In a Nutshell: Five ways to nurture your own career
The current economic climate has really put into sharp focus HR’s contribution to business success. As businesses have downsized and try to hold on to and attract talent, they have turned to HR professionals to come up with innovative solutions to business issues. Here are five ways to make yourself even more indispensable: […]
News: Unpaid back-to-work schemes declared lawful
Although back-to-work schemes that require jobseekers to undertake unpaid work experience have been ruled lawful, the government could still find itself open to millions of pounds in reimbursement claims from people stripped of their benefits. Cait Reilly, an unemployed graduate, lost her case in the High Court after accusing the government of supporting “forced labour” […]
News: Surrey contract bidders asked to offer NEET apprenticeships
Contractors bidding to work for Surrey County Council are being asked to hire apprentices in an effort to combat the high number of young people currently not in education, employment or training. The move comes only weeks after the local authority pledged to create a £3,000 pot to fund apprenticeship places at small-to-medium enterprises for […]
Blog: Training needs analysis – How to choose the right option
You’ve conducted a Training Needs Analysis (TNA) and the results are in: training is indeed required to make sure your organisation forges ahead successfully. It’s generally accepted these days that some degree of employee training is an important part of any successful organisation. Training can reduce the skills gaps identified in TNA and improve […]
Blog: Kite Foundation encourages learning transfer through charitable donations
It is widely accepted that the biggest challenge facing trainers is not so much what goes on in the classroom but what doesn’t go on in the workplace. For a myriad of entirely understandable reasons, learners struggle to find the time, opportunity and motivation to use their nascent capabilities in the crucial first few days […]
Legal Insight: Dealing with workplace sexual harassment
Tippi Hedren, the heroine of Alfred Hitchcock’s masterpiece, ‘The Birds’, recently told how her movie career was “sabotaged” after she rejected Hitchcock’s advances. Having done so, Hedren was held to her contract – the modern day equivalent of being sent to Coventry. Fast forward to 2012, and if the alleged events happened now, she […]
News: Microsoft’s Yammer enables HR to monitor staff emotions
Microsoft’s Yammer has teamed up with emotion analysis company, Kanjoya, to enable employers to monitor staff attitudes based on their enterprise social network posts. Kanjoya’s Crane analytics dashboard communicates with Yammer in order to retrieve information from Yammer groups and other communications made over the company network to enable organisations to gauge employee emotions. […]
News: Clear link between HR effectiveness and financial growth – study
Organisations with an effective HR function generate revenues that are up to 3.5 times higher and profits that are about 2.1 times greater than rivals, according to research. These are the key findings of a survey among more than 4,200 HR and non-HR managers based in over 100 countries across the world conducted by The […]
Case Studies: UBS and Elizabeth Arden remain loyal to Oracle
In the increasingly febrile battleground of the cloud-based human capital management software market, a number of PeopleSoft customers have opted to stay with current owner, Oracle, in order to adopt its new Fusion system. First of all, UBS, has selected the offering to help it manage its 65,000-strong workforce in 50 countries. John Bradley, global […]
Blog: Four considerations when learning to manage upwards
“I need to talk to you about an employee that I am having trouble with.” Like a lot of you, I get calls all the time with people that want to bounce things off of me. I also volunteer my HR services to non-profits. This statement came from a founding member of the non-profit […]
Blog: Danny Boyle’s secret to enabling creativity on an Olympic scale
Recognise This! – Creativity is not enough without delivery on the promise. I’ll hazard a guess that 100% of my readers watched the Olympics opening ceremony, at least in part, or read about it, or saw elements of it on news coverage. What did you think of it? Most feedback seems to range from “spectacular!” […]
Ask the Expert: What should I include in an absence management policy?
The question What do I need to include in our absence management policies and procedures and what do I need to be wary of? I am particularly interested in the Bradford Factor as I am looking into the possibility of introducing it as a way of triggering return-to-work meetings – can you provide any […]
News: Tower Hamlets implements ‘Smarter Working’ initiative
Tower Hamlets Council is enabling its entire workforce of more than 4,000 personnel to work from any location, using any computing device, as part of its ‘Smarter Working’ initiative. The borough expects its carbon footprint to reduce by over 300 tons per annum as a result of the move, which will see it introducing […]
News: Fraud leaps as employees struggle to make ends meet
High unemployment rates are causing more people than ever to lie on their CV, while pay freezes and squeezed living standards are leading greater numbers of staff to steal. According to an analysis of its staff fraud database by the UK’s fraud prevention service, CIFAS, the amount of successful job application fraud rose by a […]
News: Mother loses dead son’s disability discrimination case against Amazon
A mother has lost the disability discrimination case lodged against Amazon in a bid to fulfil the wish of her dying son, a former employee of the online retailer. David Peregrine, who was only 36, launched his suit against the shopping web site after being sent home without pay from its Swansea, South Wales-based distribution […]
Blog: A recruiter’s response to HMRC’s £390m industry probe
The tax office has turned the tables, and the headlines, on recruiters. It would seem that they have come out swinging after being attacked for an estimated £390m in tax avoidance and will now bring those that are running these multi-million pound schemes to book. HMRC has queried where the figure of £390m has […]
How to accommodate disabled workers in a post-Remploy world
It isn’t often that workplace disability rights make national headlines. But following recent news that 27 Remploy factories – including five dedicated to employing disabled people – will be shut, that has certainly been the case. Disability activists and employment specialists have been publicly rethinking what equal access to work means and how society […]
Book Review: Diversity in the workplace – Multi-disciplinary and international perspectives
Today workplace diversity is a huge and multi-faceted topic that all organisations must address at a variety of levels across all areas of their operations. But, as this book proves, just because a subject is huge doesn’t mean to say that it has to be impenetrable. Editor Stefan Groschl gets things off to a […]
News: Asian postman gets £100,000 payout for exposing racism
A postman has received a £100,000 payout after blowing the whistle on “endemic racism” at his workplace, which resulted in him and other Asian colleagues being branded as “cockroaches” and “vermin”. Abdul Musa, who was supported in his claim by the Equality and Human Rights Commission, worked at the Royal Mail‘s Canterbury Street sorting office […]
News: Doctor shadowing scheme introduced to cut NHS ‘killing season’
The NHS has introduced a scheme in which junior doctors will shadow senior colleagues for at least four days in a bid to curtail the impact of the annual ‘killing season’. The initiative was introduced following pilot projects across the country and will run in late July from this year onwards. Senior doctors will […]