Your guide to the mysterious world of ‘priming’

One of the most subtle, mysterious and potentially powerful techniques managers can use to help people change behavior is something called priming. It involves placing cues in people’s environments that can subconsciously influence their behavior. The objective is to try to nudge people toward behaving in a certain way. Now this may sound a bit […]

Exploring employee engagement at money.co.uk

money.co.uk recently ranked #7 best small business on the Great Place to Work Best Workplaces list 2015. In this interview we ask their founder and MD Chris Morling some questions on their culture and why they think they ranked so highly. What’s the fundamental reason you ranked so highly on the Best Workplaces list this […]

How to cure the nightmare of booking travel

It’s the call no HR professional wants to receive. A scheduled flight crashes in European airspace. Your CEO is on the phone immediately with a single question: did we have anyone on that plane? In theory, you can answer your chief exec within minutes. Most larger businesses use travel management companies (TMCs) with traveller tracking tools […]

Developing friendships at work is essential

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 […]

Why a strong sense of purpose is good for business

Purpose has been defined as “a stable and generalised intention to accomplish something that is at once meaningful to the self and of consequence to the world beyond the self.”[1] For most of us, purpose in life has its own very personal significance but usually also involves a sense of our goals contributing something positive […]

Feminism rebranded: Gen Y women & the gender divide

Feminism gets bad press in business. Despite the undeniable gender divide being a persistently irritating feature in the workplace, men and women alike simply do not like the F-word and all that it stands for. Not surprisingly, we ‘believers’ are taken to muttered expressions of interest with likeminded souls in quiet and dimly-lit corners of […]

How will ‘disruptive’ HR practices affect reward?

There is movement afoot to bring credibility and new purpose to the often maligned yet critical function of HR in modern organisations. The CIPD conference last year was badged as ‘High-Impact HR’ and you will have no doubt heard the term ‘disruptive HR’ from a multitude of blogs, articles, conferences and soap-boxes. ‘Disruptive’ comes from […]

Exploring employee engagement at Admiral

Admiral Group recently ranked #4 on the Great Place to Work Best Workplaces list 2015. In this interview we ask their Head of People Services Ceri Assiratti some questions on their culture and why they think they ranked so highly. What’s the fundamental reason you ranked so highly on the Best Workplaces list this year? […]

Engagement myth #1: the same strategy works for all

Interested in employee engagement? We’re running a one-day conference on September 10th in London focused on the business side of engagement and how you can drive value across the whole organisation. Hear from people-focused CEOs, board-level HR directors and people experts and come away with practical, actionable tips to improve engagement efforts in your organisation. […]

Are your managers really applying what they learn?

This article was written by Rachel Lewis and Emma Donaldson-Feilder. The holy grail of learning and development programmes is to guarantee that the skills individuals develop are applied in the workplace. Change is difficult and simply running a half-day (or longer) workshop may not result in developing skills and ensuring that they are subsequently used […]

Why candidates should write their own job descriptions

At the start of the year I was running a breakfast with a number of CEOs from the Oxfordshire area. We were discussing learnings from the last year. The conversation moved towards recruitment and retaining and attracting talented staff – something that was a top priority for all the attendees, regardless of their business size […]

Six steps to taking control of pay

Pay can be tricky. If pay is not understood, or feels unfair, it will demotivate. Regardless of the amount! So, how do you take control and stop reacting to those who complain loudest? 1. Choose your stance – as a company, do you want to pay around the going market rate? Most do as base pay […]

Using engagement to rehabilitate young offenders

Employee engagement has so many benefits for both the individual and the company – the oft-repeated facts are out there: companies are more productive, employees more fulfilled; creativity and innovation soar. Customer service is better. Staff are less likely to take sick days. And so on. In a 2014 McKinsey article, Redefining Capitalism, Eric Beinhocker […]

Why did Google abandon 20% time for innovation?

Google has been well known for its unique approach to innovation – from its open culture, its radical work environment in its Googleplex campus to its methods for innovation. This has enabled it to grow meteorically from its formation in 1998 to become a $62 billion turnover company by 2014. One of its best known […]

The impact of big data on HR strategy

HR, and specifically recruiting, is increasingly being asked to use big data sets to be more consultative. Instead of just going on gut-instinct and past experiences, talent acquisition teams are using statistics and trends to be strategic in how they find talent and which potential candidates will make the best fit. According to our own […]

The role of transformational leaders in wellbeing

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 […]

It’s time to remember the value that middle managers bring

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 […]

Is it time your own L&D changed up a gear?

No names, no job titles, no companies. HR After Dark features totally anonymised opinion pieces from HR professionals, consultants and industry commentators. No holds barred, no censorship, nothing but raw opinions on issues that matter to HR. When the lights go down, HR After Dark comes out to play. See it all here first. Want […]

Are you ready to come clean on executive pay?

With average pay increasing at about 2% and the impact of deflation, most workers should be starting to feel the squeeze on their wages easing. But at the same time, the gap between their earnings and executive pay is widening at a faster rate than ever. The pay gap could be the bitterest aspect of […]

Are your work habits messing with your brain?

It's Neuroscience Learning Month on HRZone. You're reading one of the pieces that's been written to help you develop a sound understanding of why neuroscience principles are important to business, and a basic understanding of how you can apply them effectively. There's loads more content going live over the month to help you on your way, […]