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 […]
Ask the Expert: Can I offer a candidate for one job a different post?
The question If I find an excellent candidate that I would like to appoint for job B when interviewing for job A, could I withdraw the advert for job B and give the post to the person on the job A list? Both jobs offer the same salary, have the same requirements and are […]
News: CBI union proposals dismissed as “attempt to weaken employees’ voice”
CBI proposals to bring trade union laws “up to date with the modern workplace” have been dismissed by the TUC as simply an attempt to “weaken employees’ voice”. In a speech at law firm Eversheds‘ Labour Relations Conference yesterday, Neil Bentley, the CBI’s deputy director general, attested that, while unions continued to play a constructive […]
News: Dyson sues Bosch after discovering ‘spy’ on its staff
Dyson is suing German rival Bosch after claiming that it paid a spy to steal company secrets while working at the British engineering group’s high security research and development unit. The company attests that a rogue employee, who is thought to be Chinese, had been handing information over to Bosch divisions in the UK and […]
In a Nutshell: Five tips to foster a change-friendly culture
A recent study conducted by IT product and services vendor Fujitsu confirmed what many have long suspected: Just over two thirds of the employers questioned believed that they were failing to keep up with the growing pace of change – despite all of the financial risks that such a scenario generates. But what is it […]
Blog: Punk Rock HR – Resilience and the Chumbawumba effect
Good HR people and leaders share what I call the ‘Chumbawumba effect’ in common. Check out Chumbawumba’s punk folk song “I get knocked down but I get up again” to see / hear what I mean: www.youtube.com/watch The lyric “I get knocked down but I get up again” summarises the quality of ’emotional […]
Six suggestions for boosting how many women sit on the board
Although women make up 51% of the UK population and just under half of the workforce, only 19% of senior management and 9.6% of executive director positions are held by females. So it’s clear that the higher up the management hierarchy you go, the fewer women that there are. Is the same true of […]
Infographic: HRZone community survey – What do you think?
What are your most and least favourite things about HRZone? Find out below…..
Editor’s Letter: Finding your way through the HCM applications maze
Even though technology is not exactly the favourite subject of many an HR director, it is rising up the agenda of a goodly number, simply due to the fact that their HR systems are reaching end of life and are starting to need replacing. But even when embarking on a bit of desk research, it […]
News: Birmingham equal pay ruling could open claim floodgates
Thousands of workers could now bring equal pay claims dating back six years rather than six months after 174 women won a “landmark” ruling against Birmingham City Council. The Supreme Court ruled that members of the so-called ‘Abdulla Group’, which was named after the woman whose name was at the top of the list, could […]
News: O2 and Bauer Media to create 30k youth work experience places
O2 has joined forces with Bauer Media in launching a £5 million campaign to provide young people with up to 30,000 work experience or skills development opportunities over the next three years. The campaign entitled ‘GoThinkBig’ will see the two companies offer placements to 9,000 14-25 year olds across the UK by October 2013. […]