News: Petrol tanker strike averted as drivers accept deal
The threat of a national fuel strike has been averted after tanker drivers narrowly voted to accept a deal aimed at ending a long-running dispute over pay and conditions. Unite said that 51% of its 2,000 members, who worked for a total of seven distribution companies, backed the deal despite a recommendation to reject it. […]
News: ‘Cameron to decimate Whitehall’ claim
The Prime Minister’s director of strategy has advised him to "road test" swingeing cuts to Whitehall in a belief that the the civil service could function effectively with 90% less staff. According to The Telegraph today, Steve Hilton, who is leaving to take up a US university post this month, has already sent officials to […]
Blog: How to get the most out of restructuring, redundancy and redeployment
For some people it must seem like a merry-go-round when they experience the upheaval of round after round of restructuring, redeployment and redundancies. Every few years the company is turned upside down and yet often doesn’t seem to gain the benefits. This must cause a lot of confusion to those in charge. They […]
Blog: Nine attitudes to help you become an emotionally intelligent leader
Emotionally Intelligent Leaders and Managers get the best results! Like learning to drive, leading and managing people is an experiential journey. My entrance onto the leadership stage was when I was promoted into the role, having stood in for the team leader from time to time. I don’t know about you, but although I […]
Ask the Expert: Is recorded third party evidence admissable for use at a tribunal?
The question While trying to sort out an employee dispute between a client and his employee (I know, stupid me!), the employee recorded the conversation that took place between us ie myself and the staff member. I was only acting as an intermediary to try and solve the dispute. But now the employee has […]
Five principles to ensure successful conflict resolution
The hidden cost of conflict is underestimated in many organisations. Indeed, one recent survey by the Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution put the cost of conflict at £40 billion each year. Grievance probes that are handled by inexperienced or poorly trained investigators can also lead to a spiral of appeals and reinvestigation, but the […]
News: Government brands public sector pensions strike as “futile”
Hundreds of thousands of public sector workers took part in demonstrations and 24-hour strike action today, staging a protest over pension changes that the Cabinet Office minister has branded “futile”. The walk-out follows last November’s nationwide stoppage by more than one-and-a-half million public servants, but was fuelled by statements in the Queen’s Speech yesterday confirming […]
News: UK’s top 10 dream jobs revealed
Although all too few people are doing their ideal job due to either a lack of cash or lack of skills, the dream for most is to have more control over their own destiny. According to a survey among 3,000 UK adults undertaken by OnePoll and commissioned by Microsoft’s Bing search engine business, a huge […]
News: HRDs excluded from public company boardrooms due to “prejudice”
Prejudice against the HR function has led to HR directors being seriously under-represented on the boards of the UK’s largest public companies, with less than 1% boasting a top job. According to research undertaken by HR recruitment agency, Ortus, only five of the 595 board directors working at the country’s leading FTSE 50 firms have […]
Blog: The power of the personal relationship
"Six years ago, Fred had a friendship with a rep for a small brand. "The brand’s contribution to our sales was insignificant, so going to a dinner with him during a shoe show, when there were hundreds of other brands there, didn’t make a lot of sense. But it was still something Fred prioritized, based […]
Blog: Six rules to govern company car etiquette
Providing employees with a new company car, new truck, or van is not just a practical move. It can go a long way towards helping employees feel nurtured and respected. It’s also often essential for business operations, especially when a company is sales-based. However, when you put keys into an employee’s hands, you’re not […]
TV Review: The Apprentice Week 8 – Confidence and enthusiasm go a long way
This week was all about the battle of the street arts where team members had their arty skills put to the test. The challenge: to find two of the ‘streetest’ urban artists and organize the sale of their art in two of the most cutting-edge galleries in London. Gabrielle put herself forward for Sterling’s […]
Legal Insight: Positive discrimination – A trap for the well intentioned?
Recent publicity on the use of positive action in recruitment or promotion in tiebreak situations has left HR directors with a dilemma. Should positive action be used to improve diversity either in the organisation generally or to help women and members of ethnic minorities break through “glass ceilings” into management? Section 159 of the […]
News: Expert verdicts on the Queen’s Speech Bill by Bill
Below are the key Bills to affect HR that were presented in the Queen's Speech to Parliament today, along with the verdicts of those in the know: Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill This Bill covers HR-related subjects such as employment disputes and director’s pay. Reforms to the employment tribunal system are intended to […]
News: Up to 33,000 City jobs axed already this year
Economic experts are estimating that up to 33,000 more City jobs have already been lost this year than was expected six months ago, while also predicting that UK unemployment will continue to rise until 2016. The Centre for Economics and Business Research has revised its estimate of the average number of extant City posts sharply […]
Blog: CEO confessions – What it takes to create a successful company culture
Recognise This! – No company will build the same culture, but every organisation should focus intentional effort on building the right culture for them. I’ve been traveling a good deal again lately, which means I’ve had time to dig into my “organisation culture and leadership” pile of books. A short flight recently gave me […]
Blog: M&A success – It’s a people thing
“I knew enough to allow them to handle their own culture, headquarters and management,” said Paul Murry, CEO of Calvin Klein, a PVH Corp. company. In 2003, PVH bought Calvin Klein when sales were $2.8 billion. Last year, the numbers ended with sales at $7.6 billion. That statement alone tells why M&A must have a people […]
Talent Spot: Kevin Fisher, HR director at Blemain Group
One of the six key tasks that Kevin Fisher was set when he joined specialist lender Blemain Group as an interim was to find a permanent HR director. And he found the perfect candidate: himself. From Blemain’s perspective, having Fisher on board as an interim HRD first of all enabled senior managers to ‘try before […]
How to beat a counter job offer
Against a backdrop of continued economic uncertainty, top talent at all levels is becoming increasingly hard to find and land. Competition for candidates is increasing as companies start to ramp up their hiring efforts after the downturn. This has given rise to more challenging candidate management and the infamous counter offer. Recent research by […]
Book Review: Leadership team coaching – Developing collective transformational leaders by Peter Hawkins
A key benefit of this book is its comprehensiveness on the topic of team coaching. It provides a lot of tools and tables to aid practitioners in setting such a relationship up and in enhancing in-house delivery capabilities. The people who are likely to benefit most from this book are HR directors, organisation design […]