Employees exposed to contract and pay issues
Too many personnel are potentially leaving themselves exposed, with just under a third not reading their employment contracts adequately and one in 10 failing to understand the details of their payslips. The Institute of Payroll Professionals (IPP) also warned that the increasing number of e-payslips currently being introduced by employers could lead to even more […]
NHS to roll out ‘competency passport’ scheme
The NHS is set to roll out a national ‘Skills Passport for Health’ scheme in order to improve talent management and reduce admin costs, following the success of a year-long pilot project. The proof-of-concept trial was undertaken among nursing staff at seven English NHS Trusts during the financial year 2009-2010. Workers created a verified […]
UK may face technology skills gap
In advance of this week’s A-Level and next week’s GCSE results, the UK’s business organisation the CBI claims not enough British pupils in state education and engaging in the kinds of subjects that will lead to jobs in technology. ‘Insufficient numbers’ are studying science, technology, engineering and maths despite them leading to better job prospects […]
BT may expand apprenticeship scheme
High levels of youth unemployment that led to BT receiving more than 100 applications for each of its apprenticeship places mean that the telecoms provider is now considering whether to expand the scheme. The company had nearly 24,000 applications for the 221 positions that were available this year – more than the total number of […]
Pay offer halts proposed BAA strike
Money talks: the Unite union has called off proposed industrial action by thousands of airport workers that would have crippled six UK airports, after operator BAA agreed to a “much improved” pay offer. The agreement was reached last night after hours of fraught negotiations mediated by the conciliation service, Acas. Unite intends to recommend that […]
Undercover Boss – Narin Ganesh’s filming diary
Narin Ganesh is the FD of Crown Relocations, a company which offers packing and moving services worldwide. The new FD took his chance to go undercover in the organisation with Channel 4’s Undercover Boss in this week’s episode on Thursday at 9pm. In a preview to the episode, we get to see his filming diary […]
Influencing engagement: the role of the line manager
John Pope offers advice on how managers can work with their teams to maximise engagement, supported by the HR function. I thought that the subject of engagement had had enough debate; we have read about its importance and its measurement by engagement surveys; we have heard about the importance of bringing new staff into an […]
Ask the expert: Successive fixed term contracts
This week the experts, Adam Partington and Esther Smith, advise on whether you can justify fixed term contracts. The question: Justifying fixed term contracts What is deemed to be an objectively justified reason for using successive Fixed Term Contracts? We have several staff on Fixed Term Contracts. I know that employees on fixed-term contracts […]
Outsourcing risk not managed effectively
More than half of organisations admit that they require better training and support to improve the effectiveness of outsourcing initiatives in order to boost bottom line performance. These are the findings of a survey undertaken among 615 contractor managers, sub-contractor buyers, project managers and senior decision-makers from organisations from across the world by Informa’s ESI […]
HR must not fall for the ‘delusion of gender’
HR professionals need to be careful of indulging in ‘neurosexism’, after revelations that widely accepted differences between male and female abilities are not hard-wired into their brains from birth but are the result of cultural assumptions. Cordelia Fine, a researcher at Melbourne University, argues in her book entitled ‘Delusions of Gender’, which is due to […]
New learning centre for DHL Supply Chain
DHL Supply Chain has opened a learning centre in Leicestershire to provide its 200 staff with training ranging from basic skills to NVQs. The centre, located at Magna Park in Lutterworth, was developed in conjunction with the Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers, North Warwickshire and Hinckley College and training provider EQV. Chris Sharp, managing […]
Social media still feared by graduate recruiters
While workers’ use of social media is costing UK business £14 billion a year in lost productivity, nearly two thirds of graduate recruiters are wary of using the channel because of fears over damage to reputation. According to a survey of 84 graduate recruiters undertaken by the Association of Graduate Recruiters and HR consultancy Penna […]
Union urges BT employees with damaged hearing to claim
Only days after the Communications Workers Union voted to accept BT’s pay deal worth 9.3% over three years, it is urging engineers suffering from tinnitus and deafness to seek compensation from the telco for potential negligence. Compensation claims are currently being looked at in Cardiff County Court, which has asked the solicitors involved to consider […]
Antisocial hours still need equal pay
A ruling that female workers at an NHS Trust in Merseyside are entitled to the same level of payment for working antisocial hours as men could open the way to similar claims elsewhere. The women, who were employed by St Helen’s and Knowsley NHS Trust in roles ranging from healthcare assistants, domestic supervisors and receptionists, […]
Unemployment set to get worse for young and old
Unemployment is disproportionately hitting young people and older workers but official jobless figures appear to indicate that the situation is only set to get worse. Figures from the Office for National Statistics released yesterday seemed to be encouraging on the surface, with the number of unemployed falling by 49,000 to 2.46 million in the three […]
Not much time for consultation on scrapping time off for training
Opinion appears to be divided over whether coalition government plans to scrap workers’ rights to request time off for training would be a positive move or not. Skills Minister John Hayes has launched an unusually short five-week consultation over the future of the legislation, which only came into force in April this year for employers […]
From the top to the tip – Undercover Boss with Colin Drummond, CEO of Viridor
Colin Drummond, CEO of Viridor, the recycling, renewable energy and waste management company went undercover to discover more about his business. Before the programme aired, we got a sneak peek at Colin’s Undercover Boss experience. Undercover Boss is one of those rare programmes which highlights relationships between bosses, employees and organisational culture to a mass […]
The HP Way: Sexual harrassment and the CEO
The fall from grace of a highly regarded CEO, sexual harassment accusations from a soft porn actress-turned reality TV contestant, some fiddled expenses and a breach of a 50 plus year old corporate ethical code: the events of the past week at Hewlett Packard, one of the founding fathers of Silicon Valley, reads more like […]
HR jargon buster: Assessment language demystified
Suzana Lopes presents a jargon buster that demystifies some of the terminology used in assessment. The world of assessment is a highly scientific one, and even the most traditional paper-based tests that have been delivered for decades are built on highly complex psychometric theory to ensure that they are the most accurate reflection […]
Profit sharing motivates employees
More than half of UK workers believe that profit-sharing or having an ownership stake in their employer’s business would motivate them to perform more effectively – although the idea is more popular among men than women. Moreover, 36% of staff that do not currently receive some form of performance-related pay think that doing so would […]