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, […]
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 […]
