UK small business ‘not prepared for disruption’
Although the majority of UK small-to-medium enterprises suffered business disruption due to adverse weather conditions, health or transport issues last year, nearly a quarter had no contingency plans in place to deal with the situation. According to a survey undertaken by telecoms provider Cable & Wireless Worldwide’s Demon Broadband, a huge 86% of respondents experienced […]
Default retirement age amendments announced
As official figures showed that the number of people aged 65 or over who work has doubled over the last 10 years, the coalition government moved to amend controversial draft regulations governing the end of the default retirement age. The initial version of the draft regulations laid before Parliament on 16 February had indicated that […]
Public sector recruitment freeze extended while police face cuts
The coalition government has extended its temporary civil service recruitment freeze at the same time as Home Secretary risked confrontation with police by warning that cuts to their pay and conditions would be necessary to avoid thousands more job losses. Home Secretary Theresa May told the 140,000-strong police service in England and Wales yesterday that […]
Young people too poor to learn after EMA is dropped
Training organisations have accused the coalition government of pricing young people out of the market after seeing an almost immediate drop in learner numbers following its withdrawal of the Educational Maintenance Allowance. Kevin Hayes, chief executive of one of Birmingham’s oldest social enterprises – training agency Enta – and chairman of the city’s Foundation Learning […]
MoD: 17, 000 forces jobs are to go
The Ministry of Defence has come under fire after announcing plans to axe 17,000 posts across the armed forces over the next four years, some 11,000 of which will take the form of redundancies. The first tranche of the three or four waves of redundancies will come in September. The RAF was the first to […]
Ask the expert: Discriminatory comments to pregnant employee
This week the experts, Adam Partington and Esther Smith advise on what to do about discriminatory comments made about a pregnant employee. The question: Discriminatory comments to pregnant employee We have heard that a manager within our small company has made some discriminatory comments to a pregnant employee – along the lines that […]
Ex employee held to ‘non-compete’ agreement by judge
A judge has barred the former government team head of Microsoft’s Dynamics CRM business from taking on a similar role at Salesforce.com but said that he could do something else instead. Washington’s King County Superior Court Judge Kimberly Prochnau extended a temporary restraining order preventing Matt Miszewski from looking after Salesforce’s US-based government accounts as […]
HR bonuses higher than expected
Higher than expected bonuses for the UK’s 148,000 HR professionals saw pay-outs nearly double from £680 million to £1.5 billion last year, boosting their total renumeration by 12%. The sharp increase followed a year of job creation in the sector, with the number of HR positions rising by 6.7% between the second quarters of 2009 […]
Online recruitment sites ‘not accessible’
UK recruitment agencies must take urgent action to improve the accessibility of their web sites, an equality and diversity specialist has warned. The report entitled ‘Recruitment Equality – Accessibility, Equality and Diversity on Recruitment Websites’ revealed that 97% of web sites from both large and small providers failed to provide equality and diversity information in […]
Scottish unions grapple with councils over redundancy and pay
Scottish trade unions have denied that a deal has been struck with the Scottish Government and local councils to protect public sector jobs in return for pay constraint. The move followed reports that an agreement was close, but unions seeking more assurances over the deal accused the Scottish Government of “jumping the gun”. Although a […]
Talent top priority for CEOs
Talent management has become the number one preoccupation among chief executives at global organisations this year because skills shortages are becoming increasingly apparent as they gear up for renewed growth. According to a survey among 1,201 chief executives in 69 countries undertaken by management consultancy PricewaterhouseCoopers, emerging Asia-Pacific markets are being viewed by bosses in […]
Help your boss manage – by managing them
Employees must be encouraged to proactively ‘manage upwards’ if they are to support their bosses in performing more effectively, research has revealed. According to a survey undertaken by management and sales training consultancy Krauthammer, some 36% of workers feel that their bosses act in a penalising or dismissive fashion. Although 95% would like their managers […]
‘Enterprise zones’ could make unwelcome return
The coalition government’s widely anticipated plans to revive enterprise zones in a bid to regenerate local economies and boost employment will prove costly and “ineffective”, two leading think-tanks have warned. The return of the zones, which were widely used by the last Conservative administration between 1981 and 1996, is expected to be announced in the […]
A step change in benefits delivery: the future for flex
How did we get here? The road to flex was paved with good intentions, explains George Farrow, from the paternalistic Victorian idea to today’s austerity. Flexible benefits were born in the mid 90s out of the necessity to take a fresh look at core benefits. The paternalistic industrialists of the Victorian era built homes and […]
TrainingZone Live returns
On 16 May, TrainingZone takes over the modernist confines of Dexter House in the nation’s capital to usher TrainingZone Live into its sophomore year. Here in Bristol’s medialand that is Siftmedia, a thought ocurred to us. The events team, editors and salespeople attend a lot of conferences and events over the course of a […]
Immigration cap is hindering UK business
As demand for non-EU migrant workers increases despite rising levels of unemployment, the coalition government’s temporary migration cap is hindering employers’ ability to fill key positions, an HR body has cautioned. The warning came as the Office for National Statistics revealed that the level of net migration into the UK increased by 36% last year, […]
Women in boardroom targets get mixed reaction
Recommendations that FTSE 100 companies set voluntary targets for women to make up a minimum of 25% of their boards by 2015 rather than being subject to quotas have met with a mixed response. Further proposals included in Lord Davies of Abersoch’s ‘Independent Review into Women on Boards’ were that heads of all FTSE 350 […]
23 minutes on a conference call – that’s your limit
Concentration starts to wane after workers have spent an average of 23 minutes on a telephone conference call, with many resorting to doodling and checking or writing emails while others simply fall asleep. A survey, undertaken among 4,800 individuals in the UK, India, Spain, Germany and Singapore by telecoms provider Cable & Wireless, revealed that […]
Tackling tribunals – coping with the changes
The Government’s consultation document ‘Resolving workplace disputes’, published at the end of January, proposes a number of changes to the way in which the employment tribunal system currently operates with a view to ensuring that the process is as swift, user-friendly and effective as possible. The consultation, which closes on 20 April, also seeks […]
Sickness absence rates back at pre-recession levels
Absence rates due to sickness had returned to pre-recession levels by the end of last year, but in overall terms have fallen over the last decade, official figures have revealed. ____________________________________________________________ Download a free guide to absence management from Access here to discover ways to record and analyse absence___________________________________________________________ The Office for National Statistics found […]
