Top five tips for a sustainable business culture which sticks
Going green is good for the budget and the brand. But how can you make the green intentions stick? Follow our five top tips and if you answer our survey about how sustainable your organisation is you could win an iPad. Embrace the cloud. Allow some of your employees to work from home when they […]
How to avoid the Employment Tribunal
Statistics released recently by the Tribunal Service show that the total number of claims lodged with an Employment Tribunal in 2009-10 was 236,100 compared to 151,000 for 2008-09. This amounts to an increase in the number of claims made to an Employment Tribunal by over 56%. In this article Guy Hollebon, Head of Employment Law […]
‘Equal pay’ firms target ‘unenforceable’ pay secrecy clauses
Private sector employers should brace themselves for a wave of mass discrimination lawsuits following the abolition of a pay secrecy clause in the Equality Act. According to law firm Pannone, when the Act comes into force in October, pay secrecy clauses will become unenforceable and organisations will be unable to prevent staff from disclosing salary […]
NEST support high at 75% but teething problems expected
Although less than half of employers have currently budgeted for introducing pension auto-enrolment, just over two out of five expect to level down their contributions for new employees in order to help meet the costs. According to a survey among 210 large private and public sector employers undertaken by the Association of Consulting Actuaries (ACA), […]
2/3 public sector ‘would take pay cut’
With unemployment predicted to breach 10% outside of London and the South of England, nearly two thirds of public sector workers would now be prepared to take pay cuts to save their jobs. According to a survey of 1,600 public sector jobseekers by recruitment web site Totaljobs.com, a quarter said they would stomach a salary […]
21st century training: get better value
Trimming skills budgets might seem like a regressive move, but it might be the catalyst needed to prepare staff training for the demands of the 21st century, says Jane Scott Paul, CEO, Association Accounting Technicians. The economic turbulence over the past few years has led to training budgets being trimmed across the board. Consequently there […]
Stress and sackings mean employees should beware of the email
Emails are more dangerous than you might think – one in 20 staff have been reprimanded or sacked for sending ill-advised ones, while more than half experience increased stress levels as a result of checking them on holiday. According to the Press Association, a study among 2,000 UK workers, one in five respondents said that […]
Employing graduates: Easy as 1,2,3?
A continuing high level of unemployment among graduates, where 10% of the total graduate population failed to find any form of work last year, provokes the question: are universities adequately equipping students with the transferable skills required for the workplace? ‘Traditional degrees’ have been under fire for not properly preparing young people for the world […]
The importance of networking for HR
Judith Germain explains why it’s just as important for the HR function to network as it is for any other department. To most internal HR professionals the term ‘networking’ is assumed to relate to the activity of external consultants who need to network to find work. It isn’t something that ‘internals’ think they do or […]
Getting staff to pull in the same direction for the good of the organisation
In today’s economic environment, where reducing costs and improving productivity of employees is top of the agenda, how can we get staff to pull in the same direction in every aspect of the business to achieve the business goals? Individual behaviour, attitude and motivation, team working and alignment to objectives and values – and compliance […]
Radical immigration cap will mean major skills problems
Because training workers to plug the UK skills gap is a lengthy task, the abrupt introduction of a “radical” immigration cap would generate major skills problems for employers and lead to more offshoring. The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) issued the stark warning after the Office of National Statistics’ Migration Statistics Quarterly Report […]
Hey good-lookin’ – want a job?
Just over two thirds of employers would be more inclined to hire good-looking candidates, with a scary 9% admitting that they had in the past recruited someone purely because of their appearance. According to a poll of 1,256 bosses undertaken by recruitment agency review web site HireScores.com, 67% admitted that, all being equal in terms […]
What impact will abolishing the compulsory retirement age have?
"What you have to know about this session is that I am me and I am not going to change". That was the opening line of a coaching session I recently undertook. I was sitting in front of a Swiss-German senior vice president with whom I had spent the previous two and a half days […]
The new retirement age – implications for employers and employees
A radical shake up of the state pensions announced by the coalition government will involve an acceleration of the plans to raise the retirement age in order to help reduce the budget deficit and a plan to scrap the default retirement age of 65 from 1 October 2011. These controversial announcements have received some mixed […]
‘Cafe culture’ learning needed, says skills minister
Skills Minister John Hayes has called on UK business to promote informal learning at work, following pledges by 64 large brands to boost workers’ skills as part of a so-called ‘Cafe Culture’ campaign. The initiative was launched last year by membership organisation Business in the Community (BiC) on behalf of the Department for Business, Innovation […]
Not enough jobs suitable for lone parents
A dearth of ‘family friendly jobs’ could throw the coalition government’s plans to get more single parents back to work into disarray, according to research. In its emergency budget, the government said that 100,000 lone parents whose youngest child was aged five – rather than the former age of 10 – would be required to […]
Greg Secker asks: Are you still having fun?
Greg Secker is founder of the multi-million pound trader coaching company Knowledge to Action. The sessions teach the basics of FOREX trading and open attendees’ eyes to the world of Foreign exchange. In the past seven years, more than 55,000 people have attended Knowledge to Action seminars in the UK and Australasia. Work is a […]
HR campaigning hard for top talent
Looking for the X Factor: the number of HR departments employing specialist mangers to run brand-boosting initiatives in a bid to recruit top talent has jumped threefold over the last four years. Research undertaken among 104 companies across the world by brand consultancy People in Business revealed that the number of brand and talent managers […]
Older workforce will present new health challenges for employers
Occupational health professionals have warned that employers could face challenges in managing the needs of the more than 50% of workers who either do not expect to retire or are unsure when they can afford to do so. An online poll among 1,478 UK workers undertaken by ICM Research on behalf of Baring Asset Management […]
A letter to L&D: HR is your BFF
Nigel Paine explains why trainers need to recognise HR as their best friend in order to achieve their aims in this letter to L&D. It is almost exactly five years since ‘Fast Company’ – the US-based business magazine – published its seminal article by Keith Hammonds, its deputy editor, called: ‘Why we hate HR.’ He […]