to watch with your morning coffee. Today we're chatting to Carole Gaskell, founder of Full Potential Group. Contact or ask Carole a question on Twitter at @fullpotentialgr. Carole tells us about: The 'motivation as energy' argument – our 'inner fire' Why helping […]
Employee engagement research – the master list
Employee engagement research is now in abundance and allows you to better your employee engagement ideas and implementation. Whatever stage you're at in the engagement journey – from building a business case to measuring success or trying to identify new causes and drivers of staff engagement, our research library will help you identify key stats, […]
Coffee Break: ‘Lean labour’, living wage and banning Brexit chat at work
Happy Friday everyone – kick off your shoes and get comfy, because it's time for us to proffer this week's selection of HR news, opinion and cultural hors d'oeuvres. Feel free to tell us what you think in the comments below, or send us your own recommended reading for the week. Strategy – 35% of HR leaders […]
HR, it’s time for the tail to stop wagging the dog
Jane Sunley is a UK best-selling business author of ‘The People Formula: 12 Steps to Productive, Profitable, Performing Business’ and Founder and Chairman of employee engagement expertise and tech provider, Purple Cubed. Few would argue that the delivery of business strategy is dependent on people; providing a set of circumstances whereby people can do this well […]
Breakfast Insight: Talent breadth v depth
Breakfast Insight is your short dose of new ideas and food for thought, perfect to watch with your morning coffee. Today we're chatting to Caroline Gourlay, an experienced business psychologist and founder of Bath-based Caroline Gourlay Consulting. Contact or ask Caroline a question on Twitter at @carolinegourlay. Caroline tells us about: Whether people are predisposed to a […]
Six things you should be doing with your workforce data
In the first article in this series, we looked at whether HRDs were effectively ‘flying blind’ – not using the instrumentation that HR analytics provides to effectively tell them where they are going (or at least plot a credible course for their organisation). HR has huge amounts of people data at its fingertips, yet many organisations have […]
Tackling presenteeism in the banking sector: the role of work-life integration
Presenteeism is an issue facing businesses of all shapes and sizes up and down the UK. The implications of this phenomenon are well known. Presenteeism has been referred to as the single biggest threat to UK workplace productivity by Robertson Cooper’s Professor Sir Cary Cooper. It poses a substantial risk to workers’ health and wellbeing, […]
Now is the time to help ‘game changers’ to transform our future
If you think game changers are a different breed, then you are right. Our research, The DNA of a Game Changers, shows game changers are unlike others – they have the potential to transform our future. In our rapidly changing world, businesses are faced with challenges from technology and new market entrants who play by […]
The hidden benefits of workplace diversity
Hedge funds aren’t exactly known for their innovative people management practices, however there are exceptions to every rule. In this case the exception is Bridgewater Associates: founded by Ray Dalio, the company’s guiding principle is one of “meaningful work and meaningful relationships through radical truth and radical transparency”. Bridgewater’s employees, all 1500 of them, are […]
Hey bae! – Why brand tone is one of the most important parts of recruitment
Many of you will have seen the now infamous email that a Microsoft recruiter sent out to interns in San Francisco, trying to be all 'down with the kids' and using the language of the trendy young things of today. It's a good reminder that trying to be 'hip' can often backfire, and that's bad enough when […]
Breakfast Insight: A new collaborative mindset
Breakfast Insight is your short dose of new ideas and food for thought, perfect to watch with your morning coffee. Today we're chatting to Karin Volo, Chief Joy Bringer and Director at Evoloshen. You can find out more about Karin on her website or contact her on Twitter at @karinvolo. Karin tells us about: A new mindset […]