Do highly paid CEOs make terrible decisions?
Just as it emerges an NHS Trust is paying £200,000 to a chairman that works one day a week, a new study from the University of Utah indicates that highly-paid executives may be responsible for decreasing the value of their organisations due to poor decisions. The mechanism in play appears to be an over-confidence in […]
How to keep employees motivated: Lose the bosses
Employee engagement is a critical challenge for HR: how do you get your employees involved in your organisation in order to optimise their performance? Enabling self-direction in a transparent system seems to have positive effects. We adopted Holacracy here at Springest in 2012, and view this new agile organisational method as the best way to get […]
HR – stop saying you don’t understand data
Technology is challenging and driving the HR community to identify the potential gains of data. However, HR teams are still a long way from getting the most out of it. Despite all the hype surrounding data, it is not uncommon to hear HR professionals say, “I don’t do numbers” or “I don’t understand data”. At […]
Employers urged to be more transparent about flexible working
Two in every five full-time employees are keen to work flexibly, yet only 25% of job adverts state whether flexible working is even a possibility, according to new research. This is despite the fact that 91% of managers would be happy to talk to candidates about flexible working options during the recruitment process, the report […]
Leadership figures in focus – Genghis Khan
It’s August 1227, in a remote valley in Liupan Mountains, in what is today north-central China. Genghis Khan, perhaps the greatest conqueror the world has ever seen, lies dying. Over the previous 40 years he had risen from almost nothing to found a nation (Mongolia) and lead his nomadic cavalry to seize much of north […]
Demand for permanent staff at record levels
Plans to create more permanent jobs remain at a record high this month, with 81% of employers intending to hire permanent staff in the next quarter, according to a new report. The latest JobsOutlook survey by the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) also revealed that 52% of employers plan to use more agency workers in […]
The silent majority: Women in leadership
A quick trawl through the images used in the annual reports of most large corporates reveals the diversity of each organisation’s activities, employees and customer base. There is only one area where diversity appears elusive – the composition of the board. The lack of women at the top of organisations has been traditionally framed as […]
House of Lords to debate ‘staggering’ levels of EU youth unemployment
The House of Lords is due to debate EU youth employment later today, following a report which found that unemployment is still at “damagingly high” levels across Europe. The EU Committee report, which examined the value of EU youth unemployment initiatives, as well as whether funding is being used effectively in the UK, revealed that […]
No progress on race inequality in leadership, report finds
Racial inequality in UK management is no better now than it was in 2007, a new report has claimed. The proportion of Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) people in top management increased by just 0.5% between 2007 and 2012, according to the report by Business in the Community’s race equality campaign Race for Opportunity. […]
The role of the coach: Applying sport and organisational psychology to business
Sport is big business – sponsorship deals, corporate governance, television rights. Over the last two decades, many people with business backgrounds have moved into senior positions within sport and several programmes (such as the FTSE-BOA Initiative around London 2012) have sought to encourage sport organisations to learn from business organisations. But what about the other […]
Leading the way: Tackling stress from the top
It is the norm for physical health issues to be discussed openly in most organisations, but mental health remains very much a taboo topic. We’ve witnessed people from all parts of society speak up about mental health, except in the business world. So it’s up to business leaders to ensure that it can be talked […]
Men’s Health Week: better sleep is four simple steps away
It’s Men's Health Week, and while sleep issues can affect anyone, there are a few specific ways in which men manage themselves and their approach to professional life that are clear triggers to poor quality or quantity of sleep. So what are the details when it comes to men and sleep? One issue is that […]
What does the HR tech landscape look like from your view?
When you look in the mirror, what do you see? If you’re anything like the hundreds of HR pros at small and medium-sized businesses that I’ve talked to over the years, you feel fulfilled in your job because you love working with great people. In fact, you get to be your people’s biggest fan in […]
HR tech budgets increase across the globe, study finds
One in three companies around the world plan to spend more on HR technology this year, according to a new report. The global survey of nearly 1,050 organisations across 45 countries, by professional services firm Towers Watson, revealed that 33% of employers plan to increase their HR technology budget by up to 20% this year, […]
You thought pensions auto-enrolment was the last of it? Sick pay is next
One of the biggest conundrums facing successive governments in recent times has been to cut the enormous spend on welfare benefits. The recent introduction of auto-enrolled pensions is enlightening and, I believe, points to what HR will have to handle at some point in the future. Conceived under the previous Labour administration and introduced under the […]
Men’s Health Week 2014 – Is there a role for business to tackle men’s mental health?
This is men’s health week. Many people question why there is a need to focus specifically on men’s health….surely health is important to everyone? It’s because men are known to monitor their health much less than women and they’re also less inclined to seek help when they need it, usually in the hope the problem […]
Interview: Frédérique Scavennec, Global VP Talent Acquisition, L’Oreal
Who is Frédérique Scavennec? Frédérique has been with global cosmetics company L’Oreal for over ten years, with the last two as Global VP. She has spent more than 20 years working in HR, mainly in senior HR Director positions and covering all aspects of the function. Frédérique holds a business degree from Ecole supérieure des Sciences […]
UK’s toughest interview questions 2014
Employer review site Glassdoor recently posted their list of the toughest interview questions of 2014. A cursory glance reveals that the 'brainteaser' question is still being used across the UK. Google, who gained a reputation for its use, said in July last year that they were a "waste of time" and pointed to behavioural questions […]
Female contractors ‘in minority’ compared to men
The proportion of women working as contractors is less than half that of men, new figures have shown. According to official data, obtained by professional services consultancy Procorre, there are just under 1 million female contractors currently working in the UK, representing 8% of working women, compared to 2.5 million men, who represent 15.5% of […]
Internal mobility and retention: How to hold on to your best and brightest
The number one reason professionals leave a job is not for more money or better perks, but because they see a better opportunity for career advancement elsewhere. That was one of the findings from a recent piece of LinkedIn research looking into the trends around internal mobility and how companies look after and develop existing […]
