Employee resilience – whose responsibility is it anyway?
The concept of ‘developing resilience’ in employees is becoming increasingly popular as redundancies and talk of fresh economic downturns start to hit the headlines. But although it is intuitively understood that the term is linked to stress management, definitions of what it means in exact terms are often vague. Advocates tend to fall into […]
CIPD Conference: Creating a culture of innovation
Innovation does not simply happen of its own accord. It is instead born out of a corporate culture that allows individuals to challenge what is possible, but also to make mistakes without being afraid of the possible repercussions. These were the key findings of a keynote panel discussion entitled ‘Creating a Culture of Innovation […]
CIPD Conference Blog: Social media and knowing what not to fear
I and many others attended Neil Morrison‘s social media session at #cipd11. Loads of good stuff being shared and a healthy dash of British toilet humour thrown in for good measure. Here’s a summary of what I heard and learned: Numbers: Neil started showing us some huge numbers, in the hour to follow 5,000 blogs would be written, […]
Regional Growth Fund to create 4,000 SME jobs
The Regional Growth Fund, which has been heavily criticised for only benefiting big companies, is to provide £500m in funding to small-to-medium enterprises, creating an estimated 4,000 jobs in the process. The Coalition Government’s flagship recession-busting scheme will allocate £95m to firms, while RBS, NatWest and HSBC banks will top up the rest of the […]
CIPD Conference Blog: Eight steps to enhance resilience at work
Recent reports that Lloyds Banking Group’s Chief Executive has been signed off with stress and ‘extreme fatigue’ re-enforce the need for a resilient workforce to face the challenges in the changing economic climate. At the CIPD Annual Conference and Exhibition this week resilience was a hot topic and two of our experts, Dan Hughes and […]
CIPD Conference Blog: O2 on linking engagement and customer service
I’ve been guest blogging at the CIPD conference this week, here’s a write up of a great story about connecting the employee and customer experience. Hope you like it. When Nicky Brimmer of O2 first took to the stage to talk about ‘Turning customers into fans: linking employee engagement to customer service’, Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s […]
CIPD Conference Blog: Sir Terry Leahy on how Tesco pulled ahead of the pack
The other morning at the CIPD 2011 conference I listened to the speech given by Sir Terry Leahy, former CEO of Tesco. Tesco’s dominance concerns me, and when he showed us the 2010 market capitalisation comparison between Tesco (about 6 times bigger than both), Sainsbury’s and M&S I winced a little. Terry spoke sincerely and […]
The future of work: what the world will look like in 2025
Even with three decades of research into work under my belt, I still find the future of work incredibly difficult to predict. That’s why I created a research consortium designed to tap into ideas and knowledge from across the world. Each year, my research team and I begin by identifying the five forces that will […]
CIPD Conference: People management key to Tesco’s success, says Leahy
Tesco’s success has been based on good people management and the simple act of giving workers what they want, believes Sir Terry Leahy, former chief executive of the supermarket chain. In his keynote speech at the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development in Manchester this week, he said that employees fundamentally desired four key things: […]
Shortage of truck driver trainers could lead to UK transport crisis
If UK employers do not insist that their truck drivers undertake Driver Certificate of Professional Competence Training in the near future, the country will face a potential freight and transportation crisis when new European Union legislation comes into force. According to provider 24-7 Training, a shortage of trainers exists already, which means that, unless they start […]
Case Study: Lancaster Landmark Hotels focuses on attitude to boost retention
The Lancaster Landmark Hotel Group has boosted both staff retention and customer service levels by focusing on recruiting and developing personnel who it believes have the right attitude and behaviour. The organisation operates three high-end London hotels, each of which is managed independently and caters to different types of customers, which made it difficult to […]
Talent Spot: David Smith, HR director at LV=
When David Smith, HR and communications director at LV=, first joined the UK’s largest friendly society he was faced with the ultimate challenge: a blank sheet of paper. At that point, in 2008, the company had outsourced its entire HR function. Smith’s first job was to bring HR back in-house. It was a time of […]
Blog: Five measures for creating an environmental impact
According to a report from Lancaster University’s management school, today the HR director forms part of the “golden triangle” in the boardroom, along with the CEO and the finance director. For the finance department, every move made will reflect the present state of the company, from releasing funds to hire more staff when business is […]
CIPD Conference: “HR must become business leaders and strategists”
If HR professionals are to take up their rightful mantle as agents of change, they must become “first and foremost business leaders and strategists driving performance and change through people”. Gill Rider, president of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, warned in her keynote speech to open the organisation’s annual conference in Manchester today […]
Melody Hossaini’s verdict on the Young Apprentice: Episode three
Melody Hossaini, a candidate in the last series of BBC TV’s The Apprentice, social entrepreneur and founder of InspirEngage International, blogs about the third episode in the new season of Young Apprentice: Week three task: £800 to start up their own floristry businesses. Each must pitch to three corporate clients set up by Lord Sugar, […]
Half of public sector workers fail to recommend it as career choice
Nearly half of all public sector workers would not recommend working in the area to either those just embarking on their career or people fancying a career change. According to a study of more than 1,000 staff by recruiter Badenoch & Clark, disillusionment was particularly high among central and local government staff, with 63.3% and […]
E-learning charity goes into administration due to government cuts
The 25-year-old Learning and Skills Network has been pushed into administration due to cuts in government expenditure. The charity, which provided private sector companies and educationalists with research, training and consultancy services around e-learning, saw its income drop from £27.5 million for the financial year that ended in March 2010 to around £13 million in […]
Blog: Three lessons for measuring HR success
Recognise This! – What you measure and how you report the results is critical to proving the HR value proposition. In a recent article in TLNT, Lance Haun did an exceptional job highlighting recent research showing HR reports the most important measures for gauging HR’s value to the organisation are retention and employee satisfaction. […]
Seven secrets to staff engagement
The fundamental role of HR is to motivate the right people to do the right things at the right time. This situation puts the spotlight on how to boost employee engagement and ensure that workers are committed to the organisation. If you want staff to perform effectively, what are you going to give them in […]
Mediation: Part Four – How to deal with the outcome
When destructive workplace conflict rears its ugly head, it will typically be an HR professional who suggests mediation as an option to try and resolve the situation By the time the case gets to mediation, this ‘referrer’ will probably have invested significant time and emotion in it and will most likely have expectations about the […]