Talent Spot: Louise Rooney, head of HR at ServiceSource
As HR manager at IT firm ServiceSource, Louise Rooney has a major recruitment job on her hands. When she first joined, the company’s headcount was about 120, but in less than a year, it had grown to 165 and there are plans to create another 100 posts over the next few months. “Sourcing the right […]
Talking Point: Is low staff turnover for losers?
Who on earth ever said that low attrition rates were the mainstay of business success? Staff turnover levels have been obsessed over for years and are still the cause of many a furrowed brow in meetings on the subject. Some teams are even trained to worry – far too much – about an issue […]
News: ‘Freedom Food’ gangmasters lose licence for alleged human trafficking
A gangmaster company that is a member of the RSPCA’s ‘Freedom Food’ welfare scheme has had its licence revoked on suspicion of human trafficking for the purposes of labour exploitation. According to the Guardian, a 52-year old man and 50-year old woman from the company, which cannot be named for legal reasons, were arrested in […]
News: Learning management systems sector is now a “buyer’s market”
A combination of increasing commoditisation and slowing growth in the adoption of learning management systems is making it a buyer’s market, research has indicated. A report conducted by Bersin & Associates predicted that sector growth was likely to drop to 10.4% globally between 2012 and 2013 compared with 14.7% between 2011 and 2012 – although […]
Do you over-think things? If so, stop it at once…
I looked at my phone and there was a text that said, “Urgent: now what do I do?” Like a lot of people in HR, I do a fair share of career counseling, especially with Gen Y. This was a call from someone who, to put it mildly, works in a terrible culture with mistreatment […]
Blog: Did Man City’s Mancini display emotional intelligence?
When the chips are down, how often do we hear leaders, whether in sport, politics or business, admit responsibility and shoulder the blame? Not that often. But, last week, following a defeat away to Ajax (which could be the final nail in the Champions League coffin for money-clad Manchester City), Roberto Mancini, did just […]
Giz a job: The state of the HR recruitment market
There have been encouraging signs of more HR hiring activity during the last couple of months following our golden summer of sport. HR stakeholders are now back in the office and permanent recruitment is starting to move again, with the flow of new opportunities also on the rise. Financial and professional services As […]
Infographic: How staff engagement boosts business performance
Click on the image to view it full size.
Five tips for becoming a successful interim
So you’ve decided to take the plunge and work as an interim. When starting out, the three main elements to consider are: Whether to be self-employed (sole trader) or to form a limited company (personal services company). You are likely to find that most agencies expect you to be the latter and in fact this […]
News: One in 5 UK workers fail to earn Living Wage
A huge one in five UK workers fail to earn a Living Wage, with people in Northern Ireland and Wales particularly badly hit, according to research. A study undertaken by financial information services company, Markit, on behalf of management consultancy, KPMG, revealed that some 4.82 million employees across the country do not receive the £7.20 […]
News: 1/3 of workers fiddle travel expenses to top up pay
Nearly one in three staff regularly top up their monthly pay by fiddling travel expenses, adding extra to taxi fares or claiming for non-business-related trips. According to a survey of 1,000 UK employees undertaken by expense management software provider, Spendvision, about 23% routinely ask for a blank receipt in order to add a few extra […]
Blog: Family-friendly law – The debate continues
Earlier this month we saw a shock announcement from Sheila Lawlor, director of Politeia, stating that paid maternity leave creates a “great burden” for women and has stunted their growth up the career ladder to the boardroom. With current legislation allowing women to take time off following the birth of their children and recent developments […]
Blog: Workforce planning – The answer to train operators’ prayers?
There have been ongoing announcements lately from London Midland trains about substantial cancellations of its train services on the Northampton to Birmingham line. This is due to a lack of qualified drivers caused by several factors. It takes on average twelve months to train a driver but driver retention is poor due to crippling […]
Legal Insight: Working with the Working Time Regulations
The coalition government has expressed its commitment to “deregulating” employment law. As part of this approach, the Home Secretary, Theresa May, is specifically targeting European Directives and has pledged the government’s commitment to negotiate UK domestic law out of these obligations. Her concern is that directives passed down from Europe, which must subsequently be […]
A buyer’s guide to talent management software
Over the last 18 months, the talent management software sector has changed beyond all recognition, which has led to a lot of general confusion. Underpinning these changes has been the growing importance of talent management as a discipline as well as a shift away from on-premise systems towards cloud or Software-as-a-Service options. The impact […]
News: Earnings growth to remain weak for next five years
Current weakness in the labour market means that wage increases will continue to be muted for the next five years, with the average pay award estimated to be between 2.2% and 2.5%. According to the Centre for Economics and Business Research, even though the UK has now officially exited recession, the slack in the labour […]
News: Eight ways to cope with the clocks going back
As the clocks go back this Sunday and the days continue to darken, millions of workers will once again find themselves suffering from the winter blues as British summertime officially ends. The short days can have a significant impact on some employees’ health and wellbeing, but the time change can also lead to short-term complications […]
Blog: Employee Engagement Taskforce to unveil resources-based website
Recognize This! – Providing more than ideas and recommendations is necessary to help organisations embrace real strategies to engage employees. What does it take to move “employee engagement” from buzzword or annual survey exercise to actual workforce change? Obviously, it requires investment and commitment at an organisation level. But what could happen if that […]
Christina’s Counsel: What can we do to motivate disaffected middle managers?
Hello and welcome to this month’s dilemma: The challenge This month, an employer asked for advice on how to motivate a group of middle managers. These managers had provided feedback indicating that they were demotivated due to a lack of control as they felt that the senior management team had all of the […]
The HRZone Interview: Jon Ingham on where HR is going wrong
In the view of Jon Ingham, HR consultant, author and blogger, the current obsession of HR practitioners to be seen as business people first and HR professionals second could seriously backfire. The danger is that, by becoming too much like everyone else in the business, HR will lose sight of what its key focus should […]
