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 […]
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 […]