Lord Sugar – good TV but a nightmare coach, says survey
Apprentice boss Lord Alan Sugar has been overwhelmingly voted as the UK’s number one nightmare career coach. According to a poll of 1,370 managers undertaken by the Institute of Leadership & Management in order to mark the launch of its ‘Perform at Your Peak’ campaign to promote the benefits of professional coaching, just under a […]
Secret talks lead to tube strike cancellation
A series of crippling London tube strikes due to start next Monday have been suspended following secret talks between Transport for London boss Mike Brown and union officials. The RMT transport union had threatened to bring the Underground to a standstill in six separate walkouts planned for May and June following the dismissal of two […]
‘You’re hired!’ – what Lord Sugar can teach us about recruitment
Spring – a time of new beginnings – blossom, elections and the start of Series 7 of The Apprentice. However, unlike the democratic process to select political representatives, according to the BBC, Lord Sugar is sole decision maker when it comes to boardroom decisions in The Apprentice. Looking back at six series of the show, […]
Engineering and science skills priced at a premium
A huge 43% of employers are now finding it difficult to recruit workers with science, technology, engineering and maths skills and so are increasingly paying premium rates for such expertise, according to the CBI. But the employer lobby group’s ‘Education and Skills’ survey of 566 organisations undertaken with the national UK qualifications awarding body EDI […]
Apprentice Katie claims three weeks maternity is enough
Katie Hopkins, the ex-Apprentice and reality TV contestant, has sparked another row by appearing on The One Show with a report (which you can view here on iPlayer – it starts at 8.58 minutes) suggesting women should take no more than three weeks off after giving birth. Most people realise being a parent isn’t an […]
Public sector pay ‘better than in private sector’
Public sector hourly wages outstripped those of the private sector for the second year running in 2010 as the bottom 30% of private sector employees suffered “dramatic” pay cuts, a report has revealed. The study undertaken by right-wing think tank the Policy Exchange and based on Office of National Statistics data revealed that, in every […]
US tech giants sued for wage fixing and anti-poaching agreements
A raft of US tech and film giants, including Apple, Google and Pixar, have been sued for anti-competitive behaviour after allegedly undertaking employee wage-fixing and agreeing not to poach each other’s staff. The move follows a probe by the US Department of Justice last year, which resulted in the firms, which also include Lucasfilm, Intel […]
BA employee sacked after YouTube threats to poison ‘scab’ pilot
A British Airways employee was sacked after threatening to poison a strike-breaking pilot’s food and posting a series of other sinister threats on YouTube, an employment tribunal has heard. Bryan Benning, who was based at Heathrow’s Terminal Five, is suing the airline for unfair dismissal, claiming that it was his brother rather than himself who […]
Employers working with managers and GPs see fall in sickness absence
Employers that both train line managers appropriately and introduce tougher targets in relation to staff sickness absence are a third more likely to reduce non-attendance rates than those that fail to take action. These are the key findings of a survey among 454 organisations undertaken by UK manufacturing member body EEF and health insurance provider, […]
New guide to help identify stress risks at work
A new guide to help employers assess and manage the workplace risks that could lead employees to suffer mental and physical stress has been published by the British Standards Institution. The Publicly Available Specification or PAS 1010 ‘Guidance on the management of psychosocial risks in the workplace’ was developed by BSI Standards. But it is […]
Book review: Top Tips for Talented Working Parents by Jo Lyon & Harriet Beveridge
Title: Top Tips for Talented Working ParentsAuthor: Jo Lyon & Harriet BeveridgeISBN: 978-184876-598-6Price: £5.99 This A6 book is something you can pop in your pocket, briefcase or handbag to have to hand for any spare moment. It is a resource you can dip in and out of and you certainly don’t need to have […]
Best practice: Transforming the recruitment breakdown in the AA
Lorraine Lopez, HR resourcing manager, explains how the Automobile Association has changed its recruitment processes and what difference this has made to the organisation. The businessThe Automobile Association (the AA) was founded in 1905 and now has around 8,000 employees across the UK, including 3,000 patrols. Every year it attends around 3.5 million breakdowns and […]
Public sector learning pros brace for budget cuts
Almost two thirds of public sector learning and development professionals are bracing themselves for budget cuts over the year ahead as they find themselves on the front line to make savings. According to a survey of more than 500 IT training specialists undertaken by the Institute of Information Technology Training, some 63% expect to experience […]
UK households squeezed to 1970s levels
Ongoing rises in unemployment combined with a continuing fall in real earnings and house prices will see UK households more squeezed than at any time since 1977, a report has warned. According to the latest issue of Deloitte’s Economic Review, pay growth is unlikely to catch up with inflation any time soon as the latter […]
What’s holding back women in business?
Marion Stewart considers the challenges women have faced and continue to face in business and whether quotas will help create more diversity in sectors such as her own – IT. The government review – challenging the status quoThe subject of getting more women in executive positions in British businesses following Lord Davies’ report, Women on […]
Sweatshop labour claims in Kent
The UK’s largest greenhouse complex, which supplies many of the country’s leading supermarkets, is being investigated following claims that agency workers at its facility in Kent are being treated like “sweatshop labour”. The Gangmasters Licensing Authority, which regulates agency practices, is looking into complaints lodged by Unite against Thanet Earth, which supplies cucumbers, peppers and […]
FairPensions rally calls for living wage by top 100 companies
An advocacy group is writing to chief executives at the top 100 UK companies to demand that they pay workers a “living wage”, after holding a rally in London yesterday. Two and a half thousand investors, philanthropists and religious leaders led by FairPensions, an organisation committed to promoting responsible investment, gathered at Westminster Central Hall […]
Most employers need to work on their CSR targets
Although three quarters of UK workers believe their employer should balance commercial success with effective corporate social responsibility activities and charitable giving, only two out of five feel that they currently do enough in this area. These are the key findings of a survey among 1,007 employees undertaken by researcher Vision Critical […]
London Underground agrees strike action
Only days after proposals were put before Parliament to ban industrial action by transport and emergency workers unless 50% of union members back it, London Underground staff have agreed to strike in support of two sacked colleagues. Tube workers voted by two to one in a ballot undertaken by the RMT union […]
Corporate Manslaughter Act: are you doing enough?
Jim Irving examines new vulnerabilities within businesses when it comes to the legislation and considers how else to best protect staff. As the Corporate Manslaughter Act came into force on 6 April 2008, and with recent new sentencing guidelines recommending appropriate fines to start from £500,000 in the event of a conviction, all companies […]
