News: Pearson unveils business-based higher education college
Publishing house Pearson has unveiled its new higher education college and at the same time has become the first FTSE 100 company to directly offer degrees in the UK. The college, which belongs to the owner of Penguin Books and the Financial Times, says that it is keen to recruit entrepreneurial students in a bid […]
News: End of “Olympics effect” could see unemployment leap by year end
Although unemployment has fallen to its lowest level in almost a year due to the “Olympics effect”, the end of demand for temporary labour could see joblessness jump 0.3% by the close of the year. According to data released by the Office for National Statistics, the UK’s unemployment rate stood at 8% for the three […]
News: HR pros ‘most likely to share a secret’
The average HR professional spends about half an hour each day nattering to colleagues about non-work-related issues and is more likely than any other profession to share a personal secret. These are the key findings of a survey conducted among 2,000 office staff by Mars Drinks Office Connections. It revealed that, while an average […]
Blog: Why the performance appraisal system is in trouble
Performance appraisals are in trouble and sinking fast. They negatively affect workplace relationships and they do not support goal achievement. I recently wrote an article on survey answers on performance management in which I demonstrated the impact of this systemic failure. Everyone from employee to manager to human resources practitioner dislikes them. It is […]
Talent Spot: Prithvi Shergill, global head of HR at HCL Technologies
Prithvi Shergill, global head of HR at offshore IT and software development provider HCL Technologies, decided while still at university that HR was the career for him. “It was quite evident to me that I enjoyed this area – I was part of a student-run association, ISEC [International Student Education Council], on the national committee […]
Infographic: Some Olympic facts
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Blog: Attracting and retaining talent across borders
As the world has become more interconnected with globalisation, it’s inevitable that there has been a rise in the number of employees working across borders. The question is though, do we have the right talent in the right roles? This issue was highlighted in a recent Financial Times article, which looked at how institutions […]
News: EU – Employers must assess staff well-being during redundancy
Employers may have to assess the psychological health of their staff if considering whether to make any of them redundant in future, according to draft European Union proposals. The proposed new directive, which the European Parliament is scheduled to vote on in November, would also mean that bosses had to evaluate the impact of job […]
News: Google’s 10-year “death benefits” have legal implications, warns lawyer
Employers thinking of following in Google’s footsteps and offering staff so-called “death benefits” must protect themselves against a range of potential pitfalls including possible discrimination claims, a legal expert has warned. Laszlo Bock, the search engine giant’s chief people officer, told Forbes magazine last week that it had introduced a policy last year whereby, if […]
Blog: What are your staff non-verbals really saying to customers?
What do your employees unwittingly communicate to customers about how important they are to the company? Despite the focus on customer service, customer experience and more recently customer engagement, the following examples of employee behaviours are still common – and of course impact how customers feel about the company: 1. It’s Too Much Trouble I was […]
Blog: Recommended reading on HR, culture, recognition and engagement
Recognise This! – To truly lead others, we must never stop learning. Recently, I received an email from Sudan asking me for my recommendations on top 3 books in HR. I thought this was too good of an opportunity to pass up and open up to you, my readers, for a bit of crowdsourcing as […]
The HR Headmistress: Is it time to change the way we train HR pros?
There has always been debate about the best way to train entry-level workers in the necessary skills for any given occupation. Historically, there have been three ways of learning a trade. These are: qualification by experience, which is gained over time a mix of experience and study carried out while working intensive study, followed […]
Do you get commercial?
The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development has been pushing the idea that HR professionals need to become more business-savvy for some time now. As a result, we interview Debbie Pask, founder of specialist HR recruitment consultancy, Paskpartnership, in order to find out why being able to demonstrate commercial nous is becoming vital for every […]
News: Social media undervalued as employee comms tool
Most employers are failing to take advantage of social media as a means of improving their internal communications despite high levels of staff interest in them doing so. According to a survey conducted among 1,500 employees by recruitment process outsourcing provider hyphen, a mere 17.4% said that they were aware of any attempt by their […]
News: Employers face “make-or-break” in next 12 months
If the economy fails to pick up over the next year, employers will face a “make or break moment” as many are forced to axe skilled labour, sending unemployment levels soaring. According to the Labour Market Outlook survey of more than 1,000 employers conducted by YouGov on behalf of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and […]
Blog: Are your staff proud of where they work?
The UK can be proud of its hosting efforts of the 2012 Olympics as our top athletes gathered a wealth of gold, silver and bronze medals, the best haul we’ve achieved in over a century. Our athletes take pride in their work and reap the benefits when they stand on top the podium listening to […]
Ask the Expert: What happens about holiday for staff on temporarily reduced working hours?
The question If your employees agree to do a four-day instead of the normal five-day week for a temporary period of four months, what happens in regard to their annual leave and bank holiday entitlement? Normally if someone works for four days, they would receive 4/5ths of the usual entitlement but as, in […]
Blog: Should we name and shame bad managers?
Recognise This! – We publicly praise the stars. Should we publicly highlight the truly poor performers as well? Regular readers know I’m a very strong proponent of frequent and public (when appropriate and preferred) recognition of star performers as well as employees who live the values day in and day out, making it possible for […]
Cornerstone’s CEO: Taking on SAP and Oracle in the HCM apps space
The world of work is at a tipping point that apparently suits Adam Miller, chief executive of cloud-based talent management and learning software provider, Cornerstone OnDemand. He has for a while been “preaching” about the inevitable retirement of the baby boomer generation, a lack of skilled or experienced workers in the workforce combined with the […]
News: HMRC to recruit 1000 call centre agents amid low staff morale
HM Revenue & Customs is to recruit up to 1,000 additional contact centre agents in a bid to answer a targeted 90% of calls, amid the publication of a report revealing extremely low levels of staff morale. The department’s chief executive, Lin Homer, said that she planned to invest £9 million this year and up […]