Engaging customer-facing employees to improve performance
Employee engagement is critical to delivering outstanding customer service and improving business performance. Rather than focusing solely on product knowledge, successful companies inspire employees’ passion and emotional connection to their work, which directly influences customer satisfaction and loyalty. Employers can achieve this by understanding employee motivations and designing engagement programs that enable staff to deliver meaningful customer experiences.
Recruiters beware: 2/3 of jobseekers lie about previous salary
A survey of over 1,200 UK adults reveals that 67% of jobseekers lie about their previous salary during interviews, making it the most common candidate fib. Other frequent falsehoods include inflating qualifications (61%), overstating experience (58%), and misrepresenting reasons for leaving previous jobs (54%).
Getting to the heart of the CSR for HR
The Comprehensive Spending Review presents significant challenges for HR professionals, particularly regarding employee training, skills development, and workforce morale. With budget cuts affecting education and training support, HR managers must adopt innovative approaches to maintain employee development while organizations face pressure to cut costs during economic austerity.
Ask the expert: Best way to move monthly payment?
Experts explain how to transition employees from advance pay to arrears pay without causing financial hardship. The process requires employee consent, careful communication, and strategies like phased payments or wage recovery plans to manage tax and contractual implications.
Morrisons to employ and train 1000 homeless
Morrisons supermarket will allocate 1,000 of its 10,000 new jobs to homeless and vulnerable people, offering apprenticeships and retail qualifications through partnerships with the Salvation Army and social enterprise Create. The initiative aims to help disadvantaged individuals develop food industry skills and rebuild their lives.
Workplace fatalities fall to lowest point
Workplace fatalities in Britain fell to their lowest level on record at 152 deaths between 2009-2010, according to the Health and Safety Executive. However, work-related stress, bullying, and harassment are rising significantly, with 1.3 million workers reporting work-caused illness and stress cited as the top workplace concern by 62% of health and safety representatives.
HR uses hot tech to transform performance
HR departments are transforming performance management by leveraging cloud-based technology systems that integrate data analytics for succession planning, talent pipeline management, and strategic decision-making. With strong executive backing, organizations can shift from administrative support to becoming true business partners.
The employer’s guide to maternity and paternity law
Employers must understand maternity and paternity law to ensure legal compliance and support employee retention. This guide covers current statutory entitlements and the April 2011 changes introducing additional paternity leave, allowing fathers to take over childcare when mothers return to work.
Ask the expert: Providing a reference – what’s our duty to the employer?
When providing an employment reference, employers must ensure it is truthful, accurate and fair to both the recipient employer and the employee. If misconduct comes to light after a reference is given, whether you must update the prospective employer depends on the reference’s content and the severity of the alleged breach.
Director who withheld £11k banned from running business
A recruitment firm director has been banned from running a business for seven years after withholding over £11,000 in wages from rail workers. Christine Lewiss was prohibited under employment law following an investigation by the Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate and a tribunal hearing in Norwich.
Auto-enrol pensions too costly for small businesses
Automatic enrolment pensions recommendations would impose significant administrative and cost burdens on small UK businesses, according to employers’ bodies. The scheme requires all companies to enrol eligible staff into pension provision from 2012, with only a three-month grace period for new employees despite concerns from small business groups.
Lancaster University acquires The Work Foundation
Lancaster University has acquired The Work Foundation, a 92-year-old workplace research organization, following its winding up due to a pension deficit. The foundation will continue operating independently from its Westminster office with all 43 staff retained, combining expertise with the university’s management school.
Job creation plan: time to get real
The UK government’s National Infrastructure Plan lacks sufficient detail to generate business confidence, employers warned at the CBI conference. Prime Minister Cameron outlined growth initiatives including immigration caps, transport investment, and technology centers, but business leaders responded with cautious skepticism about the proposals’ effectiveness.
ConnectingHR – when the community came together
ConnectingHR brought together HR and social media professionals for an eagerly-anticipated unconference event featuring participant-led discussions, open-format sessions, and collaborative problem-solving. Attendees shaped the day’s agenda by creating a shared grid of topics, then moved freely between discussion groups, pecha kucha presentations, and action-planning sessions that generated practical outcomes and community connections.
The employer’s guide to: Redundancy
Employers must follow strict procedures to avoid costly unfair dismissal claims when making redundancies. This guide covers establishing genuine redundancy situations, fair selection criteria, consultation requirements, and statutory redundancy payments to minimize Employment Tribunal liability.
Immigration cap already too tight
The UK’s temporary cap on skilled non-European workers is creating significant labour shortages in social care, logistics, and manufacturing sectors. Nearly four out of five recruitment agencies report declining migrant worker use, with one-fifth struggling to find qualified staff. The government is considering making the restriction permanent.
Shift in focus in training market
The global managed learning market is shifting toward demand planning and consolidation, with providers moving beyond cost-cutting to offer personalized training solutions. Training specialists must now understand clients’ organizational needs and recommend appropriate interventions—from internal assignments to external suppliers—requiring industry mergers and acquisitions.
Employers warn extending paid maternity leave will add £2.5bn in payroll costs
UK employers warn that extending paid maternity leave to 20 weeks will cost £2.5bn annually in payroll expenses and discourage hiring. The European Parliament-backed Pregnant Workers Directive also introduces compulsory two-week paid paternity leave, drawing criticism from business groups.
Public sector job cuts likely to hit three quarters of a million
Public sector job cuts could reach 750,000 rather than the 490,000 initially announced, according to an HR body’s analysis of the coalition government’s Comprehensive Spending Review, citing structural sector restructuring rather than temporary savings.
Call for Foundation Pension to offset increase to state pension age
Pension funds body calls for a universal Foundation Pension of £8,000 annually to offset the government’s decision to raise the state pension age from 65 to 66 by 2020, citing particular impact on older female workers and the need for pension reform.
