Will Zuckerberg’s move shake up paternity culture?

Mark Zuckerberg, CEO, Facebook recently announced he is taking two months paternity leave. His move has been met with much praise, especially in the States, where neither paid maternity or paternity leave is a legal requirement. What’s happening in the world of paternity leave? Are big brand digital companies, such as Facebook, leading the way in […]

Your questions on proactive wellbeing answered

HR professionals looking to improve the wellbeing of their staff attended one of our webinars on prevention, intervention and protection and learned from our expert panel the best strategies for long-term improvement. Some questions didn’t get answered in the timeframe. Take a look below or check out the on-demand version of the webinar and get […]

Three ways best employers show their people they are valued

Top performing organisations strive for employee engagement excellence as they know they’ll be more productive, grow faster and innovate more. They develop thriving cultures and winning people practices that propel them into the upper quartile of engaging employers. But how exactly do they do this? People Insight supports hundreds of the UK’s top organisations measure […]

Time to zoom in to the future of learning?

I’m known to the readers of HRZone through my column on all things social (media) and so I’m using space to both update my status and also give a little glimpse into the future – something I’m a little bit obsessed with. The update… As Director – People & Learning at Media Zoo I’m now part […]

Can an employer dismiss an employee who is off sick?

Despite the fact that having an employee who is on long-term sickness leave can be challenging on business resources, there are certain protocols every employer should follow when deciding whether an employee should be dismissed. It is best practice for an employer to stay in contact with an employee who is off work on long […]

Standardisation is creating a massive talent hotbed

The standardised work we are all so familiar with as being a cornerstone of a Lean philosophy does not produce quality, reliability and repeatability, it generates world class skill and the basis of a talent hot bed. Read this article to understand the process of world class skill generation and give standardisation a meaning. I […]

“Talent is one ingredient in how success happens.”

This is an interview with Matthew Syed, who is the former top-ranked table tennis player in England: since retiring he has been on a mission to challenge the commonly-held assumption that talent is fixed and innate and that it is the only variable in whether we succeed or not. He has written two books around […]

Apprenticeship levy: how to get the most out of it

The Government has been very vocal in its support for apprenticeships. Over the next five years, it has promised that a further three million will be created. Moreover, new trailblazer qualifications are being introduced to increase apprenticeships’ rigour and their relevance to employers’ needs. However laudable these goals, they create a tension, particularly at a time […]

Let’s bury the ‘human remains’ stigma and build HR’s future

“We can’t build a profession from people who say they ended up in HR,” said Peter Cheese, the CEO of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD). A year on from his keynote speech at the 2014 CIPD conference, does the stigma of working in ‘human remains’ still exist? HR’s existential crisis has been […]

These words help people develop growth mindsets

A lot has been written on the power of developing growth mindsets and why it is important for both personal satisfaction, long-term confidence and business performance. The concept of a growth mindset was developed by psychologist Carol Dweck in her book Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. According to Dweck, a mindset is a self-perception or […]

It’s time the Chancellor stops meddling in pensions

Talk to anyone about pensions and you’re likely to be met with a head shake and a response of ‘I can’t keep track of it’. Those within the industry are struggling to cope with the recent pension freedom reforms and the Chancellor has signalled he is keen to implement more ‘radical changes’ such as removing […]

What are the regulations regarding annual leave entitlement?

Every worker is entitled a period of paid annual leave under the Working Time Regulations 1998. Annual leave starts to accrue from the beginning of the employment contract and continues to accrue throughout its duration. Even employees working their notice period continue to accumulate their annual leave entitlement. Statutory entitlement  The statutory holiday entitlement for […]

How to create flexible working arragements for older workers

The ageing workforce constitutes one of the most influential contemporary labour market  trends. Falling birth rates and increasing lifespans mean that fewer younger workers are entering the labour market and older worker numbers are growing. Older workers are aged between 50 and State Pension Age (SPA), although this definition is broadening as, with the removal […]

Knowledge spreading key to employee engagement

Interested in employee engagement? We’re gathering the views of HR professionals across the UK who are passionate about improving engagement – we’ve got responses from HR professionals on what’s working with engagement and at the end we’ll compile a report to help UK organisations improve engagement. Be part of the movement and give us your […]

Simple tips to help you stay focused at work

Our working environment hosts a plethora of distractions making it challenging for many employees to stay focused on a task. High workloads, multitasking, meetings, open plan work environments (that are not suited to all personality types) and not to mention the constant flow of information via email, internet and social media all play a role, […]

The ‘six conditions’ of high performance

W. Edwards Deming insisted that you improve performance by improving the system not blaming people. He stated that the variation in employee performance (from their worst day at work to their best) was 5% down to the individual and 95% down to the conditions in the environment. And therefore managers should focus more attention on […]

Would you instinctively distrust a hiring algorithm?

New research from the American National Bureau of Economic Research suggests workers hired by computer algorithms stay longer in jobs than those hired by people. Across 15 companies and 300,000 low-skill service-sector hires, the NBER research compared the tenure of those hired based on algorithmic recommendations with those hired by humans. The test asked questions […]

Positive distractions are a good thing, says study

A lot has been written about negative distractions in the workplace and how it can take 25 minutes to regain your focus when interrupted. Generally speaking we treat all distractions equally but science suggests there’s a difference between those perceived as positive and those perceived as negative. According to lead author Florin Dolcos, positive interruptions […]

Why your organisation needs post-heroic leadership

Heroes, admired for their bravery and noble qualities, exist in the myths, legends and folklore in every culture. We’ve all been reared on stories in which a protagonist shows courage in the face of adversity; history has taught us about larger-than-life military and political figures; film and TV have shown us Superman, Wonder Woman and […]

HR titles are disappearing and here’s why

Forbes contributor Jacob Morgan and author of The Future of Work thinks that traditional HR titles are disappearing. Why is this happening? Partly it’s the language… “The reason for this,” says Jacob, “lies in the term ‘Human Resources’. The title sounds makes employees sound like they are fruits – lemons that companies should squeeze every […]