The four essential components of integrated performance and learning

Performance and Learning are inextricably linked, there is little debate about that. However, this knowledge is not enough to run the two successfully. For an integrated strategy to be effective HR needs to know how and where the connection points between the two are, as well as how they can deliver it with minimum administrative […]
Fifty top tweets from the CIPD Annual Conference 2013

The CIPD Annual Conference took place on November 6th and 7th in Manchester, UK. It was a special occasion for the organisation as they were also celebrating their 100th year anniversary, which was commemorated with a gala dinner on the night of the 6th. Like HR Tech Europe, which happened last month (October 2013), the […]
How to give real meaning to work

Employee motivation and engagement are perennial hot topics for business leaders, management and HR professionals. Every year there is a veritable avalanches of surveys, books, courses and tools published to address issues around the recruitment and retention of talent that are centred on theories of motivation and engagement. Employers have a responsibility for the environment […]
Apathetic workforce? UK employees are suffering from a lack of creativity

The UK is home to an apathetic workforce that doesn’t feel like they are contributing to their place of work in a meaningful way, according to a Microsoft research report. It reveals that organisations are finding that employees are becoming demotivated due to a process-driven culture that focuses too much on managing email traffic and […]
Five ways neuroscience can improve your engagement results

How to create the super powered engagement leader Engagement is a hot topic but do HR functions really care about it or has it become just another process to run i.e. ‘it’s the survey season again’, rather than the outcome of leadership and work practice? Clearly something isn’t working as all the data says our […]
History of employee engagement – from satisfaction to sustainability

Employee engagement may seem a relatively recent concept but actually it goes back over 20 years when the term first appeared in an academic journal in 1990. Prior to that, during the 70’s and 80’s, HR’s (or as it was then ‘personnel’s’) focus was on employee satisfaction. But this had little or no connection with […]
Top 10 excuses for failing to engage with engagement

Over the 25 years or so Great Place to Work® has worked with thousands of organisations across the globe we’ve heard virtually every rationale as to why they’ve not yet engaged with engagement. Whilst we fully understand these barriers or obstacles our experience shows that they are not insurmountable; they may be hurdles but not […]
10 things you didn’t know about engagement

Despite engagement being firmly established in HR circles and endorsed at government level, there is still no universally agreed definition. Engagement is an output – one of the key drivers is trust. Only around 1/3rd of employees say they are engaged, putting the UK 9th out of the world’s twelfth largest economies (based on GDP). […]
Thoughts of an American HR officer on a one-way ticket to Saudi Arabia

“Mr. Thomas, we would like to make you an offer”. I thought of the scene in the Godfather where the Don makes an offer that can't be refused. Well the offer was one that I could not refuse. And with that call, my life changed. I would be leaving New York City to live in […]
Interview: Dr Katherine Jones, Vice President, HR Technology Research, Bersin by Deloitte

We conducted this interview with Katherine at HR Tech Europe, which took place on October 24th and 25th 2013. The next HR Tech Europe will take place on October 24th and 25th 2014. You mentioned earlier that a lot more graduates are coming through STEM programmes. With the ‘dataification’ of HR, will the HR department eventually […]
Is HR a department of cobbler’s children?

Do you hate your HR job? Or maybe you don’t hate it exactly, but just think that there is something else out there that you’d enjoy more? Are you, in all honesty, a bit rubbish at it? HR has been getting a lot of bad press lately. Thanks to that woman at the BBC (HR […]
Stress in the workplace – who takes responsibility?

This article has been written to tie in with National Stress Awareness Day (NSAD) on November 6th. This year will be the 15th annual NSAD. The recent CIPD Absence Management report revealed that stress is on the increase. This is despite the fact that more organisations than ever are investing in comprehensive employee wellbeing strategies. […]
Interview: Phil Merrell and Nicola Cull, Directors at Towers Watson

Phil Merrell and Nicola Cull are Directors in Towers Watson’s Communications and Change Management practice. 1. Change is not a new process – there’s been a lot of progress in how companies streamline other processes, such as technology delivery and onboarding, but change seems to be lagging behind. Companies still seem to struggle, often with […]
LIVE: CIPD Annual Conference 2013
The CIPD Annual Conference is taking place on November 6th and 7th at Manchester Central. The event combines an expo floor with relevant organisations and vendors in the HR sphere with a packed conference programme with speakers including: Daniel Pink, former Al Gore speechwriter and bestselling author David MacLeod, chair of the Employee Engagement Taskforce […]
Managing an Employment Tribunal claim from an Employer’s perspective

Any Employer can be the subject of an employment tribunal claim, even those that are well managed, have the best Human Resources and legal support services, and who adopt best policies, practices and procedures. Many Employers can recall various horror stories where they have received without any sense of expectation an Employment Tribunal claim in […]
Interview: Josh Bersin, Bersin by Deloitte

Josh Bersin is Principal & Founder of Bersin by Deloitte, who provide consultancy on people strategies based on research. More than 5,000 organizations worldwide use their research and consulting to guide their HR, talent and learning strategies. The company was founded by Josh in 2001 and acquired by professional services firm Deloitte in early 2013. We […]
Fifty top tweets from HR Tech Europe 2013

If you're interested in HR technology, download our latest HR technology toolkit, with contributions on social media, big data, self-service and more from academics across the world. It's an in-depth, 55 page document with everything based on top research from the best business universities. HR Tech Europe 2013 took place on October 24th and 25th […]
Round up: HR Tech Europe 2013

Amsterdam is a capital city but doesn’t feel like one. Trams snake lazily, picking up passengers here and there, while free-moving cyclists form informal clusters to chat and share fresh, clean air. The city centre itself, steeped in history and a colourful feast for the eyes, doesn’t stress the soul like London or New York. […]
Auto-enrolment pensions: An update

One year after automatic enrolment was introduced, the lessons and experiences of organisations that have already auto-enrolled are coming to light. This article looks at some of the more common pitfalls that can occur when introducing an auto-enrolment scheme. Planning too late: Auto-enrolment is a complicated process and it can take between six to twelve […]
31Practices: what are they and why are they important?

The IBM CEO Study (2012), Leading through Connections, outlined three imperatives essential for outperformance. The first was empowering employees through values. Ken Blanchard and Phil Hodges (2003) estimate that fewer than 10% of organizations have clear, written values and many take the work on values no further than words. To impact, core values need to […]