Meeting core time and absence goals in financial services
Employers within the financial services industry have unique time and absence needs. While other industries, such as manufacturing, may be saddled with union rules and the need to track multifactor labour distribution transactions, financial services has its own share of challenges. In order to explore these issues further we recently held a roundtable discussion with […]
Are you dreaming of a compliant Christmas party?
Christmas parties are a great way to let off some steam at the end of a busy year. But if you’re not careful, hidden tax costs can make for a much more expensive celebration than you first expect. We all look forward to Christmas party season. But company parties can be tricky – and not […]
Get comfortable with changing the world of work – now’s the time to act
The world of work needs to change and in a series of articles over the last few weeks, I’ve explained why and how. Change is always a challenge to introduce and implement, and the transformational change that I advocate, which really alters outcome for organisations and their stakeholders, can be a major undertaking. Why […]
How to reduce staff turnover in IT and telecommunications
IT and telecommunications, and particularly call centres, have long been known for higher-than-average employee turnover rates. Especially when an emphasis on 24/7 customer service is core to an organisation’s success, it can be difficult for HR to authentically facilitate a culture that supports employee work-life balance without compromising efficiency and productivity. Add duty of care […]
What you can learn about effectiveness from the world’s best poker players
Whether you are an established business leader, manager, or apprentice, we all have at least one thing in common: we all want to make good decisions and deliver good results. To do that we need the right environment, support, knowledge, skills and mental attitude. And we need those things over the course of our careers […]
Mindfulness: the new science of performance
I can remember when culture was a weird concept that many felt would never catch on and certainly most CEOs thought it was some soft thing that had no relevance to their job. Yes this may date me but it also reminds me of how business people are thinking about mindfulness meditation today. There are […]
Engagement causes high performance, or vice versa?
This is an interview with Alex Edmans, Professor of Finance at London Business School. Alex will be speaking at Engage or Bust! on November 24th, a one-day event run by government taskforce Engage for Success. The event will look at ways organisations can improve engagement and features senior HR directors alongside academics giving you practical […]
Utilising disruptive talent to expand the possible
The term ‘disruptive talent’ refers to individuals who see everyday things differently from the majority. They are capable of finding new and significantly more productive ways of doing things whilst rejecting the ‘tried and true’ solutions. In some cases these individuals generate ideas that lead to the next big thing – Virgin Atlantic, iPad and Uber […]
Are you creating purpose for your employees?
How do 28% of the 150 million-strong US workforce primarily define the role of work in their lives? The answer: a source of personal fulfilment and a way to help others. These are purpose-oriented workers. You may not have heard of them. Yet new research from Imperative and New York University suggests these workers are […]
Our journey towards Living Wage accreditation
The first week of November is Living Wage Week, a UK-wide celebration of the Living Wage and the employers that are committed to it. It’s also an opportunity to raise awareness; it’s a subject that’s featured prominently in the papers over the last few months, but only 1,700 business out of the UK’s 4.9 million […]
How can you defuse workplace conflicts? Part 2
In Part 1 of our series on how to manage workplace conflict, we looked at how to open the conversation, as well as two core workplace mediation skills: listening and playing back the issues. In part 2, we explore how to use conflict resolution skills to highlight choices, support decision-making and handle potential roadblocks. Highlighting […]
How much of your people agenda can you really control?
The HR function is under greater scrutiny than ever. There is huge pressure for HR professionals to prove their value as strategic partners to business leaders. The biggest people transforming challenges – embedding leadership behaviours; attracting and strengthening the talent pipeline; fostering innovation; redesigning the structure; shifting the organisational culture –often sit on HR’s shoulders. […]
If you’re a reward manager, no news is good news
One of the odd things about pay is that you know there’s something wrong when people start getting excited about it. The aim of the reward manager is to conduct his or her business engendering as little fuss or emotion as possible. If your people start punching the air with glee when you give them […]
How to include every one – without involving them
Firstly, the challenge… You are director of a small, creative start-up. You have a last minute opportunity to pitch for a sizable piece of work and must pull together a group of people to write a winning proposal overnight. You need your best creative minds in the room as well as people who can work […]
Interview: Tom Berquist, CEO, Saba
Tom Berquist is the new CEO of HR technology company Saba Software and member of the Saba Board of Directors. He has been involved in enterprise software for many years, including nine in executive leadership roles at Corel (CEO) and Ingres (CFO). Before that, he spent a decade at investment banks Goldman Sachs, Citigroup and Piper […]
Book review: will the future workplace still need you?
HRZone has a range of books available for review. If you would like to receive one of our business books, free of charge, please contact the editor on editor at hrzone dot com and we can send you a list of what’s available. In return, we ask for a 400-700 word review of the book, […]
Multinationals: How managers can engage employees
Throughout the majority of our engagement research, we’ve seen that immediate managers continually play a key role in employees’ engagement and commitment. The questions we’re often asked are: what makes a great manager and how can managers increase engagement? During the previous two articles I examined engagement in multinationals and outlined why engagement needs CEOs. […]
Is it time we treated candidates as consumers?
Much has been written on the subject of employer branding in recent years, especially in the context of its importance for successful talent attraction and acquisition. We know that acute competition for skills (particularly those in short supply) necessitates that HR and resourcing teams be ever more creative in their approach to finding and engaging […]
What can we learn from Denmark on happiness at work?
After years of international study, Danish workplaces continue to top polls and remain among the happiest in the world. What can we learn from their continued success? During the UN General Assembly in 2011, Jigme Thinley, the Prime Minister of Bhutan, offered to lead a panel discussion on the theme of happiness and wellbeing, inviting member […]
What can you do to defuse workplace conflicts?
What could you do to help defuse workplace conflicts? This two-part series outlines the core skills used by trained mediators in a workplace mediation. These skills can be applied on an informal basis, as a means of managing workplace conflict at the earliest stage. Following Consensio’s mediation principles, we assume firstly that your involvement is […]
