Graduates: Less is more
An HR body has called on the government to review its “over-promotion” of university education and to focus more on providing vocationally-based diplomas at a time when nearly six out of ten graduates are unable to find suitable employment. The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) has warned that government targets desiring 75% of […]
Why bother engaging?
Engagement might be widely backed up by research but how can you know what motivates your employees if you don’t know the level of engagement of your employees? “A happy worker is a productive worker.” We all know the saying, and it is backed up by mountains of research which proves that an engaged workforce […]
Survey: HR in the digital workplace
Understanding HR’s role in shaping the Digital Workplace. The proliferation of mobile devices and wireless internet access is creating the ‘always-on’ society. But is it affecting your business? Do you have workplace policies to deal with IT and social media usage? Take our anonymous survey. For organisations, the challenges are not just about which hardware […]
Ask the expert: Sickness in an SME
One of our employees has been off sick 22 times in the past year. Now she claims she has an underlying health condition. How should we handle it? Adam Partington and Esther Smith advise. The question: Sickness in an SME We are a very small company (two full time and one part time), and […]
Don’t drop the ball now – engage for recovery
Change and upheaval has been a feature of the past year. However as we look to the future, engagement will be a key differentiator. Is your organisation engaged and ready to play the game? We all know an engaged workforce is essential to an organisations health and wealth, particularly as we move out of the […]
Top tips: Employee engagement
The most practical definition of engagement is whatever it takes to convince someone that their job is worth doing, so that they enjoy doing it and want to do it well. Here are some top tips on working with employees to release motivation. We must never lose sight of the fact that research has shown […]
HR professionals: We need your input!
Take part in our survey, designed to help organisations benchmark their talent practices against industry norms and best-in-class companies, and get a copy of the results plus a complimentary report. The study examines the maturity and effectiveness of talent processes, including recruiting, performance management, compensation, leadership development, and succession management. The research also explores the […]
Super trusts to the rescue of pensioners?
A pensions industry body has called for the creation of ‘Super-Trusts’ or low-cost schemes joined by large numbers of employers to supplement the government’s National Employment Savings Trust due to be launched in 2012. The National Association of Pension Funds (NAPF), which represents the interests of 1,200 UK pension providers, hopes to further reshape the […]
Unpaid interns ‘may be illegal’
Employers may be breaking the law by not paying as many as one in three interns the national minimum wage even though they qualify for it, according to the TUC. The union umbrella organisation warned that any intern who is not simply observing and shadowing paid employees but is instead undertaking work-related tasks with set […]
Join us for a learning and development special event
Our sister site, TrainingZone, is hosting a very special and exciting live event for L&D professionals, consultants and HR practitioners. Join us there for all the buzz on training. The event has been developed based on feedback from TrainingZone community, and will consist of two days where delegate will immerse themselves in […]
Europeans ‘least engaged’
European employers have the least engaged workforces in the world by far, with a massive two thirds of staff saying they are less than fully committed to their current employer, according to a new study. The figure contrasts with employees in both North America and Asia Pacific, of whom some 52% and 47% respectively claim […]
Budget reveals funding for skills
Chancellor Alistair Darling’s decision to earmark £2.5 billion in this year’s Budget to boost skills and innovation among small businesses has been branded “vital” in helping the UK to recover from recession. The one-off growth package is intended to encourage employers to invest in developing key skills such as literacy and numeracy among their workforces […]
A charitable view of learning technologies
More than six out of 10 charities intend to up their investment in learning technologies over the year ahead, with the focus being on improving learning delivery and its impact rather than simply cutting costs. These are the findings of a benchmark study among more than 80 charities employing over 50,000 staff and volunteers […]
Lessons to be learned from Facebook sacking
For a lesson in how not to do it, HR professionals could do worse than look at the case of a teenage cafe worker whose employer sacked her using Facebook. In what is believed to be the first such incident in the UK, 16 year old schoolgirl Chelsea Taylor found a mis-spelt dismissal letter littered with […]
Top things an HR professional should consider when moving to the Cloud
Tom Fisher, VP of CLoud Computing at SuccessFactors, clears the fog surrounding the Cloud and gives his guide on how to move towards Cloud Computing as a HR leader. So you’ve decided to go to the Cloud! Essentially, you, as the HR leader, are delegating the application and its critical service levels – uptime and […]
Essential HR skills: Project management (part one)
Today it is essential HR managers are not only good people managers, skilled negotiators, great listeners and business minded, but also have a healthy set of project management skills. A project is a process of delivering a defined change, usually to a fixed timescale and budget with defined quality standards. Several projects may form part […]
Engaging for success with Eric Peacock
Eric Peacock is a serial entrepreneur. His first buy was BabyGro which he purchased from its American owners. He currently chairs eight businesses. When asked about employee engagement, Eric says he makes sure it is present in every organisation. He was involved in shaping the engaging for success guidance as a business advocate for the […]
Budget 2010: our forecast
So what did Alistair Darling have to offer employers and employees in his 2010 budget? Here’s a light hearted forecast at how the budget will affect you at work. Unemployment – be grateful, but not too gratefulMr Darling was quick to remind us that the unemployment rate is lower than it was during the recessions […]
Female students rule out career in finance due to perceived discrimination
While the UK’s top female students are ruling out careers in the City seeing it as unethical and rife with discrimination, two thirds of healthcare workers are enthusiastic about their jobs, with nine out of ten feeling that they really make a difference. According to a survey of 450 female undergraduates at Oxford University undertaken by […]
Not enough UK firms are reaping the benefits of flexible working
Although nine out of ten staff would welcome the ability to work more flexibly, only 21% are currently doing so, despite the fact that a third have some form of caring responsibility. A survey among 20,000 office-based employees from 40 large enterprises in 14 industry sectors undertaken by management consultancy Advanced Workplace Associates, revealed that the […]