Wellness and personal performance made easy: Part 3
In the final installment of our series, we highlight further strategies and behaviours that lead to exceptional results with personal health, wellness, energy and performance. As with our previous tips, these are all simple ideas that, when implemented with consistency, will lead to dramatic and positive results. Take charge of technology Technology is one of […]
Health and safety: Why HR managers need to think like marketers to win over colleagues
We all need allies in life and business. That’s particularly true if you are an HR manager with responsibility for health and safety (H&S). All too often the media and even leading politicians portray H&S as bureaucratic red tape that imposes costs on business and hinders managers and employees – yet, as HR and H&S […]
Staff that smile on demand play havoc with their emotions
There’s an emotional and physical price to pay when people are forced to display feelings that don’t coincide with how they’re actually feeling. Researchers followed 78 bus drivers in the north-western United States. Over two weeks they answered surveys before work, after their shifts and just before they went to bed. The questions focused on […]
Under-pressure managers work extra day unpaid per week
Nearly half of UK managers work at least one extra day of overtime per week, according to new research. Almost two thirds of workers feel under pressure to put in the extra hours, with 13% working two days of overtime each week, the study by the Institute of Leadership and Management (ILM) found. Heavy workloads […]
What do Generation Y really want?
Generation Y, or those aged 30 and below, have grown up in an environment unlike any before them. They have been raised in a world of technology, where they have been more educated than any previous generation. As such, they come to the workplace with different wants and needs than their predecessors: different things motivate […]
Eight million risk being ‘sucked into unemployment twilight zone’
The next decade could see millions of people either unemployed or in a job for which they are over-qualified, according to the Local Government Association. The incoming chair of the LGA, David Sparks, has warned that a “lost generation” of around eight million people could be trapped in a future unemployment “twilight zone”, at risk […]
Talent Mobility – developing your talent
In the third of a four-part series on talent mobility, Matt Russell, Head of Talent at Lee Hecht Harrison, explores a critical phase in the talent mobility process – the importance of ‘development’ and, more specifically, developing your employees and leaders to achieve greater levels of success. Read part one and part two of the […]
Wellness and personal performance made easy: Part 2
We continue our journey towards great personal energy, efficiency, productivity and enjoyment of both our personal and professional lives, by examining more simple lifestyle changes that are tried and tested and proven to result in people feeling great and performing to the best of their abilities. Prepare yourself for a good night’s sleep every evening […]
The taboo of discussing pay – a good or bad thing?
As collaboration becomes ever-more essential in the workplace, some might consider the move towards greater openness inevitable. But perhaps not on pay. Even recently, a salesman at Lacoste in New York was fired for posting his wage slip on social media. Discussing your pay has been a taboo among many businesses for as long as […]
Actionable analytics: Taking HR to the next level
In an age where Google knows what you’re looking for before you’ve finished typing, it’s surprising that business professionals lack the tools to organically discover information about their workforce. People managers are tasked with making strategic decisions around talent and staffing that hugely impacts their businesses, yet can’t easily get to data that results in […]
How to make flexible working work for your business
There are numerous studies to suggest that flexible workers are more productive and engaged. However, many businesses are still unsure about the impact of new legislation allowing all employees to request the right to work flexibly. Many companies already recognise flexible working as a powerful business tool – particularly when it’s not just managed as […]
Wellness and personal performance made easy: Part 1
During the last 15 years of delivering wellness solutions to businesses, two things have become very clear. The improvements that people would like to make to their wellbeing are usually very simple; the most popular including the desire to get fitter, increase energy levels, lose weight, sleep better and experience an improved sense of balance […]
Book Review: Brain-Savvy HR by Jan Hills
Title: Brain-savvy HR: A neuroscience evidence baseAuthors: Jan HillsISBN: 978-0992900700Reviewer: David Evans, Burn Bridge Associates Reviewer’s rating: 4 out of 5 This formidable book has a lot going for it: it rides the crest of a number of waves that are very much ‘of the moment’. Its essence is the application of knowledge about neuroscience to the HR discipline, […]
Flexible working changes – a smorgasbord of opinions on right to request
From today, 20 million people (according to BIS) now have the right to request flexible working from their employer. BIS have said that over half of businesses who allow flexible working see improved relationships, 40% report productivity boost and 38% see drop in staff absence. The salient points: The change affects those who have over […]
On-boarding: The first 100 days – a seven-stage action plan
In 1933, when Franklin D Roosevelt talked about the importance of his first 100 days in office, he can hardly have imagined that the concept would be relevant to the upper echelons of business almost a century later. Today, the term ‘on-boarding’ has come to mean the introduction of a new leader to a company: […]
Interview: Jonathon Porritt, Founder, Forum for the Future
Who is Jonathon Porritt? Jonathon has been a campaigner on environmental issues for 40 years. He has campaigned extensively in support of the Green party in England and Wales. He is a co-founder of sustainability non-profit Forum for the Future and from 1993 to 1996 he was chairman of the Stakeholder Forum for a Sustainable […]
Working women and the industry divide
The issue of the gender gap, particularly in the workplace, has long been a topic of debate. Despite significant advances in gender equality over the past few decades, men and women are still not being treated equally in terms of their experiences at work, including pay and career progression. However, our latest research – which […]
Managing the psychological contract in the interim market
Psychological contracts are nothing new. Once the favoured buzz-phrase of 1960s HR managers, they had something of a renaissance following the economic downturn of the 1990s. The most recent global financial wobble, and subsequent green shoots of recovery, have brought them, or at least the concepts behind them, back into focus. Most of the debates […]
Employee engagement in the recession – weathering the storm
Nita Clarke OBE Co-Chair of the Engage for Success Taskforce. The last few years have been tough for many employees. Many have experienced difficult workplace change as their organisations were rocked by the recession. Most have suffered under years of pay restraint which is only now starting to ease. Yet remarkably despite these challenges, as […]
The Paradox of Choice, by Barry Schwartz – TED talk
This article is based on a 2005 TED talk from Barry Schwartz, Dorwin Cartwright Professor of Social Theory and Social Action at Swarthmore College. His TED talk has racked up over six million views and questions whether the choice that we think makes us free actually makes us unhappy. All western industrial societies have an official […]
