Legal Insight: Employment tribunal proposals – Beware the silent killers
The government recently announced proposals to streamline employment law and the employment tribunal system, which could roughly be split into three categories: flag waving, old wine in new bottles and silent killers. The proposals themselves stem from the view that there has been significant growth in the number of complex employment tribunal claims, which are […]
News: Viral resignation email proves ‘money isn’t enough for disgruntled staff’
“Throwing money” at disgruntled employees rarely works into the long-term as Kieran Allen’s very public resignation email, which went viral after being posted on Twitter, has proved, according to a marketing recruiter. Allen, a senior account manager at UK media planning and buying agency, MEC Global, which is part of the WPP Group, sent the […]
News: ‘Forget offshoring. Onshore work to prison inmates instead’
Rather than offshore work to staff overseas, employers should consider onshoring it to inmates within the prison system, an offender rehabilitation expert has suggested. A report entitled ‘Made in Prison’ published by Working Links called on the government to work with organisations such as the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development and the CBI to […]
Blog: Ten top tips to appear more confident
If you’re keen to come across more confidently, here are 10 tips to do just that: 1. Know what you look like Find out how people perceive you…if you look as though you lack confidence, then people will treat you as though you do. In other words, you’re already on the back foot and […]
Talent Spot: Simon Linares, group HR director at Telefonica Digital
When Telefónica Digital launched last year, group HR director Simon Linares had the daunting but exciting prospect of helping to create a very different organisational culture from that of its parent company. Its parent, Telefónica, is the Spanish owner of mobile operator O2, of which Linares was formerly group HR director too. But his […]
Blog: HenryTalk – Any answers for all your questions Part 1
HRZone’s Any Answers has been busy lately and we’ve been going through the recent posts to pick out a few highlights. All of these questions are still live so, if you want to add anything, just follow the links and get in touch. First is a tricky situation for bigharry, who is moving out of management […]
Talking Point: Does HR have a role in CSR programmes?
The role of HR in corporate social responsibility programmes is not dissimilar to that in any other company initiative. But given widespread confusion as to what CSR actually comprises, HR personnel could be forgiven for wondering exactly how they fit into the broader picture. A common definition of CSR is a corporate programme that […]
News: Former TA chief: UK employers’ discrimination in hiring “despicable”
The former head of the Territorial Army has called for financial incentives and the tightening of UK legislation in a bid to prevent employers from routinely discriminating against reservists during the recruitment process. In an interview with the Telegraph, the Duke of Westminister, one of the country’s richest men and a two-star major general who […]
News: Staff at Dept for Culture, Media and Sport face post-Olympics cull
Despite successfully helping to stage the Olympic Games and the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations, civil servants at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport have all been put at risk of redundancy. The department has been tasked with cutting its administration costs by 50%. As a result, its aim is to cut its workforce […]
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 […]