Shift workers risk mental and physical health
Staff working shifts outside the hours of 0700-1900 hours are at higher risk of developing chronic health conditions and serious illness, and could even be risking a decline in cognitive function a recent survey revealed. In this article, Gary Cattermole, director at award winning employee engagement consultancy and staff survey specialist, The Survey Initiative, explains […]
HRZone relaunch: The transformation begins!
After a long wait, the new HRZone is nearly here! We’ve already shared the reasons behind the redesign in our earlier update, we also got your feedback on what you want to see from the site in our survey, and now we can finally begin the process of switching the site over to its new […]
How understanding the brain can help you understand your colleagues across the globe
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 […]
Employee Engagement Awards 2015 – announcing the inaugural winners
The Employee Engagement Awards were set to recognise the great work that companies across the UK are doing when it comes to putting engagement at the heart of their strategy – we’re very pleased to announce the winners for our first year! Hundreds of companies entered the awards, ranging from start-ups to multinationals including Lidl, […]
Sticking with those management resolutions in 2015
A new year brings with it the opportunity to set new goals and start afresh, and managers across the country will be looking to do just this in 2015. However, we all know it is easy to make resolutions, but much harder to stick to them. Our advice is to break your goals down into […]
Avoid winter coughs and colds
You’ve heard it before: ‘don't go outside in this weather, you'll catch a cold’. But colds are actually caused by viruses, not cold weather. It is true that you are more likely to get a cold during the winter months, but that's because we spend more time in confined, unventilated spaces with larger groups of […]
Connecting the employee experience with customer satisfaction
Paul Barnes is UK Country Manager at enterprise feedback management (EFM) company Questback. 1) What's the impetus behind the recent movement towards connecting employee engagement with the customer experience? When asked to name their two top business priorities, CEOs consistently rank the customer experience and getting the best out of staff at the top of the […]
Unlocking data in HR
Payroll is one of the biggest business costs, and yet despite an increasingly competitive marketplace, few organisations truly understand what drives the performance of their workforce. A recent survey by HRReview found that 79% of HR professionals agreed that their organisations believed effective talent management was critical to the bottom line. However, over 50% thought […]
The essential role of HR in employees’ engagement and commitment
How to create high employee engagement and commitment has become a central focus point for many organisations’ strategies. The added value that engaged and committed employees have is increasingly being recognised by CEOs, stakeholders, managers and HR. Our latest research shows that despite this recognition, there’s still much work to be done to realise employees’ […]
How is postgraduate education helping HR professionals become more strategic?
Traditionally, the Human Resources function has served primarily as the systematising and employee-policy arm of executive management. The role of HR professionals was closely aligned with personnel and administrative functions that were sometimes viewed by the organisation as “paperwork”. However, the sector’s shift in professional designation from personnel to human resources has been part of […]
How do you make change the ‘new normal?’
It takes lots of small steps to make big changes happen inside an organisation, especially one where cultures and working practices have become deeply ingrained. When I was appointed technical director for Harvey Water Softeners 18 months ago, I began making plans for a wide reaching, two-year change programme. Now, at the halfway point, here […]
Bring your business into the 21st century
Find out more ways to improve your workplace wellbeing with The Ultimate Wellbeing Toolkit – a practical learning hub brought to you by financial protection specialists Unum, designed to equip HR professionals with the skills and knowledge they need to show employees that they are valued. Establishing a balance between work and private life is a hot topic […]
Rethinking HR delivery in the NHS
Persistent cost pressures and HR functions facing continual scrutiny on efficiency means that NHS organisations are having to fundamentally rethink how they provide HR services. But new HR initiatives are emerging for departments needing to create efficiencies in the back office without sacrificing quality. Although the £2bn a year of NHS additional funding announced in […]
Facebook at Work: A tool to improve employee engagement?
This article was first published on our sister site, MyCustomer.com, by their deputy editor Chris Ward. It’s fair to say that Facebook has protruded into every facet of our lives outside the office, but as an enterprise tool? It’s a bridge very few business leaders have traditionally been comfortable allowing their employees to cross. Despite this, […]
Putting empathy back on the workplace agenda
One of the more surprising items on the British political agenda this year was empathy. This is largely thanks to Labour leader Ed Miliband, who has cited empathy as one of his core political values and has even recruited the help of empathy expert Professor Simon Baron Cohen to develop his “politics of empathy”. It […]
New research tells you how to make management development programmes a success
Management development is not simply a matter of choosing the right model and running a ‘training’ event: developing manager skills and identity is a process that evolves over time and requires a range of elements and activities. Applying and sustaining newly learned behaviour in the workplace is not easy, so needs support, and the context […]
Why understanding leadership chasms will restore the reputation and value of managers
It’s tough at the top, and harder to get there. Before you plant a flag and celebrate your successful climb to HR Director, how would you feel if your reputation and value to the organisation had both plummeted into a black hole on the way up? I call this a ‘leadership chasm’, and ask HR […]
Job specifications – too many boxes to tick?
It’s easy to see how it happens – conversations over time, stakeholders consulted, various vested interests expressing opinions and an internally focussed view of the tasks and priorities. The output? Three pages of very detailed minimum requirements of the ideal candidate’s experiences, knowledge and technical skills. By preparing the ultimate corporate wish list, rather than […]
All in the mind: mindfulness in the workplace
Learn more ways to improve your workplace wellbeing with The Ultimate Wellbeing Toolkit – a practical learning hub brought to you by financial protection specialists Unum, designed to equip HR professionals with the skills and knowledge they need to show employees that they are valued. Since 2009, I have been teaching leaders and executives mindfulness based practices. There […]
Make your technically competent staff more customer-focused
Having clearly defined roles, processes and procedures is great, but what happens when a focus on internal processes and procedures begins to impact the customer experience? ABB, the global power and automation company, discovered from its Net Promoter Score that although its customers continued to rate the company’s products and services as best in class […]
