Analysis: Private sector fails to offset public sector jobs cull as unemployment soars

Unemployment has experienced the largest quarterly hike since August 2009, driven by a faster than expected public sector jobs cull that a slowing private sector is failing to offset. According to official labour market figures published by the Office for National Statistics, unemployment stood at 7.9% or 2.51 million for the three months to July, […]

Blog: How HR can speak the language of the top table

I’m taking Derek Irvine up on his offer to respond to his blog (What are you bringing to the top table? 01.09.11), which I read with great interest. This is certainly a question that the HR community has been and should continue to ask themselves. The question is how do they get and keep the […]

Update: Intern name-and-shame campaign avoids media companies

A campaign to name and shame large companies that fail to pay interns a proper wage is steering clear of media companies – which are among the worst offenders – due to fears over lack of publicity. The news came to light as the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills published guidance for employers that […]

Talent Spot: Michael Stirrup, head of HR at Waterstons

Stepping into an HR director’s shoes for the first time is a steep learning curve for anyone, but for Michael Stirrup, it has been more precipitous than most. For this is his first HR position and it supplements his usual day job of finance director.   Over the five years that Stirrup has been employed […]

Age discrimination awards three times higher than average, warns expert

Employers must be particularly careful to guard against age discrimination claims as average awards last year were three times higher than any other, experts have warned. The ‘Employment Tribunals and Employment Appeal Tribunals Statistics 2010-11’ report published by the Ministry of Justice and Her Majesty’s Courts & Tribunals Service revealed that the average age discrimination […]

Blog: Three ways to deal with employee lateness

Employees’ lateness, when not measured and managed properly, can cause businesses thousands of pounds each year in lost productivity and profits. In order to understand how lateness can affect organisation’s bottom line, let’s look at the example below: Company X has 150 employees. 10% of their workforce (15 employees) is persistently late to work by […]

How to create a sustainable L&D strategy

The business environment in many of today’s organisations is more complex, fluid and ambiguous than it was in the second half of the 20th century. Our world is changing so fast that the traditional methods employed in learning and development no longer have the traction and impact they once had – or some may argue […]

Cap is not damaging economy, says immigration advisor

Although there is “no evidence” that the immigration cap is damaging the UK economy, it is creating an employment “dilemma” in the public sector, the government’s chief advisor has warned. Professor David Metcalf, who chairs the Migration Advisory Committee, pointed to the fact that, although the cap on skilled migrants from outside of the European […]

Women may not be able to ‘have it all’, warns female chief exec

The head of a network that seeks to boost the number of women in senior corporate positions has warned that females need to accept that ‘having it all’ may be unachievable. Heather Jackson, chief executive of An Inspirational Journey, said that, as female graduates enter the workplace, they quickly realise that their career expectations are […]

Learndirect launches ‘Make It Count Week’ to boost workplace skills profile

 Learndirect launched ‘Make It Count Week’ today to help raise the profile of learning and skills issues among employers and individuals across the UK. The workplace and basic skills provider’s aim is to urge employers to take action so that they help support and  encourage their employees to exploit the training opportunities available. Sarah Jones, […]

Skills shortages and unemployment to remain endemic, warns study

The UK’s education system is not fit to meet the changing needs of industry and, as a result, skills shortages and unemployment seem set to remain endemic issues for UK Plc into the foreseeable future. This is the stark warning of a joint study between the Daily Telegraph and think tank The Work Foundation, which […]

DWP reverses decision to offshore 200 UK jobs

A union is claiming that pressure from its members led to IT supplier HP reversing a decision to offshore 200 UK jobs to India. The move would have resulted in a government contractor sending the live records of millions of UK citizens overseas for the first time, in the initial step of a process known as ‘knowledge transfer’. […]

Blog: I was a vampire HR manager – does it matter?

A while ago I recorded some webinars for a training company, for their YouTube page. When they posted the videos, they told me that they were unable to use my name on the clips, because YouTube automatically puts related video clips on the same page. Why was this a problem? Well, mainly because the majority […]

Fresh pension proposals to hit millions of workers in their 40s

Millions of workers in their 40s are expected to be hit by coalition government plans to bring forward increases in the state pension age to 67 by a decade. The news came as an employment tribunal found that a leisure centre worker suffered age discrimination and was unfairly dismissed so that his employer could avoid […]

Law firms collaborate to boost disadvantaged access to legal profession

More than 20 UK law firms have got together in a bid to provide young people from disadvantaged backgrounds with fair access to work experience opportunities across all facets of the legal profession. The initiative dubbed ‘Prime’ has been backed by the Law Societies of England and Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland as well as […]

Business has talent – and much of it over 65

Imagine you had access to the pick of global talent, to some of the most successful business people in the world. Imagine if, in your organisation, you could harness the abilities of any of the following business leaders: Warren Buffett, David Rockefeller, Amar Gopal Bose of Bose Corporation, Gordon Earle Moore of Intel, Bob Oatley […]

Ask the Expert: Is posting Facebook pictures of planking at work acceptable?

The Question  Two members of staff posted pictures of themselves ‘planking’ on Facebook or lying in places that put their health and safety at risk – on top of a top shelf in a backroom and above the back door at work.   Comments have been made about this on Facebook, which included the manager […]

Engineering suffers from lack of jobs not skills, says study

Claims that there is a shortage of graduates with the engineering skills required to drive economic growth may be overstated, according to research from Birmingham University. Researchers at the institution say that fewer than half of graduates who leave university with a degree in engineering are actually still working in the field six months later. […]

Legal Insight: Preparing for the Agency Workers Regulations

The controversial Agency Workers Regulations hit the headlines again this week, after David Cameron intimated that he was seeking legal advice on how to dilute them, only weeks before the legislation is due to come into force on 1 October. According to the Daily Telegraph, the Prime Minister became concerned that the new laws could […]

Blog: Less than 24 days to go! What do you think about the Agency Regs?

In less than 24 days time, the Temporary Agency Regulations (Regulations) come into force.   If reports in the national press this week are correct, the Government is yet again wavering over whether the legislation should be implemented in its current form.  This time though, the deadline is so tight that commentators are speculating whether this is […]