2011: The HR year in full
HRZone Editor Cath Everett picks out her personal highlights from a challenging year for the HRD community. January Youth unemployment hits new high – and set to worsen Stress and depression ‘no reason to take time off’ Pension age change will ‘hit women and disadvantaged hardest’ February Company revises Facebook policies after firing employee […]
2011: That was the HR year that was
If it were possible to sum up the key preoccupations of 2011 in just a few words, for me, they would be ‘fairness’ and ‘democratisation’. At the macro-economic level, the climate has got steadily worse as the Eurozone crisis has deepened and economists increasingly start to warn of a double-dip recession. This situation has […]
News Analysis: The HCM battle begins – Will HRDs finally get technology they like using?
The human capital management software market was always going to be a turbulent place in 2012. The battle lines were to be drawn by Oracle rolling out its next generation Fusion applications, while Software-as-a-Service specialist Workday continued its attempts to steal away customers with ageing PeopleSoft systems from under Oracle’s nose. But last week, […]
Legal Insight: Surviving the Christmas party
The Christmas party season is upon us again. But while it is known as a time of goodwill to all men, the Christmas period can cause massive headaches for employers. In particular, the office party, where the mulled wine is flowing freely, can lead to a number of employment-related challenges as alcohol-fuelled employees have […]
More private sector collaboration will lead to brain drain, warn public sector bosses
Increased collaboration with the private sector will harm staff morale and and mean that key skills, experience and knowledge is lost, public sector bosses have warned. Although leaders are bracing themselves for significant increases in public-private sector collaboration over the next few years, the majority have big doubts over the likely success of such a […]
Landmark holiday ruling saves employers of atypical workers from “dramatic” impacts
Today’s Supreme Court’s ruling that employees who do not follow standard 9-till-5 working patterns must take their holiday entitlement during periods of downtime will have “dramatic” implications for employers, according to legal experts. In the case of Russell v Transocean, a number of workers, who were all employed by the oil and gas industry […]
Blog: Recruit now – Why December is the new January
January 1st will see people up and down the country commit to their New Year’s resolutions. Whether it’s signing up to the gym or searching for a new job – 2012 will signal fresh starts for all. So surely this is a great time to start a recruitment drive? I’d argue, not necessarily. January […]
Pressure rises on banks for more pay transparency
Any large bank operating in the UK could be forced to disclose the pay packages of its eight highest-paid, non-board level executives in a bid to tackle “unacceptable” bonus levels in the City. The Coalition Government launched a consultation yesterday on the proposed new rules, which would come into force in 2012 in order to […]
Talent Spot: Andrew Powell, COO of Colt Technology Services
Andrew Powell landed a six-week consultancy contract at Colt Technology Services in 2006 and has been there ever since. Despite falling into employment with the telecoms and IT services firm “completely by accident”, he is now chief operating officer after having held five other senior positions at the company within five years – which includes […]
Book Review: Future minds by Richard Watson
I have to confess that, given the cover and subtitle ‘How the digital age is changing our minds…’, I approached futurist Richard Watson’s second book with the same trepidation that a 12 year old feels when faced with a Winter cross country run. I expected it to ‘do me good’, but I didn’t expect it […]
Two out of five employers plan to axe Christmas party
Two out of five employers are axing this year’s Christmas party, but half have yet to break the news to staff, according to a study. The survey of 2,532 company bosses undertaken by online restaurant booking service www.table7.com also revealed that, even those still planning to continue with the festive celebrations intended to have a […]
Police officers left “directionless” during riots due to equipment failure
Equipment shortages together with failings in the Airwave digital radio network led to police officers being left "directionless" during this summer’s riots, a highly-critical leaked report has said. The Police Federation review, which was leaked to the Observer, revealed that the Police National Information Co-ordination Centre, the body set up to co-ordinate the response to […]
Employers drag feet in evaluating cost impact of pension auto-enrolment
The introduction of pension auto-enrolment among large companies next year will result in lower wage growth in some instances as well as reduced hiring activity and less generous employer contributions in others. These are the key findings of a survey among 653 HR professionals undertaken by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development and published […]
Blog: The golden thread – aligning HR and business strategy
I once worked with an organisation that had introduced a Value Chain methodology. So far so good. But they had made the critical error of trying to pigeonhole HR into one of the ‘links’ in the chain, instead of realising that HR is a support function that, by definition, underpins everything that the company does. […]
HRD Insight: Jack Morton’s Fiona Lawlor on sustainable engagement
If there’s one thing that’s needed to help business survive recession, it’s an engaged workforce. Yet all around, there are signs that such engagement is sadly lacking in British industry today. The majority of UK workers have had much to contend with over recent years, including pay freezes and soaring inflation. Add to this […]
Business Cloud Summit: Cloud = the end of tech talk for HR
A key advantage of cloud computing in an HR context is that it removes the need to talk about technology with professionals that have to date shown little interest in it. Teresa Farrell, IT and projects manager for Irish Life and Permanent Plc’s group HR service centre development, said during a panel discussion at the […]
Business Cloud Summit: ‘Agree entry and exit strategies upfront to avoid lock-in’
Not all vendors selling cloud computing services have developed a commercial licensing model to match, which means that potential customers must agree entry and exit strategies upfront or risk being locked in. This was one of the key recommendations made by Paul Cheesborough, chief information officer at News International during a panel discussion entitled ‘Cloud […]
Blog: The serious issue of recruitment fraud
In March of 2011 there was a topic that was posted on The FIRM’s discussion forum that was quite alarming. One of the members, a UK based recruitment manager, working in-house at a large company had flagged the issue of Recruitment Fraud. I wrote the majority of this post then. It is updated here […]
Ask the Expert: How do I ensure that shift workers get the right holiday?
The question We have a team of 24/7/365 shift workers working four days on, four days off, 12 hours each shift. Using the calculation on the Direct.Gov website (5.6 weeks entitlement x 3.5 shifts worked per week = 19.6 12 hour shifts annual entitlement), the team is entitled to 19.6 shifts off per year […]
Making Christmas incentives magic
For many employers knowing what to offer staff as a Christmas incentive can be tricky. Common benefits that are well-received include Christmas hampers, bottles of champagne, wine or chocolates. The popularity of hampers is certainly on the rise, particularly if they cater to a wide range of tastes. But rewards will inevitably have variable […]