Blog: Don’t be done yet – HR still has a lot of work to do
“I’m done.” Those words were uttered by Andy Roddick last month at the beginning of the U.S. Open. Tennis is unlike a lot of sports, where the coach or general manager lets you know in so many words that it may be time to go. Yes, in most sports they tell you when you are done. […]
Maximising your emotional capital
For 10 years the research has told us that, to besuccessful in our personal and professional lives, we need to show emotional as well as cognitive intelligence. Clear links have also been established between specific emotional skills and outstanding success in the leadership arena. Of course, as HR professionals, we’ve always known that having […]
How to ensure you get that promotion
Making the transition from an operational role into a strategic role can be one of the most rewarding steps you can make. However, positioning yourself so that you’re the one who gets hired becomes trickier the higher up the corporate ladder you climb. So here are seven suggestions to help you climb the career ladder: […]
News: Govt plans to axe employer safety checks garner mixed response
Government plans to exempt hundreds and thousands of businesses from “burdensome” health and safety inspections as part of its pledge to cut business red tape have garnered a mixed response. Under a binding statutory code that is due to be introduced in April 2013, proactive checks will no longer be routinely carried out on premises […]
News: Top internship and work experience employers revealed
Financial services firms have taken the first three slots in a league table ranking the UK’s best employers for work experience placements and internships, with professional services organisations dominating the top 10 overall. Number one in the survey compiled by RateMyPlacement.co.uk, a student review website, was Barclays Investment Banking arm, which leapt up 13 places […]
An HRD’s guide to tackling pension auto-enrolment
As the introduction of pension auto-enrolment becomes increasingly imminent for large organisations (from 1 October this year), we have attempted to answer some of the key questions that HR directors raise about the issue in a bid to help them deal with it as effectively as possible: Q. What is the timetable for auto-enrolment? […]
Blog: Punk Rock HR – Appraisals (It ain’t what you do, it’s the way that you do it…)
This is the fourth extract of my new book “Punk Rock People Management – a no-nonsense guide to hiring, inspiring and firing staff”. Here's an extract on the topic of appraisal: I have had the privilege of working with ‘Honorary Punk Rock Leadership Professor’ Dennis Tourish, who asks audiences of HR professionals “Who enjoys their […]
Blog: Is HR doing a good job of delivering learning to workers?
Our major new global research project, ‘Agile Learning: Living with the Speed of Change’ examines how HR leaders around the world are delivering learning at a time when there is huge pressure to deliver new employee skills to the front line more rapidly, more often and with much greater impact than ever before. The findings illustrate the […]
Ask the Expert: How can we avoid ageism claims over gym membership?
The question The way that our business is currently set up is as an Industrial Provident Society, which means that employees can buy a share in the company and also receive free gym membership for a friend or family member (employees already have membership themselves). But we are now having to change our legal […]
News: Thinktank and nurses’ leaders dispute impact of regional pay deals
Although a think tank has claimed that national pay rates are unfair to public sector workers, nurses’ leaders attest that local pay rates will result in thousands of professionals leaving the NHS in protest. According to a report by the right-wing Policy Exchange, a huge £6.3 billion of public money could be freed up by […]
News: “Real likelihood” of coordinated strikes by year end, warns Unite
The leader of the UK’s biggest union has warned that there is a “real likelihood” of a fresh wave of coordinated public sector strike action before the end of the year. Speaking on the eve of the annual TUC Congress, which opens in Brighton on Sunday, Len McCluskey, Unite’s general secretary, said that the pensions […]
Book Review: Organisational behaviour for dummies
This book by Cary Cooper, Lynn Holdsworth and Sheena Johnson is a comprehensive exploration of everything related to individual and group behaviour as well as the impact of such dynamics on the wider business/organisation. As a result, it would be beneficial to start with a definition of what the term ‘organisational behaviour’ actually means: […]
Blog: How to beat the holiday blues and get back to business quickly
With the traditional summer holiday period almost over, many of us are settling back into a working routine after a period of relaxation and recovery. A break from work commitments has provided many of us with the time and space to read, digest best practice and consider our aspirations, hopes and plans for our […]
News: Unemployment fears used to dampen pay, claims incoming TUC boss
Unemployment appears as if it is being used as a “deliberate measure to keep pay down, and to keep people scared”, according to the TUC’s leader-in-waiting, Frances O’Grady. In an interview with the Guardian, she said that there was “a fair bit of evidence” that the country’s lengthening dole queues could be part of a […]
News: Pensions gap widens between top directors and everyone else
The pensions’ gap between top company directors and everyone else appears to be widening, according to research. The TUC’s PensionsWatch survey, which analyses the pension arrangements of 351 FTSE 100 directors, revealed that their average occupational pension was a huge 24.4 times larger than the average UK workers’ of £9,929. Of the 144 senior […]
In a Nutshell: Five tips for rolling out a global HR system successfully
In July this year, Aviva completed the UK roll-out of an HR system from Software-as-a-Service vendor, Workday, following successful implementations at the insurance provider’s subsidiaries in Europe, North America and Asia. Based on the experience, here are acting group HR director Carole Jones’ top five tips to help ensure that your global applications deployment works […]
Blog: Do you undertake workforce planning?
The economic outlook for the UK may still be flat lining but companies appear to be staying resilient and retaining staff, which is reassuring. Our recent survey of 900 companies throughout the country reveals that 81 per cent will be making ‘no redundancies at all’ in the next six months and just 4 per cent […]
Legal Insight: The HR implications of pensions auto-enrolment
From 1 October this year, pension auto-enrolment will start to affect the UK’s largest businesses. While a lot of these employers will already have got to grips with fundamental issues such as identifying their staging date and considering which pension scheme to use to satisfy the new legislation, there are a number of HR implications […]
News: UK rounds up allies to fight EC female board quotas
The UK has launched a Europe-wide campaign in a bid to block proposals by Brussels to impose a 40% quota for female board representation on FTSE 100 companies by 2020. According to the Financial Times, a pointedly-worded letter has been sent to at least 10 other European Union governments, including Germany and Sweden, that appear […]
News: LinkedIn misuse means candidate research ‘should be conducted with caution’
Widespread misuse of LinkedIn means that HR professionals should exercise caution when using it as a tool to conduct research on potential job candidates, a researcher has warned. A survey among 2,028 UK adults undertaken by ICM Research revealed, for instance, that around two thirds of people who have used the social networking site in […]
