Barnardo’s wins e-learning award for staff dedication and support

Barnardo’s has won an award for best overall e-learning programme at the Charity Learning Awards this year due to both its dedication and efforts to support a large number of users compared with the size of the learning and development team. Judges were also particularly impressed with the children's charity's innovative approach to learning, and […]

Blog: Bullying, politics and manipulation – is it happening in your company?

Do you know what corporate politics, hidden agendas and manipulation are costing your business right now?   You might think, "But it doesn’t happen in my company". Well, that’s why they’re called ‘hidden’ agendas. You’re not supposed to know what’s going on. If you did, you’d try to put a stop to it.   You […]

Vince Cable wages war on spiralling executive pay

Vince Cable has published a discussion document proposing changes to company laws and regulations in a bid to control spiralling executive pay and stop “rewards for failure”. At the Liberal Democrat conference in Birmingham today, the Business Secretary said that, although the renumeration of chief executives at the UK’s largest public companies had risen fourfold […]

Agency Worker Regs lead to cut-price perm contracts, claim temps

Temps at a Jaguar Land Rover plant claim a recruitment agency is bullying them into signing permanent contracts to avoid paying an extra £200 per week under the forthcoming Agency Worker Regulations. According to the Liverpool Daily Post, Nottingham-based Staffline provides 686 workers for a DHL operation that supplies parts for the Land Rover Evoque […]

Five tips for dealing with auto-enrolment

The gestation period of pension reform – and auto-enrolment in particular – makes that of the African elephant look relatively short. The idea of universal, company-supported pensions for all has been working its way through the machinery of government since the middle of last decade, but much of the definitive detail and legislation is still […]

PCS calls off Fujitsu strike, but Unite goes ahead

The Public and Commercial Services union has called off today’s scheduled strike action after settling pay differences with government IT outsourcing supplier Fujitsu, although parallel action by Unite members is still set to go ahead. The PCS action would have affected a range of high-profile Fujitsu public sector clients including Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs, the […]

Ask the Expert: Can employers make staff speak English at work?

The Question A hospital Trust that I train in regularly stipulates that staff must speak English – no matter what their own language – while within hospital grounds, even if they are going off duty.   My gut reaction is that this contravenes the Equality Act and Human Rights. Am I right? Does anyone know […]

Richard Branson’s ex-PA on the art of delegation

Mastering the art of effective delegation is essential to success, believes Penni Pike, who was executive assistant to high-profile Virgin boss, Sir Richard Branson, for 31 years.   Making the decision to delegate so that you can get on with the important parts of your job is a great first step, but just exactly how do […]

L&D teams’ poor skills hold back learning technology adoption

Although e-learning is by far the most popular of technological tools to help with training activity, learning and development teams’ poor knowledge, skills and confidence are the top barriers to successful adoption. According to a survey among 600 organisations undertaken by benchmarking organisation, Towards Maturity, 72%  were convinced that learning technologies would help them respond […]

Blog: IT can be HR’s best friend

The IT organization and HR have always had a mostly adversarial relationship as IT rarely sees HR as a true IT consumer, more as a clueless and demanding relative. Most HR departments for their part are usually very under informed when it comes to HR and IT’s role in supporting the business. But listen up it’s time […]

ECJ holiday pay ruling could cost airlines £50 million

A European court ruling that holiday pay should be based on overall rather than basic earnings could affect up to 12,000 UK pilots and cabin crew and cost airlines up to £50 million. Although the six-year-long test case between British Airways and the British Airline Pilots’ Association will now have to return to the UK […]

Acas called in after foreign language ban at Waterstones’ distribution depot

Unions at Waterstone’s distribution centre in Burton-on-Trent have contacted Acas after foreign staff were banned from speaking in their native languages during working hours. According to the Burton Mail, Unipart, which operates the warehouse for the book retailer, introduced its ‘English language only’ rule for “health and safety reasons”. It claimed that the move created […]

Stress management supplier register launched to weed out cowboys

A register of accredited service providers is to be made available in the area of stress management in a bid to help HR directors weed out the cowboys. The move follows the launch of a new British Standards Institute stress management standard at the International Stress Management Association’s annual conference in London yesterday.   The […]

PAYE changes: everything you need to know

The Government has announced its intention to introduce a new PAYE scheme, which will go live in 2013. It is a major change to the present situation and will have an impact on all employers. The present scheme was introduced in 1944, following significant growth in the working population during the Second World War, and […]

Analysis: First three UK employers accredited for inclusive recruitment practices

Some 18% of working age people are disabled, yet only 48% of disabled people are employed as opposed to 78% of those without a disability. Despite some really well-intentioned employers working hard to attract and retain disabled people, research has revealed that, among the 220 or organisations questioned, there were still barriers to inclusion, primarily […]

Blog: Lessons from Yahoo – where was HR?

“I am very sad to tell you that I’ve just been fired over the phone by Yahoo’s Chairman of the Board,” Carol Bartz wrote to her company’s workforce. “These people f***** me over.” “Why don’t you have the balls to tell me yourself?” “The board was so spooked by being cast as the worst board […]

The downside of nepotism

Prominent leadership appointments are under more scrutiny than ever before. At the same time as the concept of ‘jobs for the boys’ has become less socially acceptable, today’s sceptical public is taking more and more interest in the appointment of prominent leaders working in both public and private sector organisations.   Trust in public figures […]

Strike action will be “long and hard and dirty”, warn unions

Employers have urged the coalition government to stand firm in the face of an estimated two million public servants taking industrial action from 30 November over its proposed pensions revamp.   After delegates voted unanimously in favour of coordinated action at the TUC conference in London yesterday, 10 more unions announced that they planned to […]

First five employers sign up to voluntary gender reporting scheme

Five employers have already signed up to a voluntary gender reporting scheme following coalition government claims that more effective use of women’s skills could add £15-23 billion to the UK economy each year. At an event to launch the ‘Think, Act, Report’ initiative yesterday, Home Secretary Theresa May cited Tesco, BT, National Grid, Enterprise Rent-A-Car […]

Case Study: Acas helps HMRC devise social media usage policy

Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs decided to ask Acas for help after it suffered from a couple of high-profile social media-related incidents but authorised the roll-out of blanket internet access to all of its staff for the first time. The findings of the consultation, published in the form of a Workings and social networking report, […]