The HR Headmistress: Coping with ET1 tribunal claim documents
Unless you’re a solicitor, the arrival of an ET1 employment tribunal claim document does tend to cast a gloom over the morning. Such claims have risen considerably in recent years and, in the current economic climate, contractual changes and redundancy dismissals are commonplace. In an ideal world, we should be ensuring compliant, timely and […]
Ask the Expert: How long do I need to keep emails for?
The question I am trying to find out if any legislation or guidelines have been issued that provide advice on the number of years that emails must be retained. Does it differ depending on the type of email? This is part of my research to find a suitable e-mail archive solution. The legal […]
Stone Roses’ ticket scramble hits staff productivity hard
A rush to snap up tickets for the Stones Roses reunion concert this morning resulted in a huge dip in employee productivity, but should not be allowed to set a precedent, an employment lawyer has warned. The cult Manchester band’s three nights of gigs at the city’s Heaton Park sold out in just 68 minutes, […]
Staff education and training are critical to corporate security
Earlier this year, a security firm called RSA was embarrassed by a major breach that led to information about its user authentication token technology leaking out. The company not only faced a huge bill to physically replace its offerings, which were now useless, but also attracted unwanted column inches from press around the world. Just […]
Blog: Developing a customer-service mindset in HR
“We hire happy people and teach them to make sandwiches.” ”To maintain a connection between the front lines and the back office, every manager is required to spend four days a year on the shop floor.” (Pret a Manager). “We hire ‘customer service people’ and teach them all about coffee.” (Starbucks). This week, I ordered […]
IT outsourcing cuts costs, but fails to improve quality, warn HRDs
The majority of public sector HR directors believe that, while outsourcing their IT could contribute to cutting costs, it will not help to deliver better quality services. According to a survey among 100 HRDs working in central government departments, local authorities, NHS Trusts and police forces by jobs website TotalJobs.com, almost two-thirds believed that outsourcing […]
Pay awards to increase only marginally in 2012
Private sector pay awards will increase only marginally in 2012 when compared to this year, with the most common influences on settlements likely to be company performance and simply the ability to finance them. Research on the intentions of 286 firms employing a total of 800,000 workers revealed that the median award for the year […]
Video Interview: How Oracle is creating a socially-connected workplace
In the video below, Jon Ingham, HR consultant, author and co-founder of the Connecting HR social community, interviews David Christopher, Oracle‘s social business and collaboration leader in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. The two discuss how Oracle is attempting to create a socially-connected environment in order to enable the software giant’s 22,000 employees in […]
CEO Insight: Company Shortcuts’ Lara Morgan on staff retention
Getting the staff on board is one thing, keeping them is another. Loyalty is important to me. I wanted to create an environment where people wanted to work, would thrive and progress. In the early days, we worked in an open plan office (my front room), we often ate lunch together (in my kitchen) and over these […]
Blog: On-boarding as a first step to cutting staff attrition rates
Companies work so hard at recruiting the best talent, rolling out the red carpet, increasing original offers, offering bonuses and other perks to attract the right candidates. But once you’ve signed on the dotted line kiss the best behaviors goodbye. The process is similar to dating where the early stages of the chase and initial […]
SAP appoints new head of HR for UK and Ireland
SAP UK and Ireland has appointed a new HR director in order to help the application software provider achieve its global aim of doubling the size of its business. Laura Burton replaces former head of HR, Terri Ellison, and has been brought in to manage a team that looks after recruitment, contracts, training, rewards and […]
Leadership development is top L&D priority over next 12 months
Leadership development will be the top priority for workplace learning professionals over the next 12 months. A survey conducted among 417 learning and development specialists by Video Arts revealed that 61% intended to provide leadership development training over the year ahead. Other priorities were people management, coaching, teamwork, customer service, time and change management. […]
Outlook improving but still uncertain for interim HR managers
If you’ve been an HR interim manager for more than three years, congratulations are in order. It’s been a tough period, but you’ve survived it. The good news is that there are credible indicators that the tough times could finally be over. At the macro level, the industry’s barometer is the annual Institute of […]
Software Satisfaction Awards 2011: The winners revealed
More than 300 people gathered at the Marriott in London’s Grosvenor Square on Tuesday to celebrate the Software Satisfaction Awards. Sift Media, our publisher, partnered with technology association Intellect to host the awards, which were presented by former Labour spin doctor Alastair Campbell. Entertaining the audience with his sentiments on the recent RIM/Blackberry crisis […]
Council censured for revealing personal details of 900 staff online
Dumfries and Galloway Council breached data protection laws by disclosing the names, salaries and dates of birth of nearly 900 staff, the Information Commissioner’s Office has ruled. The personal data, recorded in a spreadsheet, was mistakenly made available for two months on a Council web site following an enquiry under the Freedom of Information Act. […]
Mobile case management system saves the equivalent of 13 NHS staff
Cardiff and Vale University Health Board has equipped community health staff with notebooks to save time by enabling them to access and update patient information wherever they are. Some 370 district nurses and health visitors have been kitted out with machines running Civica‘s Paris case management software, saving them 8,300 hours over the last year. […]
Blog: Why do we tolerate jerks at work (and what to do about it)?
Recognise This! – Tolerating badly behaving high performers drives down productivity whilst increasing the level of aggression in the workplace. Do you work with a jerk? Are managers inclined to sweep the jerk’s poor behaviour under the rug saying, “That’s just his personality?” Tony Wilson reported on research showing why this is incredibly […]
Technical skills seen as key barrier in move to HR shared services
Technology and the skills required to implement and use it are key concerns when migrating to HR and payroll shared services. A survey of more than 100 public sector organisations undertaken by software supplier MidlandHR revealed that many of them were currently looking on the black side, overestimating the challenges associated with implementing shared services, […]
Top mandarin’s pay link to PM’s salary “crude” and “arbitrary”
The perceived link between senior public servant’s pay and the Prime Minister’s £142,500 salary has been criticised by an influential Commons Committee as "arbitrary" and "too crude" to be meaningful. In a report published today, the Public Administration Select Committee said that, while there was an acknowledged need for civil service pay restraint in the […]
Lessons from across the pond: could regional talent hubs create a ‘Big Society’?
The Government is missing out on a powerful online tool for regenerating communities. Since his famous ‘Big Society’ speech in July 2010, Prime Minister David Cameron and the Coalition government have both been looking for ways to deliver on the vision outlined. With the Cabinet Office tasked with transforming this relatively abstract idea into […]