CEO Insight: SuccessFactors’ Lars Dalgaard on new owner, SAP
For the last couple of years, SuccessFactors‘ chief executive Lars Dalgaard has used a slide in his presentations that picks out the headlines in German newspapers reporting when his firm won a major Software-as-a-Service-based human capital management contract at Siemens out from under the corporate nose of SAP. It’s a slide that we can assume won’t be getting […]
Leadership development is top L&D priority in bid to “sort wheat from chaff”
Leadership development for senior managers has for the first time this year become the top priority for learning and development activity as employers attempt to "sort the wheat from the chaff". According to the Corporate Learning Priorities Survey 2012 carried out by Henley Business School’s corporate development team, some 47% of respondents made it their […]
Lincolnshire to see biggest ever transfer of police staff to private sector
An outsourcing deal allowing a private security company to design, build and run a police station in Lincolnshire is expected to result in the biggest ever single transfer of police staff to a commercial firm. The agreement between G4S and Lincolnshire Police is thought to be the first of its kind in the UK and […]
Whistleblower alleges former A4e staff are being made “scapegoats”
A whistleblower has claimed that four workers arrested on suspicion of fraud at government Work Programme contractor, A4e, are being made into “scapegoats”. Police officers carried out dawn raids on the home of two men and two women last month, but subsequently released them on bail until mid-March. Thames Valley Police visited the employment agency’s […]
Employer sues former worker for “stealing” its Twitter followers
A mobile phone news site is suing a former employee after claiming that he refused to hand over a Twitter account and stole thousands of its followers after leaving the company. Noah Kravitz, who worked as a reviewer for Phonedog Media for more than four years, created the Twitter account in 2007 when he […]
Blog: Harnessing employee emotional intelligence to boost productivity
I read an interesting story on emotional intelligence in the workplace in the Guardian a few weekends ago, which I couldn’t resist sharing. The article is based on a recent report from occupational psychologists JCA, which studied 12,400 workers from 2001 to 2010, the results of which got me fairly worried. According to the […]
Talent Spot: Kate Russell, the HR Headmistress
Although officially Kate Russell is managing director of her own consultancy, Russell HR Consulting, she’s better known as the HR Headmistress – a nickname coined by friends to describe her no-nonsense manner that has refused to budge. “It’s my own fault,” laughs Russell. “I’m short and very middle class in my accent, but with rather […]
Talking Point: Why HR directors should manage, not mother
When it comes to evaluating staff behaviour and performance, what kind of manager are you? And more to the point, is your managerial style – and that of your colleagues – damaging the business? Some employers apply strict policies to keep employees on a tight rein. Others take a more laid-back approach, letting conduct […]
Neet employer funding: ‘Why fill in forms for a social experiment?’
The government’s new £126m training scheme for young people has drawn a mixed response, with one entrepreneur claiming that it will only help training providers rather than businesses or the unemployed. Deputy prime minister Nick Clegg announced today that the funding would be made available to pay charities and private sector organisations to provide 55,000 […]
Tesco changes work experience terms in bid to end protests
Tesco is to offer work experience candidates paid placements and a guaranteed job at the end, after claims that it was using benefit claimants as unpaid labour generated an angry consumer backlash. The UK’s biggest supermarket chain said that participants in the government’s ‘Workfare’ scheme would now be offered the choice of remaining on Jobseeker […]
The HR Headmistress: How to deliver compliance training with aplomb
Compliance training is like visiting a difficult family member. You may not really like spending time with them, but your mother insists. Topics such as health and safety, data protection, food hygiene and employment law evoke a similar rather less-than-thrilled response in a ‘we do it because we have to, but don’t expect us to […]
Blog: Charity needs to begin at home for third sector HR
I find many people tend to assume that the Third Sector is mostly staffed by tree-hugging hippies, and is full of warm and fuzzy organisations where group hugs are on each meeting agenda. (This is usually the view of people who work in the private and public sectors, funnily enough.) But did you know […]
Employers vs employees – What both parties want to see
New research reveals there is a perception gap between the skills employers are looking for from prospective employees and the skills jobseekers believe to be important. There is a particular divergence of views when it comes to workplace skills such as teamwork, communication and dealing with customers. The findings show just one in ten […]
Minister: UK employers should favour UK unemployed
Little seems to have been learned from Gordon Brown’s ‘British jobs for British people’ populist sloganeering – Employment Minister Chris Grayling has taken a similar tack this weekend. On Sky News this weekend Grayling said that that young British people out of work should be given priority over immigrant applicants, including those from Eastern Europe. […]
Workfare critics are job snobs, says Chris Grayling
Tesco is to hold crisis talks with employment officials as criticism of the Government’s ‘workfare’ scheme continues. As Employment Minister Chris Grayling branded critics of the scheme as “job snobs”, Tesco’s nerves seemed to be growing after one of its stores in Westminster was forced to close by protestors. Under the scheme, the unemployed […]
HR’s critical role in shaping company culture post-M&A
As soon as a merger or acquisition is announced, the culture of both entities begins to change as people start to think about, and behave towards, their immediate environment in a different way. This means that HR directors need to act quickly to help guide these changes and ensure that the transaction fulfils its original […]
Blog: Why is staff engagement in decline globally?
Recognise This! – Employees worldwide are disengaging at work, leaving organisations at a competitive disadvantage. Recent research out of Kenexa is showing employee engagement on the decline globally. “EEI scores declined, not only in the aggregate of these economies, but in each individual country as well. The pattern of scores over time is fairly […]
Ask the Expert: When should we CRB-check our site engineers?
The question We are currently looking into whether we need to undertake CRB checking for some of our site engineers, but are not 100% sure if we require it? As a company, we occasionally (and I have to highlight that it is only occasionally) send engineers out to schools or attend calls in […]
Tesco accused of “exploiting” workers in ‘free work’ row
Tesco has blamed a job advert for an unpaid permanent night shift worker on an “IT error” after outrage in the twittersphere led to claims that the supermarket chain was “exploiting” workers. The advert, which was posted on the Jobcentre Plus website, said that Tesco was looking for a permanent night shift worker for a […]
Could more effective workforce management replace redundancy?
As uncertainty over the Eurozone crisis continues to dampen confidence and fears of a double-dip recession continue to loom, it appears that UK organisations will need to keep on tightening their belts for some time to come. And as downsizing strategies go, few measures ever seem to receive the same amount of airtime and […]
