OTS pushes for simplification of employee share schemes
The Office of Tax Simplification has recommended merging approved shares schemes to simplify what is on offer to employees and reduce restrictions on UK businesses. The final report, Review of Tax Advantaged Employee Share Schemes, calls for bringing the current Enterprise Management Incentive and Company Share Option Plan into one scheme while maintaining separate limits for […]
Somerset Council pulls HR out of Southwest One shared service
Troubled shared service operation SouthWest One has hit another speedbump, with one of its customers, Somerset Council today announcing that it is to bring some services, including HR, back in-house. According to the BBC, the decision was taken after a council review concluded that it was failing to perform and it was unlikely to achieve […]
CEO Insight: Briggs Equipment’s Richard Close on staff engagement
As fears of another recession continue to mount, many business leaders are looking for new ways to either turn around their balance sheet or ensure that it grows. But all too many simply fail to look at their number one asset: their people. Over the last 20 years, I have worked with a number […]
Scheme unveiled to cut unemployment among ex-prisoners
In a bid to tackle high unemployment levels among people with criminal records, former prisoners will now have to join the coalition government’s Work Programme immediately on their release or lose benefits. At the moment, ex-offenders are not forced to join the scheme until they have been out of jail and claiming JobSeeker’s Allowance for […]
Blog: Appraisals – The menace of ‘soft marker’ managers
There are plenty of aims of appraisal or performance review programmes, but the key one is usually for managers to assess the performance of their staff, often giving them performance assessment ratings. Sounds like a straightforward enough concept – yet like so many HR initiatives, it is so often a good idea badly executed! […]
HSBC guarantees parents part-time working options
HSBC has become the first UK corporate to guarantee all new parents returning from maternity or paternity leave a part-time working option in a bid to help them improve their work-life balance. The move comes as a charity called on the coalition government to reverse proposed changes to the Working Tax Credit, which it said […]
EU proposals for female board quotas a “mistake”
A European Union-wide consultation on whether to introduce mandatory quotas to try and increase the number of women on company boards has been branded a “mistake” by the coalition government’s boardroom diversity champion. Lord Davies of Abersoch admitted that the move by the EU’s Justice Commissioner, Viviane Reding, “raises the temperature” on organisations that […]
Workers making official Olympics sportswear are abused, claims charity
Workers in Bangladeshi sweatshops are being exploited and abused while making clothes for Olympic sponsors, Adidas, Nike and Puma, an anti-poverty charity has claimed. War on Want in its report entitled ‘Race to the Bottom’ attests that the lowest-paid staff in factories that supply Adidas, the Games’ official sportswear partner, are given just 9p an […]
Blog: Does HR have the right skills to be in the boardroom?
In a pan European study undertaken by Mercer among over 300 HR Professionals across 25 countries it is revealed that 70 percent of organisations have or are planning to transform their HR functions. A big shift in the way businesses perceives HR seems to be the catalyst for this activity. HR is now seen as […]
Addressing shared HR service challenges
With public sector budget cuts still on the cards and an ever-increasing focus being placed on generating efficiency savings, it is surprising perhaps that more public authorities have not opted to go down the shared services route. But a recent survey that we commissioned among 100 UK public sector representatives from functions such as HR, […]
Ask the Expert: Can an employee legally refuse an order to move desks?
The question I am an HR Assistant and am slightly upset at the treatment of one of the girls in the office. She came on board about six months ago to act as team support and is line-managed by one of the PAs. But there seemed to be friction from the start between […]
Unions reject MoD assurances about outsourced HR staff
Unions have raised concerns that the Ministry of Defence’s decision to outsource functions such as HR to a private contractor will lead to “further attacks” on employees’ terms and conditions despite ministerial claims to the contrary. Serco has won a £36 million deal to run a shared services organisation, Defence Business Services in a bid […]
Best Practice: Diamond Jubilee holiday guidance from Acas
Acas has issued guidance about how to deal with the holiday issues raised by the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations as a result of growing numbers of calls to its employer helpline. The occasion will be marked by a four-day long weekend for some workers due to the creation of an extra bank holiday on Tuesday […]
Blog: ‘The start-up of you’ – Becoming a career entrepreneur
The co-founder and chairman of LinkedIn Reid Hoffman with co-author Ben Casnocha have recently produced a thought-provoking new book on how to apply the strategies of successful entrepreneurship to career development. In other words, how to approach your career as “the start up of you”. Although The Start-up of You (2012) is written for all ages, […]
Video Interview: Winning Impression’s Katrina Collier on social recruitment
Mike Taylor, director of www.web-based-recruitment.com, talks to social media recruitment expert, Katrina Collier, founder and director of Winning Impression, about the number one mistake that organisations make when trying to hire using the channel and how not to fall into the trap. She also offers hints and tips to help employers stand out from the […]
Bridging the leadership communication gap
Trust and Leadership are rare bed fellows – as illustrated by the results of a recent CIPD Employee Outlook survey. In case you missed it, the level of workers’ trust in their senior managers remains worryingly low, while relationships with immediate line managers are found to be consistently more positive across the board. This […]
UK employers waste £692m on out-of-policy expenses claims
UK employers wasted a huge £692 million last year because employees and their line managers failed to interpret the company expenses policy correctly. According to a study conducted by travel and expenses company Concur, for every £100 that businesses paid out in expenses last year, nearly £9.85 was spent on items such as business class […]
50p tax rate harming job creation, claim businessmen
The current 50p income tax rate for high earners is “damaging the economy” and delaying the UK’s recovery from recession, according to a letter signed by more than 500 business leaders. The letter, which was printed today by the Daily Telegraph, accused Chancellor George Osborne of putting “populist politics before sound economics” and called on […]
Blog: Building a magnetic culture
Recognise This! – Great books on organisation culture are few and far between. ‘Building a Magnetic Culture‘ is a must read. Readers of my blog know that organisation culture is passion of mine – especially how to build a culture of recognition and then proactively manage it. I’ve heard many discount the ability to […]
Boots pulls out of 2nd controversial unemployment scheme
Even as ministers found themselves compelled to drop sanctions from a work experience scheme aimed at young jobseekers, Boots has pulled out of a work programme for the long-term unemployed due to similar elements of compulsion. The pharmacy and retail chain said in a statement that some of its stores had already provided work experience […]