Axe 50p tax, says CBI
The CBI has called on the coalition government to axe the 50p tax rate and to dismantle employment protection introduced by the last government in a bid to “get the UK working again”. The employers’ lobby group outlined its priorities for the government’s Growth Review in a letter to Chancellor George Osborne, demanding that he […]
Unemployment: ‘poor job matching’ is the problem
Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith has claimed that unemployment is less of a problem that some are suggesting and would be significantly lower if jobless workers were better matched to vacancies. He told the Conservative spring conference in Cardiff yesterday that the Labour Party was wrong to say that the coalition government’s welfare […]
Public sector pension reform may spark action
The UK faces a wave of industrial unrest if the recommendations of a report on public sector pension reform due to be published later this week are adopted. A Treasury review, conducted by former Labour Cabinet minister Lord Hutton, is expected to propose sweeping changes to the pension system, which include axing ‘gold-plated’ financial salary […]
Overworked employees napping in the office
One in ten office workers have slept overnight at their desks over the past year, with a further 10% calling it a day between 12pm-3am as they try to tackle ever-growing workloads. According to a poll undertaken by officebrokers.com, which helps companies find office space, some three out of five also regularly started work ahead […]
Employers should train youngsters to develop business skills
Employers should be given subsidies to train young apprentices and provide internships to 16 to 19 year-olds so that they can “develop the general skills which the labour market demonstrably values”, a report has recommended. The findings were revealed in an independent review commissioned by Education Secretary Michael Gove and undertaken by Alison Wolf, the […]
Pay increases still lag behind inflation
Although average pay rises have jumped to the highest level for two years, they are still little more than half that of retail price inflation, the traditional benchmark for wage deals. Figures from Incomes Data Service revealed that the median pay award for the three months to January had jumped to 2.8% from 2.2% in […]
Succession planning, skills and performance top priorities for HR
The identification and development of future management candidates, boosting internal skills levels and the creation of a performance-driven culture are the top three challenges facing HR professionals over the year ahead. According to a study undertaken by HR research and consultancy firm Bersin & Associates, as the economy starts to improve, organisations are turning their […]
Sustainability: Megatrend? Mega-opportunity for HR…
A crisis changes everything. Before the financial upheavals and corporate collapses of the past three years, the word ‘sustainability’ was probably linked in most business minds to well-meaning campaigns by environmental charity groups. With the sudden demise of Lehman Brothers, and the recognition that dozens of other huge banking names would have disappeared without state […]
Employee engagement – align organisational aims with employee desires
Tim Casserley explores employee engagement and finds it is not as simple as some make out… The steady rise of ‘engagement’ as a way of capturing the hearts and minds not just of employees but of customers, local communities and other stakeholders has been mirrored by ever-decreasing levels of public trust in organisations. […]
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 […]
