Blog: Three steps to help you improve your work-life balance
When I am coaching clients in the corporate world, I often come across a common complaint: “I have lots of good intentions, but I just can’t seem to find the time to create a better work/life balance”. Unfortunately, this is a result of working in a fast paced career environment. We know we need […]
Blog: Are you serious about adopting a 70:20:10 development model?
Are business serious about 70:20:10 development? Or is it becoming a lazy way of reducing budgets while expecting already over stretched staff to take on increased responsibility for their own learning? 70:20:10 Development models seem to be gaining an increasing number of supporters in organisations HR and L&D departments. The idea itself is […]
So you want to be…head of learning and development?
Head of learning and development roles are very popular but also very rare at the moment. Part of the reason for this is the nature of the job – not every organisation will have a Head of L&D. Smaller businesses may instead employ generalists to carry out this work or have L&D specialists at […]
Talent Spot: Stephanie Murphy, Interim HR manager
It took Stephanie Murphy a long time to discover HR, but she’s now very glad that she did. Until then, she had dabbled with a lot of things: working with animals, at Boots, Bradford & Bingley and as a cabin crew member for an airline. “I enjoyed those jobs, but never felt tied to something,” […]
News: Workplace disenchantment hits “crisis” levels
With disenchantment in the workplace hitting “crisis” levels, it is incumbent on HR professionals to find new ways to engage staff and compensate for below-inflation wage increases that are continuing to squeeze household incomes. According to the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development’s Labour Market Outlook survey of more than 1,000 employers, some 51% were […]
News: Govt regional pay plans risk breach with Whitehall
Leaked government plans to introduce regional pay rates for civil servants are threatening to push already strained relations between the two to breaking point. The move comes only weeks after the Prime Minister’s director of strategy, Steve Hilton, who left Downing Street last week, advised him to "road test" swingeing cuts to Whitehall in a […]
In a Nutshell: Five tips when rolling out HR software
In January, Jack Morton Worldwide completed a global roll-out of a new performance management system from SAP’s Software-as-a-Service acquisition, SuccessFactors. The system replaced bespoke applications so the brand experience agency was determined to reapply the lessons learned from its first implementation in order to ensure that its second one went as smoothly as possible. HR […]
Blog: Does social learning really work?
Have you ever been reluctant to seek assistance from someone inside your organisation, perhaps afraid of losing face because you need help? High performers communicate with their colleagues In a series of experiments, MIT Professor Tom Allen1 found that people are more likely to look outside their own organisation for ideas, while at the […]
Blog: Charity partnerships – Benefitting from philanthropy
Corporate Social Responsibility isn’t a new thing. But certainly it has a new face these days (usually a pink, puffy, sweaty one from running sponsored marathons). Now that we’re all credit-crunched, coughing up charity cash donations is happening less – but actually that is no bad thing. Why? Well, for many reasons, not least […]
Talking Point: Recruitment – The only way is digital?
One of the hottest hiring topics at the moment is the shift from reactive recruitment to talent marketing – a process that has largely been supported by the use of emerging technologies such as video job boards, social media and mobile channels. So, what are these new technologies and how can HR directors make sure […]
How would global experience help my career?
As businesses broaden their international horizons, it’s crucial for senior executives to have a global mind set that’s aligned with the aims of the company, while being sensitive to the needs of the cultures in which they operate. This ability to act global and think local arguably lies, fundamentally, with HR. “Globalisation has gone from […]
A typical HRD: Part 2 – The third sector
As the economic landscape has changed over the last four years, so too has the typical profile of an HR director in the third sector. Historically, in some circles, the industry was regarded as a bit of a backwater – a pleasant environment in which to work, but not at all ‘cutting edge’ from an […]
News: Union requests clarification on whether HP to cut 30,000 jobs
The Public and Commercial Services Union has written to IT supplier HP "demanding immediate discussions" in light of press reports it plans to shed as many as 30,000 positions globally. The union said it wants to determine "what impact this will have on our members who work for HP in the UK". These "latest cuts" […]
News: Stringfellows’ dancer goes back to tribunal
The epic case of topless dancer Nadine Quashie will be heading back to the employment tribunals after a judge ruled that she had been an employee at the Stringfellows club in London. Quashie, a former accountancy student, lost her unfair dismissal case at an employment tribunal in late 2010, which found that she was self-employed. […]
News: Cable blasts Beecroft Report as “complete nonsense”
The Business Secretary has blasted plans to make it easier for firms to sack under-performing staff as “complete nonsense”, warning that they would leave a “dead hand of fear” hanging over workers’ heads. Vince Cable told the BBC that it was not the job of government to “scare the wits” out of people by introducing […]
News: Major UK employers sign up to CIPD youth work experience campaign
Leading employers such as Marks & Spencer, Nestle and Deloitte have signed up to a campaign to provide young people with work experience in order to make them more employable. The aim of the ‘Learning to Work’ initiative, which was launched today by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, is to work with both […]
Blog: 10 recommendations for boosting employee engagement
How do you improve the engagement culture within your organisation? Employee engagement is big business these days. A recent internet search I carried out highlighted 5,370,000 results on Google and 2,005 books on Amazon. (By the time you read this, those numbers will probably have increased!) There are also a multitude of surveys that […]
Video Interview: Bright Purple Academy aims to inspire next generation business talent
I spent last Thursday touring Edinburgh promoting entries from Scottish entrepreneurs for our small business competition The Pitch 2012 with £50,000 worth of business support up for grabs. During the day, I visited several organisations to discover how they are supporting small business owners. The first meeting was at the offices of recruitment company Bright […]
Blog: Social media – Opportunity or danger?
And so it was that recently I took part in the People Managements webinar entitled Social Media: Opportunity or Danger? expertly facilitated by PM‘s Editor in chief Rob McLaughlan and Digital Marketing Manager Zoe Bearne. I was one of three ‘speakers’, the other two being Al Shah, Social Media Demand Manager for GlaxoSmithKline and Lucy Turner, […]
Ask the Expert: When can restrictive covenants be enforced – or not?
800×600 Normal 0 false false false EN-GB X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 The question I think that I am familiar with the general issues surrounding the enforcement of restrictive covenants, but would welcome advice on this specific matter: If the covenant is part of an employment contract that an employer has unlawfully breached (for example, where a […]