Blog: Becoming a Time Lord – Progressing your career without benefit of hindsight
Meg Burton’s interview in my last blog prompted some thoughts about how we create that awareness of what our gap is… You know the gap that with hindsight we can see as clearly as the nose on our face (if you missed it click here). Unless you have Dr Who like abilities we don’t […]
In a Nutshell: Four ways to ensure that staff have a healthy work-life balance
Because this is National Work-Life Week, it’s a good time to think about the importance of achieving a healthy balance between the two. Michael Gentle, head of consumer marketing at online jobs board, Monster UK and Ireland, shares his top tips for ensuring that employees do just that: 1. Increase happiness: Ensure staff know […]
The first HCM reporting benchmark: BITC’s Workwell model
Today’s launch of Business in the Community’s Workwell FTSE 100 benchmark is the culmination of more than five years of research into the issue of human capital management reporting. The benchmark was created by the charity in partnership with key employers such as BT Group in order to demonstrate the benefits of taking a strategic, […]
Is the HR recruitment market starting to recover?
The overall HR recruitment market has seen a marked improvement recently, with a cautious but steady rise in new vacancies. Here we look at individual sectors in more depth: Financial services There have been a few significant HR moves at the senior executive level recently and we expect that to impact hiring as new […]
Blog: Andrew Mitchell’s hissy fit – Why swearing at work is never a good idea
The dear old Brits used to be famous for the rigid quality of their upper lips. Death, debt, war – we remained determinedly phlegmatic. Whether John McEnroe was a cause or a symptom, whether it’s those Oprah-type shows that encourage us to let it all hang out, but the UK’s upper lip is looking really […]
News: 22,500 new HR jobs created over last year
While the number of HR professionals employed in the UK has risen by 20% over the last year, vacancies for senior interim staff leaped by a huge 45% during the first nine months of 2012 alone. According to an analysis of data from the Office for National Statistics undertaken by specialist HR recruitment agency Ortus, […]
News: Lean process focus leads to drop in assessment centre quality
A growing desire to implement cost-effective, streamlined processes is leading to falling quality at many assessment and development centres, according to research. A survey among 543 HR professionals in 53 countries conducted by talent management consultancy a&dc, revealed that 17% of assessments lasted half a day or less, even though just over half of those […]
Blog: National Work-Life Week: Getting women on the board
Everywhere I turn the debate about getting more women into British boardrooms continues. Last week we learnt the government is building a team of allies to fight the EU’s proposed introduction of mandatory quotas. The week before, BBC2 aired the second part of Dragons’ Den entrepreneur Hilary Devey’s investigation into why so few women […]
HRD Insight: Enterprise Rent-A-Car’s Leigh Lafever-Ayer on flexible working
This week is National Work-Life Week, which is intended to encourage both employers and their employees to think about how they can strike a better work-life balance. One popular flexible working method is home-working and people who do so are reportedly less stressed and feel happier that they are getting the balance between the two […]
Ask the Expert: Can staff change the goalposts over maternity leave?
The question I have a staff member who has taken all of her Ordinary Maternity Leave and is now into Additional Maternity Leave. Prior to the leave starting, she notified us that she wished to return during her AML (to come back in September), but would take an additional period of holiday so that […]
News: Don’t act “too gay”, senior GP tells medical students
A senior member of the Royal College of General Practitioners is under investigation after telling medical students that they should act in a less “overtly gay” fashion in order to pass their exams. According to the Independent, the inquiry was launched following the discovery that Dr Una Coales had written a controversial guide setting out […]
News: “Shareholder spring” leads to fewer senior exec pay rises
Almost half of senior executives in the UK’s largest companies failed to secure a pay rise this year following the “shareholder spring” backlash against excessive renumeration. According to a report by Deloitte Consulting, some 46% of the chief executives in FTSE 100 firms saw their basic salary frozen this year compared with only 21% in […]
Blog: Creating your own Dragon’s Den to foster innovation
As a new series of Dragons’ Den hits the airwaves listening to some of the ideas presented in the programme does make you sit up and think….what if? Well what if you looked at your employees as inventors and innovators and created a collection of dragons from around your own business? Then every quarter […]
In a Nutshell: Five considerations when setting up your own business
Karen Gill, co-founder of everywoman, a women’s membership organisation that aims to increase both the number and status of women in business, knows from first-hand experience how hard it is to set up a company and the pitfalls that await. Here she offers advice to anyone thinking of striking out on their own: 1. Learn […]
Engaging for success: The key role of line managers
The recently formed government taskforce ‘Engage For Success’ is urging employers to prioritise staff engagement as means of achieving economic growth. As Russell Grossman, director of communications at the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills, observed at this year’s Institute of Internal Communication conference, if the UK’s 4.8 million businesses could boost engagement levels by […]
Infographic: The impact of social media on recruitment
Analysis: The rise of Salesforce’s social Work.com
Work needs to become socially-enabled for employees to escape the restrictions imposed by traditional HR software applications. That was the ley message from Software as a Service provider Salesforce.com as it launched Work.com, a rebranded version of the Rypple application that it acquired earlier this year. Work.com is a social performance management system, which […]
News: Higher stress levels and longer hours with us for next 3 years
Increasing numbers of UK workers are suffering excessive pressure in their job as they work longer hours than ever – and the situation isn’t expected to change any time soon. According to a survey of 1,606 companies across the world conducted by professional services firm Towers Watson, a third acknowledged that employees were under […]
Blog: Why competency frameworks are like potatoes
I always think about Competency Frameworks as being like a potato. Not because they are muddy, starchy and sprout a bit when left in a dark cupboard, but because they provide a good solid basis and you can do loads of different things with them. Yet also like spuds, they are often either under-utilised, or […]
HRZone Interview: Jason Holt on apprenticeships
Most UK businesses are missing a fantastic growth opportunity by failing to offer apprenticeships, believes jeweller and entrepreneur Jason Holt, who has just completed a government report on how to make such schemes more manageable for small-to-medium enterprises. Holt took over the family jewellery business in 1999 and subsequently set up Holt’s Academy of Jewellery […]
