Blog: How to make your verbal communications sticky
How do we make new communication sticky? The answer is well known but not particularly well implemented. The answer is consistent practice. I work in the field of communication – verbal communication. Public speaking and presentation skills courses are highly effective but most attendees find it hard to follow up regularly. This means […]
Blog: Employee engagement taskforce – Impressions from the one-year-on conference
Warning! Long blog post alert, do yourself a favour and grab a cuppa first. Background As regular readers will know I’ve had an interest and involvement with the EE Taskforce since I (and of course many others) contributed to the original Engaging for Success report. This report got kicked into the long grass partly […]
Flexible benefits revealed: CIPP report
More than seven out of ten employees are offered salary sacrifice schemes by their employers, with the most popular options being either pension contributions or childcare vouchers. These are the key findings of a Chartered Institute of Payroll Professionals survey conducted among 213 people during December and early January to establish what type of flexible benefits […]
TV Review: The Apprentice Week 6 – Lead rather than manage
I had a vested interest Lord Sugar’s band of merry men and women; being a Scot I was intrigued to see what they would muster up to force upon our discerning people. Before the candidates even set foot on the Caledonian Sleeper to Bonny Scotland, Lord Sugar dropped in on our stilettoed and brogued clad […]
Case Study: Baker & McKenzie attempts to optimise leaders’ performance with 360 degree feedback
International law firm Baker & McKenzie has embedded 360 degree feedback processes into its people strategy in a bid to enable staff “to be the best they can be”. The company provides legal services to multinational companies and financial institutions. It employs more than 3,750 lawyers in 70 countries around the world, including more than […]
Legal Insight: Health matters part 2 – Dealing with ‘problem absences’
In the first instalment of this three-part guide to managing sickness absence, we considered both the importance of developing a good policy and how to manage sickness absence on a day-to-day basis. And in this second article, it will become all too clear exactly how important these initial stages are when you are presented with […]
Blog: Are your rewards schemes being misused financially?
Recognise This! – Lack of complete and total understanding of your recognition & reward activities globally opens your organisation to financial risk. If you don’t know what is going on in your organisation in terms of recognition and reward, you open your organisation to great risk. Case in point, news out of the US about […]
In a Nutshell: Six steps to becoming a goal-driven organisation
If you really want to ensure that your business performs, ensure that individual and corporate goals are managed effectively. Becoming a goal-driven organisation doesn’t have to be onerous. Start with these six simple steps: Establish clear goals for everyone: That means from the chief executive to the most junior person in your organisation. These goals […]
News: Employers can force retirement in ‘public interest’, rules Supreme Court
Employers are within their rights to force employees to retire if they can prove that there is a public interest reason in doing so, according to a landmark legal ruling. The UK’s Supreme Court unanimously dismissed an appeal today by solicitor, Leslie Seldon, who was told to retire by Clarkson Wright & Jakes just after […]
News: Employers cling to ineffective training methods – study
Too many employers are clinging on to traditional training methods despite having reservations about how effective they are, a survey has found. The poll was undertaken by Software-as-a-Service-based learning and talent management software supplier, Cornerstone OnDemand, and the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, which published the findings today to coincide with the start of […]
Blog: Making your employee benefits count – and not just the financial ones
Make your employee benefits count! I am not talking here about financial benefits. If you are a great employer you know the market levels of financial reward and presumably you are paying a fair salary in return for the work of your employees. Pensions are another financial reward which I know is subject to […]
Blog: Using employee segmentation as a tool to cut staff turnover
“What time did you get in last night,” I asked my daughter. “Around 3 am,” she answered. It was now 5:45 am and I was leaving the house. As I walked downstairs from her room, I shook my head in wonderment. My question was this: how can you continue working people all these hours? […]
Talent Spot: Donna Miller, European HR director at Enterprise Rent-A-Car
Ask Donna Miller, European HR director at car rental firm Enterprise Rent-A-Car, what she does for a living and you may get a rather surprising answer. “I’ve always been a very sales-oriented person and when people ask me what I do, depending on whether it’s in Enterprise or outside, I’ll often say I’m in sales,” […]
News: Charities and spooks replace financial services on employer wishlist
Financial services firms have dropped off the list of top ten graduate employers for the first time as organisations that aim to have a positive impact on society such as charities knocked them off their perch. The Guardian’s UK 300 poll, in which more than 25,000 UK students voted for their most desirable employer, revealed […]
HMRC’s Real Time Information: What you need to know
By law, all employers will have to submit RTI to HM Revenue & Customs by October 2013. This will mean reporting information to HMRC every time they pay their employees instead of summiting a summary form at the end of the tax year. Payroll software will collect the necessary information and send it to HMRC […]
News: Saatchi & Saatchi X offers internships for grads with best ‘elevator pitch’
In order to win a paid internship at Saatchi & Saatchi X, graduates will be given 30 seconds on Friday to impress senior managers with an ‘elevator pitch’ that demonstrates their advertising skills. This is the second year that the advertising agency has run its ‘Saatchi & Saatchi X Boot Camp’ training programme using the […]
CEO Insight: Sinead Hasson on Hasson Associates’ CSR programme
The arrival of 2012 brought with it the news that there are still 2.65 million people out of work in the UK. Widespread redundancies, salary freezes or even cuts as well as the increasing loss of employee benefits are not only hitting employers hard, but also causing employees to question their job security. And […]
Blog: Why you should dump ’employee of the month’
Recognise This! – Employee of the Month programmes create competition and resentfulness, not appreciative work environments. Compensation pros – when you think of base pay in today’s organisation, do you think in terms of guaranteed annual increases or in some form of pay for performance? Most realise the former is the method a century […]
Talking Point: Taming management beasts
Horrible bosses may be driven by ego and a desire for self-promotion. But in my experience, 99% are striving to do their best under enormous pressure to produce results. They genuinely care about staff and take their people management responsibilities seriously. Unfortunately, the pressure that they are under can generate situations where it is […]
Olympus whistleblower demands answers at shareholder meeting
Former Olympus president and chief executive Michael Woodford has demanded answers over his sacking at a shareholder meeting in Tokyo. Around 1,000 investors approved a new board at the Olympus extraordinary general meeting amid calls from Woodford that it was a “mockery” to claim the group was making a fresh start. Shareholders approved five years’ […]