Breaking from traditional leadership – how to move to a self-managed team

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This article was written by Kate Russell, MD of Russell HR Consulting. How are you today? Busy I expect? Mondays are always busy for us and there are never enough hours in the day. (What do you lot get up to over the weekend that creates the Monday morning deluge?!) Heigh ho, enough of this merry […]

The key role of line managers in talent management and succession planning

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This editorial was written by Murray Furlong, head of UK learning solutions at learning and development firm Hemsley Fraser. Are you managing talent effectively in your organisation? You may have processes in place to identify and nurture talented people; you may have created clusters of high potential people and you may even run a dedicated […]

Employment law: the need for appropriate collective consultation mechanisms

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This article was written by Nikki Duncan, partner at Michelmores LLP. In a very important recent decision (Kelly v Hesley Group Limited) the Employment Appeal Tribunal has restated that the statutory collective redundancy consultation rules must be followed strictly. The rules cover more than just normal redundancy consultation, since "redundancy" is very widely defined. For […]

Five scientific discoveries that will save your change programme from failure

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What factors influence the success of change? Every client I talk to is struggling with a major change project and most have pretty low expectations of what they can achieve. This is not surprising given around 70 percent of change initiatives fail or only partially succeed. People issues contributed to nearly 60 percent of the […]

Action stations: road risk management in the spotlight

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The business cost of road traffic accidents involving at-work drivers can be considerable. TomTom Business Solutions Director UK & Ireland, Giles Margerison, considers how HR practitioners can best manage the risks and meet their legal obligations. The risks of road use for business Managing the occupational health and safety risks facing employees on the road […]

Infographic: State of the global recruitment market

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Key take-aways: 1.3 percent global decrease in job applications0.8 percent decrease in average global salaries9.4 percent increase in permanent vacancies across the globe17.7 percent increase in temporary vacancies across the globe

Cyber crime – employees have become one of the biggest risks to a business

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This article was written by Bill Walker, Technical Director at QA. Nothing is infallible – but when it comes to cyber security, it is fast becoming people, not computers, that are the weakest link. There are plenty of horror stories circulating the internet about identity thefts, nations waging cyber warfare against each other, malicious coercion […]

The role of big data in employee performance development

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This article was written by Stuart Hearn. Co-Founder and Director of HR specialists PlusHR. Data is increasingly becoming an important issue for many of today’s forward-thinking organisations. Not only is the scale and speed at which data is being generated rapidly rising, so is the variety of data points. Companies are clearly facing an avalanche of […]

What makes a successful management team?

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This piece was written by Alison McSparron-Edwards, founder and managing director of Consultrix. Leaders come in all shapes and sizes. It is important for business owners to recognise this. Although many people have different management and leadership skills, there are qualities that must be identified in order to culminate in a successful management team and therefore […]

Employment law: The risks of offering unpaid internships

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This article was written by Joanna Cowie, Senior Associate at SA Law LLP. What can organisations do if they want to offer short-term unpaid work experience placements to graduates without facing the risk of attracting unwelcome attention from HMRC? Once again the controversial issue of unpaid internships has hit the headlines this week with the […]

Five social phenomena that HR should be aware of

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This article explores five social phenomena and gives examples of how they may occur in a business setting. If you're interested in this area, you may wish to read the following articles: Twenty emotions and feelings that drive motivation Twenty ways your brain helps you make terrible decisions Decision-bias in HR – are you making […]

Creating a financial rewards package to retain talent

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John Styring, MD of Igloo Books, discusses how to create a viable financial incentive package for SMEs that reaps rewards for staff and employers alike. There’s no denying it – money is a key motivator. So it should come as no surprise that, although by no means the only way of keeping a company motivated […]

Decision-bias in HR – are you really making fair decisions?

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Read Jan's other articles: What should HR professionals know about neuroscience? How understanding neuroscience can increase the ROI on your training investment What is decision bias?  Decision bias is a combination of economics and psychology. Behavioural economics looks at understanding how humans make decisions in reality rather than, as traditional economic theory would assume, completely […]

When does management humour stop being funny?

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This article was written by Dr Oliver Mallett, Lecturer in Management at Durham University Business School. The content here is based on research conducted with Dr Robert Wapshott, with funding from the UK's Economics and Social Research Council and will be published in the British Journal of Management. Humour has an important role to play at […]

Book review: “What’s Stopping You Being More Confident?”

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This book was reviewed by Deborah Bishop, Director of Work Tree Consulting. Title: What’s Stopping You Being More Confident?Authors: Robert KelseyISBN: 978-0857083098 Introduction When I contacted Jamie at HRZone and offered to do a book review, I had a choice from a list. This book was of interest to me as I have noticed in […]

The importance of employee motivation in training

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This article was written by Jason Silberman, marketing director at WalkMe, an interactive online guidance system and engagement platform. Training is one of those terms that elicits a range of responses, depending on the individual. Employees will groan internally, and try to hide the bitterness from their expressions. To them, school was thankfully over, and […]

Top tips – employee engagement in the retail sector

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This article was written by Nigel Garrett, Business Development Director at Workplace. In today’s challenging economic climate, the effective engagement of employees in the retail industry is an increasingly vital requirement to maintain exemplary customer service levels and maximise sales. Making employees feel valued and striving to build genuine relationships with them can help retailers to […]

Over a quarter of HR departments are ineffective, say senior HR professionals

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Twenty-six percent of senior HR professionals think their HR function is ineffective, according to research released by a management consultancy. Over a third (37 percent) of senior HR professionals feel the purpose and values of their HR function are poorly defined. The research, from Orion Partners, polled 67 HR leaders and senior professionals at both […]

Business lifecycles and the need for different leaders at different times

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This article was written by Allison McSparron-Edwards, founder and managing director of Consultrix. The five stages of the corporate life cycle It may seem fairly obvious but as companies grow they appear to follow a corporate life cycle including Creation, Growth, Maturity, Turnaround and Decline. [Kimberley, J. R., Miles, R. 1980., and associates The Organisational […]