HRD Insight: M&S’ Tanith Dodge on boosting customer service via staff engagement
Employee engagement and good customer service are integrally linked, believes Tanith Dodge, HR director of Marks & Spencer. The idea is that if staff are demotivated and unhappy, they will not be inclined to go the extra mile or care about the impact of their behaviour either on individual customers or the brand image of […]
Steve Jobs: ‘Insanely great, he created a nursery for young talent’
Veteran ICT journalist John Lamb pays tribute to Steve Jobs who died today: The death at 56 of Apple founder, Steve Jobs, is a blow to all those who have grown up with the IT industry. Together with Steve Wozniak, Jobs – catch phrase “insanely great” – produced the first mass-produced home computer in the 1970s, a […]
Blog: Dumb things managers say and what to do about it
Recognise This! – Improving manager capabilities is critical to increasing employee engagement. Bnet recently published a list of “The 32 Dumbest Things That Real-Life Managers Said.” There is a lesson to be learned in all of them, but these three particularly struck home with me: 1. “Don’t worry, give it a try. You have […]
HR must become more strategic, warns study
In order to meet the needs of the increasingly complex, globalised business of the future, HR professionals must assume a more strategic role or risk being sidelined, a study has warned. A global survey of 226 senior managers in 42 countries – about 32% of whom worked in HR – revealed that 91% believed HR’s […]
Talent management – broadening out the talent pool
Despite commonly held views to the contrary, effective talent management does not have to be expensive. It also does not have to be all about measuring, tracking and recording the activity of high achievers to the apparent exclusion of everything else. A key question in this context is that, if there is any truth to […]
HRD Insight: McDonalds’ head of people on staff engagement
McDonalds’ decision to make its people strategy part of its business strategy has not only polished up a previously tarnished employer brand but also seen staff engagement levels leap. The rationale behind integrating rather than aligning the two policies was a simple one, however, said Jez Langhorn, vice president of people for the UK and […]
Tory Conference: Fujitsu strike called off at eleventh hour
This week’s Tory party conference proceeded untroubled by pickets from unhappy Fujitsu employees amid union promises that further action would also be suspended for the time being. Workers at public sector ICT supplier Fujitsu in Manchester had voted to go on strike and to demonstrate during a presentation at the party conference by the supplier’s […]
Stress now most common cause of sickness absence at work
Stress is now the biggest cause of long-term absence among UK workers across all sectors, overtaking cancer as the main reason for taking time off due to sickness. But according to a survey by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development and private health insurance provider, Simplyhealth, staff absence in the public sector have rocketed […]
Blog: Strategies for dealing with a workplace bully
Imagine you’re attending your first meeting at your new job. The senior manager in the room begins by pointing out the failure of a particular department to reach a goal. He looks at the department chief, who appears ready to crawl under the table, and asks how he can face his family when he goes […]
Talent Spot: Dominic Ceraldi, head of HR at Pimlico Plumbers
“HR would be a good job, if it weren’t for folk!” Luckily, Dominic Ceraldi, HR and general manager at Pimlico Plumbers, has chosen to disagree with this helpful observation that was made by one of his bosses early on in his HR career. In fact, he aims to be very much seen, heard and […]
Does management by metrics work?
On the frame of my kitchen door are marks of the heights of my children, and now grandchildren, with names and dates written down over the course of years. They were all proud to stand there from time-to-time in order to check how much they had grown. We did not, of course, manage their height, […]
Tory Conference: Employers invited to voice employment law concerns
The coalition Government has invited businesses to voice their concerns about existing employment law in the latest phase of efforts to slash red tape, which it claims is stifling private sector job creation. For the next three weeks, the Red Tape Challenge, Whitehall’s crowdsourcing project, will focus on the rules governing employee rights. The campaign […]
Blog: Engagement taskforce update – part two
Hello again – a couple of weeks ago, a bunch of us met with David MacLeod, Nita Clarke et al to continue encouraging the engagement taskforce. What follows is part two of a transcript of the conversations that I heard. If you haven’t already read it, part one is here. Here goes anyway: Part two […]
Legal Insight: M&A rule changes – an HRD guide to getting it right
New merger and acquisition rules introduced on 19 September mean that companies involved in such activity will have to bring HR into the picture at a much earlier stage of the due diligence process than was previously the case. The changes were introduced by the Panel on Takeovers and Mergers, an independent body that is […]
HCM technology heads for the clouds in generation refresh
HCM systems are moving into the Cloud as a new generation of technology refreshes gets underway – that’s the unmistakable conclusion from a new global survey from HR consulting firm Tower Watson. The study – which polled 444 HR managers in Canada, the US, Europe, Africa and Asia-Pacific – cited the recessionary pressures of budget […]
Blog: Engagement taskforce update – part one
Hi folks – a couple of weeks ago, a bunch of us met with David MacLeod, Nita Clarke et al to continue encouraging the engagement taskforce. What follows is a transcript of the conversations I heard. I’ll issue part one now and part two tomorrow. Here goes: Part one In groups we were asked […]
Case Study: NHS Trust saves £500,000 by managing nurses more efficiently
Basildon and Thurrock University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust claims to have saved £0.5m in a year by introducing software to record employees’ working hours, administer their shifts and manage their expenses claims. Managers at the Essex-based Trust, which employs 1,800 clinical staff – 1,500 of whom are nurses – are now using e-rostering, time and […]
Lack of specialised skills holds back growth of ecommerce
A lack of appropriate skills and an alarming lack of board level support is holding back the growth of ecommerce, a study has found. Three quarters of the 100 ecommerce directors questioned cited a lack of appropriate skills and resources as a key challenge to growth, according to research commissioned by ecommerce software provider eCommera […]
Customer service staff paid 34% below national average
The number of people working in the UK’s customer service sector has increased threefold in the last eight years, but pay remains 34% below the UK average. A new study by the Institute of Customer Service, published to coincide with the launch of National Customer Service Week (3 – 9 October), shows that the industry […]
Arc scheme to create 1,000 jobs in deprived London Olympics boroughs
A new initiative has been launched to support social entrepreneurs and boost employment in the London boroughs that are hosting the 2012 Olympic Games. Unveiled by Olympic medalist Jonathan Edwards in Hackney, arc, organised by Business in the Community and supported by Deloitte and BP, aims to generate 1,000 jobs for local people and support 200 […]