Only 20% of employers hire apprentices – and falling
A mere one in five employers has taken on an apprentice over the last year, with the majority harbouring negative perceptions of the current workplace training system, including its relevancy to them. To make matters worse – and despite the personal urging of Prime Minister for businesses to take on more such trainees– even fewer […]
Ask the Expert: How can I legally sack an employee with a disability?
The question We have a member of staff who is bi-polar (declared and fully supported since November 2009). Recently, however, there have been changes to his mood and behaviour. He suffers from depression, feelings of self-harm, hallucinations. On occasion, the staff member has also sent inappropriate and racist emails to some colleagues and demonstrated […]
Tax relief cannot be claimed on car allowances, rules tribunal
A training provider plans go to the Court of Appeal over an upper tier tribunal ruling that tax relief cannot be claimed on car allowances. The upper tribunal ruling in the dispute between Total People – now called Cheshire Employer and Skills Development – and HM Revenue & Customs found that lump sums given to […]
Blog: It’s time for HR and recruiting to kiss and make up
Recently I read a great book called In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the whaleship Essex. It tells the true life story of a whaling ship from Nantucket in the 1820’s which was sunk by a rogue sperm whale. Herman Melville based his famed novel Moby Dick on this tragedy. The […]
Building much-needed business savvy
Learning and talent development professionals are used to expanding the skills of others in the business. Customer service has to improve and technical skills must be upgraded. Staff need to acquire knowledge of new technologies and leadership capabilities should be refreshed and strengthened. But a key development area that will also pay real dividends […]
MoD spends £9m on armed forces recruitment as redundancies mount
The Ministry of Defence has spent £9 million on recruitment advertising for the armed forces despite being in the process of laying off thousands of troops over the next four years. According to figures revealed in a written Parliamentary answer to shadow defence minister Kevan Jones, the government department has forked out £5.19 million in […]
Temps entitled to tips under Agency Worker Regs, warns lawyer
The hospitality industry must pay temps their fair share of customer tips or risk legal action under the new Agency Worker Regulations, a lawyer has warned. Although many of the UK’s largest leisure chains have in the past failed to share gratuities with agency staff, individuals with 12 weeks’ service will now be entitled to […]
Gloucester Council’s shared service centre to save local jobs
Gloucester City Council’s move to a shared services model for revenues, benefits and welfare rights-based services will safeguard local jobs and should even create more as other authorities sign up to the arrangement, it has claimed. The Council has outsourced the delivery of the services to outsourcing company Civica in a bid to make annual […]
Talent Spot: Jez Langhorn, McDonalds’ VP of people for Northern Europe
Although ‘persistence’ and ‘staying the course’ may not be the sexiest of qualities, they are important ingredients to business and HR success and should not be underestimated, says Jez Langhorn, McDonalds’ vice president of people for the UK and Northern Europe. And in fact, such doughty terms could also be applied to his own working […]
Blog: TK Maxx – when collaboration pays off
Having heard Penny Illston, HR Director at TK Maxx UK & Ireland, speak at our HR Conference recently, I was delighted to see their hard work pay off following a recent visit to one of their stores. It was relatively quiet in the store and only one person serving at the cash register. With no-one else in […]
Unemployment “truly horrific” – and unlikely to improve any time soon
UK unemployment levels have hit a “truly horrific” 17-year high, confirming that the private sector has failed to create enough jobs to offset swingeing public sector cuts. The International Labour Organization-defined rate of worklessness in the country now stands at 8.1% for the three months to August, up 0.4% on the quarter. The 114,000 increase […]
“Institutional inertia” leads to slow progress on female board directors
“Institutional inertia” is to blame for the fact that only 33 FTSE 100 companies have heeded Lord Davies’ call to set targets for increasing the number of female directors on their boards. A progress report due to be unveiled at a Downing Street reception this afternoon will also reveal that, of the 33 firms that […]
Location, location, location – and what it means for shared services
The creation of an HR shared services centre can lead to savings of between 20% and 40% depending on location, with the majority coming from reduced labour costs. According to Josefien Glaudemans, marketing director at specialist location services consultancy Buck Consultants International, the workforce generally accounts for 80% of any organisations’ expenditure alongside other factors […]
Biggest drop in household income for 35 years will see child poverty leap, says study
A 7% drop in average real incomes over the next three years combined with the Coalition Government’s decision to peg welfare payments to consumer rather than retail price inflation will result in absolute and relative child poverty jumping by 23% and 24% respectively within a decade. According to the Institute for Fiscal Studies, the Government’s […]
Blog: Agency worker regulations and how legitimately to avoid them
As an HR type, I’ve used agency temps plenty of times. The main attraction of agency workers is the flexibility for employers, particularly in the current economic climate. They form a key part of the ‘flexible workforce’ which means that employers don’t have to commit to employing anyone, just in case the business goes […]
How to nip unfair dismissal claims in the bud
Each year in the UK, there are approximately 50,000 unfair dismissal cases – the equivalent of just under 1,000 per week – that end up being taken to an employment tribunal. That’s a headline measure of just how big an issue this is for the UK economy. Unfair dismissal has been the largest single matter […]
Oracle unveils enterprise social media tool
Oracle‘s chief executive Larry Ellison has unveiled a suite of enterprise social networking tools, which have been integrated with the software vendor’s HR applications in order to enable colleagues to collaborate more effectively together. The company’s Oracle Social Network enables business users to identify and collaborate with the people that they need to within the […]
Blog: Steve Jobs – lessons in talent management
The business world lost one of its most influential leaders last week, and while the technology world mourns its industry mogul there has been repeated talk of how Apple will not be able to cope without him. Steve Jobs was the man behind Apple, he made it what it is today but he did not […]
Cost a factor in disability discrimination claims, landmark ruling reveals
Employers can take cost issues into consideration when working out what constitutes a ‘reasonable adjustment’ for disabled employees, an employment appeals tribunal has clarified for the first time. The ruling was made in the case of Jane Cordell against the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and is the first time that cost has been put at […]
Public sector job cuts hindering not helping deficit reduction, warns CIPD
Chancellor George Osborne has been urged to postpone continuing public sector job cuts because they are a “false economy” that is hindering rather than helping deficit reduction plans. The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development today warned that the Coalition Government was cutting too far, too fast, after a survey by the organisation revealed […]