Network Rail’s travel time-based redundancy policy branded “unfair and arbitrary”

Unions have branded Network Rail’s decision to make workers redundant if they do not live within 75 minutes of its new offices as “unfair and arbitrary”. The Transport Salaried Staff Association claims that 800 staff from Kent, Surrey, Sussex and Hampshire will be affected by the policy, although the owner of the UK’s rail infrastructure […]

Blog: How to network effectively

Networking – why do it? Are you doing it? Are you any good at it? Did you know that you can greatly enhance the performance of your team and your company through networking?   One of the things about networking is that there can be a lot of mystique attached to it. There is the […]

Legal Insight: How to avoid getting sued when making redundancies

In today’s financial climate, it is generally not particularly difficult to persuade an employment tribunal that a company needs to make redundancies. But if an employee challenges the reason for their dismissal, the employer’s reasoning will come under much closer scrutiny than it would in an ordinary unfair dismissal case.   This means that, ideally, […]

UK unemployment continues ‘steady crawl’ to 9% by year end

Although the latest official unemployment figures were better than expected, the UK is continuing its steady crawl towards jobless levels of 9% by the end of the year, experts warn. According to the Office for National Statistics, worklessness rose by 48,000 in the three months to December, bringing the number of people without employment to […]

Talent Spot: David Kast, head of HR at Hogg Robinson Group

When David Kast first started working in a branch of travel agency Hogg Robinson Group  in the early 1970s, he had no inkling that he would still be working for the same firm 39 years later – or that his career would have veered off into HR and training. Kast had left school unsure of […]

Blog: Why is coaching still an elitist sport?

Nearly every respondent to a recent survey of 250 UK companies said coaching in the workplace has helped individuals and their organizations. As I wrote in my previous blog post on coaching culture, they cited improved personal skills, better communication, higher confidence levels and greater motivation.   With so many benefits, one might expect all […]

Talking Point: Is the fit note fit-for-purpose?

The fit note was introduced in April 2010 and replaced the ‘all or nothing’ classification of the traditional sick note, under which people were either ‘fit’ or ‘unfit’ for work. Based on the premise that you don’t need to be totally ‘fit’ to do some kinds of activities, establishing a third option of ‘may be […]

Training budgets first to be cut due to unclear business value

 Learning and development budgets are among the first to be cut when times are hard because it is unclear what value training brings to the organisation and what return on investment it generates. According to a survey among 104 learning and development managers undertaken by managed learning company, KnowledgePool, three out of five said that […]

HRD Insight: Enterprise-Rent-A-Car’s Donna Miller on graduate recruitment

Enterprise-Rent-A-Car puts a huge focus on graduate recruitment schemes, with the aim of encouraging fresh thinking and bringing new ideas into the company. The firm, which was set up in 1957, has a culture of promoting from within.   It recognises that providing employees with clear opportunities for advancement motivates them and encourages them to […]

Blog: The necessity of developing management resilience

The resilience theme is continuing in my blog posts, this time due to a recent news item I’ve read. According to the latest Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development‘s (CIPD) quarterly Employee Outlook survey, UK middle managers are feeling the squeeze as a result of the economic downturn.   The results highlighted that almost half […]

UK unemployment is double official figures at 6.3m, reveals study

The true state of UK unemployment is more than double official figures at 6.3 million if US rather than domestic metrics are used, research has revealed. If the US U6 measure, which includes unemployed, economically inactive (discouraged), marginally attached and under-employed workers, is applied to measure ‘total’ worklessness in the UK, the figure is higher […]

Indirect age discrimination legit when making voluntary redundancies, rules EAT

It is permissible for employers to implement voluntary redundancy schemes that indirectly discriminate against particular age groups, the employment appeal tribunal has ruled. The decision was made in the case of HM Land Registry v Benson, after the former closed and merged offices and established a £12 million budget to fund voluntary redundancies, while still […]

Valentines Day: Two out of five employees look for love at work

Although many UK employers have traditionally frowned on workplace romances, a huge two out of five employees will nonetheless be looking for love at work this year, according to a survey. The poll undertaken by Jobsite.co.uk also revealed that a third of men would take a job based on the attractiveness of new colleagues. Some […]

Unions launch year-long ‘treat interns fairly’ campaign

The TUC and the National Union of Students have launched a year-long campaign calling for interns to be treated fairly. The initiative, which kicked off at a seminar at TUC headquarters in central London today, is intended to address concerns that graduates undertaking work experience are being exploited as a useful source of free labour […]

Redundancies expected to hit highest levels since spring 2009

The proportion of private sector employers planning to make redundancies this quarter is at its highest level since spring 2009, with those cutting jobs expecting to axe about 4% of their total workforce. According to a survey among more than 1,000 employers undertaken by YouGov on behalf of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, […]

Blog: Does taking an inventory approach to human capital work?

Applying the 80/20 rule through taking an inventory approach to human capital means that organisational success probably depends disproportionately on a vital subset of employees. That’s the premise adopted by an interesting article published recently in the US.  It maintains that applying the principles of inventory management can “retool” traditional HR numbers like turnover rates, […]

CEO Insight: LinkedIn’s Jeff Weiner on the site’s recruitment ambitions

In the wake of much consolidation in the HR applications space, it is easy to lose sight of the fact that the world’s most popular HR system in the space of online recruitment anyway is, in fact, LinkedIn. And if LinkedIn chief executive Jeff Weiner gets his way, this is something that more and more […]

Ask the Expert: What is the notice period for a perm gone freelance?

The question One of our members of staff was employed by our organisation in a permanent capacity on a fixed-term basis.   He had a two-month notice period. At the end of the contract, the employee was kept on but asked to act as a freelancer, which meant coming off payroll and billing us on […]

Shaping future strategy: Workforce analytics

We see it every day in the headlines, particularly over the last few years – ‘Top Company Cuts 1000s of Staff’.  All too often, there is a knee-jerk reaction after senior executives and managers conclude that headcount equals only cost and they neglect to consider what value their people bring to the business.   They […]

National Apprenticeship Week: ‘Schemes cut hiring costs’

Four out of five employers that currently provide apprenticeship schemes claim that they will play a bigger role in their recruitment policy in future as they help to cut hiring costs. A survey undertaken among 349 people responsible for apprenticeship recruitment at their company by Populus Research revealed that three quarters believed providing apprenticeship places […]