Blog: Fact – Improve management practice by 1% or hire 25% more staff
Recognise This! – A little effort to improve management skills is worth as much as a 25% increase in headcount. A consistent source of good advice and cross-industry perspective on company culture, Blanchard Leader Chat is one of my must-read blogs. Last month, for example, they featured recent global research from McKinsey, Stanford, and […]
Podcast: LOCOG’s CEO Paul Deighton talks diversity and inclusion
Natalie Cooper, the editor of our partner, online jobs board Changeboard, conducts an exclusive interview with Paul Deighton, chief executive of the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games. They talk about the challenges to be faced when trying to ensure that diversity and inclusion are embedded in organisational culture and how such […]
Talking Point: What’s happened to business ethics?
It seems that every time you open a newspaper at the moment, there’s a new business scandal. The fall-out from Barclays Libor-rigging fine continues to be an ongoing story. The scandal has already claimed the scalps of the bank’s chairman and chief executive – and who knows how many more may follow? Barclay’s leadership […]
HRD Insight: BP Exploration’s Jane Burt on being a charity trustee
Becoming the trustee of a charity is the kind of volunteering work that can complement your career and help you to develop new personal and professional skills. Being a trustee is not only a valuable way of contributing to the third sector, it can also be an interesting and rewarding experience, helping to broaden your […]
News: Whitehall shared service centres fail to deliver expected savings
Shared service centres have failed to deliver expected savings for Whitehall and, in some instances, have cost taxpayers more than they saved, a report has revealed. A study published by the Public Accounts Committee found that, of the five central government departments which signed up to the programme in a bid to cut costs by […]
Ask the Expert: Is someone sacked for gross misconduct entitled to unused leave?
The question Reviewing an employee handbook, I noticed that it includes a clause to the effect that an employee summarily dismissed for gross misconduct will forfeit entitlement to payment for unused leave. Can you advise me as to whether this is lawful? The legal verdict Esther Smith, partner at Thomas Eggar […]
News: Land Securities proposes bonus clawback scheme
Land Securities is to become one of the first companies outside of the financial services sector to introduce a clawback mechanism on bonuses and share awards for top executives. The proposals made by the commercial property firm in its 2012 annual report were the result of a review of senior managers’ pay after the sector […]
Blog: Leadership/management lessons from the Diamond debacle
We know that former head of Barclays bank, Bob Diamond, was leading the financial institution during the period in which the well-documented Libor rates or interest rates for inter-bank borrowing, were being manipulated. It has now come to light that Diamond had absolutely no idea it was going on. Surely, if he was at the […]
Blog: RTI and auto-enrolment – Would HMRC like to join us in real-time?
PAYE has remained largely unchanged since it was introduced in 1944 and HMRC believes it needs to be updated to meet the needs of the 21st century. The forthcoming introduction of Real Time Information (RTI) will mark the biggest change in Pay as You Earn (PAYE) for over 60 years. It will impact upon […]
Legal Insight: Bob Diamond – A case of constructive unfair dismissal?
Third party pressure from the Bank of England, combined with the media furore about the fixing of lending rates, appear ultimately to have led to the resignation of Bob Diamond as Barclays’ chief executive. But such scenarios have potential implications for employers. Not only do they need to find the most effective way to manage […]
News: Greater reliance on army reservists ‘could lead to more tribunal cases’
A greater reliance on reservist forces to try and compensate for army job cuts of 20,000 by 2020 could lead to a jump in employment tribunal claims among unwary employers. The coalition government has announced that it will axe 17 major army units over the next eight years, in a move that will see the […]
News: Disabled Remploy workers to strike over 2,800 proposed job cuts
Disabled workers are to stage two 24-hour strikes in protest at plans to close 36 of the 54 Remploy factories that employ them, leading to 2,800 job losses. Members of the GMB and Unite unions will walk out on Thursday 19 and 26 July to express their “disgust” at the coalition government’s proposals to axe […]
Blog: Punk rock HR – Recruitment
I attended the CIPD HR Software Exhibition the other week, not expecting to be stirred by the experience. To my surprise I spotted a company that is using software to transform the way companies and individuals organise their career development. careerpassport offers an innovative approach to recruitment that stands head and shoulders above […]
Blog: When to use social networks or personal networking?
Most of us have understood the importance of networking to leadership for a long time, but the recent appointment of Julia Hobsbawm by Cass Business School as the world’s first “Professor of Networking” makes it official. I listened to an interview with Hobsbawm on Radio 4 last week and it was what she had to say about […]
Barclays and the value of succession planning
The Libor rate-rigging scandal has resulted in the men at the top of Barclays, chairman, Marcus Agius, and chief executive, Bob Diamond, falling on their respective swords. But inevitably any changes to the senior management team have a direct impact on the business, potentially leaving it feeling rudderless and having a negative effect on staff […]
Banking crisis: Should staff pay be linked to customer service?
‘Banking’ and ‘customer service’ aren’t generally words that go together harmoniously. A recent survey by Avanade found a third of banking customers have lodged an official complaint with their primary bank in the last five years, generating a total of 30 million for the industry. According to the report, overdraft and late payment fees were […]
News: Employee ownership ‘not the sole driver of staff engagement’
The Institute of Customer Service has warned that the deputy prime minister’s call to boost levels of employee ownership approach will not be enough in and of itself to boost staff engagement levels across UK plc. Nick Clegg has pledged to increase the productivity of UK business by increasing the number of companies owned by workers […]
Blog: Why is it still a novelty when women get a seat on the board?
“Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook’s Long-Time COO, Becomes First Woman On Its Board Of Directors.” That was the breathless announcement coming from CNBC this week. thi As my daughter always says, “Really”? Here we are in 2012 and to make mention of the fact that she will be the only WOMAN to me just sounds so dated. […]
Blog: Performance and teamwork tips from Olympian Steve Williams
This blog post is the distillation of a talk about performance and teamwork given by Steve Williams at the Institute of Internal Communication’s annual conference recently. Steve is a double Olympic gold winner, and he focused much more on his Athens 2004 experience than Beijing 2008, although both were nail-biting close finishes! I’ve kept my hastily scribbled notes largely unedited […]
News: Coaching industry under threat from cowboys
The key challenge facing the coaching industry is the number of untrained individuals who describe themselves as practitioners, which is generating confusion in the marketplace. The sector has now become a nearly $2 billion industry, with around 47,500 professionals practising their craft on a global basis. These are the key findings of a survey commissioned […]