Two councils to sack entire payroll in order to meet cuts
Two local councils plan to sack their entire workforces in drastic moves they say are the only way to meet cuts targets. Shropshire County Council has already P45-ed its entire workforce to try and force through a salary cut of 5.4% and reductions in sick pay, while Southampton City Council says it will do the […]
Mind the British skills gap
British jobs for British workers, we were told last week. Well, yes… if they’re the most competitive in the market and the most qualified to do the job. What are we banging on about? Works and Pension Secretary Ian Duncan Smith lambasted the previous government’s job creation record last week, arguing that too many […]
How to improve compliance in organisations
When people don’t comply with legal requirements organisations can face penalties and fines running into the thousands. To take just a few recent examples: In November last year a Greater London pizza manufacturer was fined £15,000 after failing to respond to warnings about an unsafe doorway. Also in November Hertfordshire County Council accidentally faxed […]
Call centre jobs league: Burnley 1: Bombay 0
A telecoms company has transferred its call centre operations from Bombay to Burnley because costs are now at “absolute parity”, but it considers UK employees to be more loyal and efficient. New Call Telecom, which provides home telephone services, broadband and low-cost international calls, is opening the contact centre in Lancashire after being attracted by […]
First Default Retirement Age test launched
In what may prove a test case on new laws abolishing the default retirement age, a principal at a Scottish university has started tribunal proceedings after rejecting claims made by his employer that he had retired. Abertay University reportedly circulated an email to staff in error a couple of weeks ago ahead of an official […]
Employees have too much holiday, say 25% of SMEs
Around a quarter of small-to-medium employers believe that workers get too much holiday and would like to prune their entitlement by about four days in a bid to cut costs. According to a survey among 403 SMEs undertaken by BDRC Continental Research on behalf of insurance company MetLife, some 27% believe they are too generous […]
Wanted: HR mentors to support SMEs
The coalition government is hoping to create an “informal” nationwide network of 40,000 business mentors over the year ahead to support small-to-medium enterprises in areas such as HR, marketing and finance. The initial plank of the scheme, launched by the British Banking Association yesterday, is expected to see 1,000 current and retired employees from Barclays, […]
Ask the expert: Employee sent to prison. What do we do?
This time the experts, Esther Smith and Martin Brewer give their advice on what to do when an employee goes to prison… The question: Employee sent to prison. What do we do? We have an employee who has just been sent to prison for four to six years. The MD spoke to him beforehand and […]
Recruitment to go
Everything today points to the mobile channel playing a leading role in recruitment. The technology, phones and uncompromising demands of Generation Y have aligned to create the ideal conditions. All that’s needed now is for the recruitment industry to broaden its vision of what’s possible, says Helen Griffiths, Business Development Manager, Oxygen8 Communications. For all […]
Book review: Flourish by Martin Seligman
Professor Seligman opens Flourish by stating that he is abandoning his lifelong caution and scepticism in favour of the extravagant claim that his book will indeed help the reader to flourish. The book is a fun read and, if the exercises are carried out, may well help the reader. But it might have been quite […]
Salaries flatline desipte more vacancies
Although the number of job vacancies rebounded last month, particularly in the professional services and engineering sectors, salaries have remained flat. Employment web site Reed.co.uk said that its Job Index stood at 125 in June, which is four points or 3% higher than May, indicating that the number of available posts has returned to April’s […]
Redundancy payments top £13 billion since recession
Employers have shelled out a huge £13.4 billion in redundancy payments over the last three years following job losses as a result of the recession and subsequent sluggish economic growth. According to a report by Wedlake Bell, a City law firm that obtained the figures via a Freedom of Information request to Her Majesty’s Revenue […]
Duncan Smith calls to ‘give our young people a chance’ at employment
UK employers must stop taking on labour from abroad and give work to jobless British youths instead, the Work and Pension Secretary will say today. In a speech to the Spanish Foundation for Analysis and Social Studies think tank in Madrid, Iain Duncan Smith will attest that the coalition government is attempting to tackle […]
Lloyds to cut back office function to save money
Lloyds Banking Group is to axe a further 15,000 jobs in a bid to make annual savings of £1.5 billion by 2014, with most of the cuts likely to come from middle management and back office functions. The organisation has already announced 27,500 job losses since its merger with HBOS in 2009, but said […]
Manufacturing skills initative to improve automotive image
More than 35 automotive organisations have signed up to the coalition government’s ‘See Inside Manufacturing’ initiative, which is intended to try and improve the sector’s image in a bid to tackle Europe-wide skills shortages. Business Secretary Vince Cable, speaking during a visit to the Mini factory in Oxfordshire yesterday, said that the reason why […]
Wellbeing at work: review of Fellowes office aids
You have a duty of care to your employees. Wellbeing is important and employees off sick – for whatever reason – is inconvenient and costly. So it’s important to make adjustments and practice preventative steps as the best medicine. This includes desk assessments and ensuring employees know how best to prevent any common issues caused […]
Driving behavioural change
Organisational change requires people to do things differently – to change their existing behaviour patterns. This is not an easy task and attempts to change behaviour often have poor success rates. Change initiators seldom take into consideration the fact that people have to change behaviour that has been successful for them for years. Over the […]
MP exposed as hypocrite over unpaid intern
An MP who campaigned for the introduction of a national ‘living wage’ has been accused of “hypocrisy” after replacing a salaried staff member with an unpaid intern. Lyn Brown, Labour MP for West Ham has posted an advert for a “voluntary Westminster worker” whose duties include policy work and dealing with constituents on her official […]
Cancer-suffering apprentice sacked
A teenage cancer sufferer was sacked from his apprenticeship because his employers did not want to have to deal with a disabled staff member, an employment tribunal has heard. Michael Ready is claiming unfair dismissal, discrimination under the Disability Act and breach of contract, although William and Tracey McManus, the husband and wife team who […]
Uni courses with poor employability to be named and shamed
The coalition government plans to shake-up the English higher education sector by opening it up to increased private sector competition and introducing a new ranking system to ‘name and shame’ degree courses with poor job prospects. Under proposals put forward in the long-awaited higher education White Paper, which is due to unveiled today, universities will […]
