Skills gap worst in leadership, management and technical roles
While the UK is suffering from wider skills gaps than ever, it is a particular problem among those in leadership, management and technical roles because investment in training is not being targeted correctly – or simply not being made available at all. A report, which was commissioned by the government and has just been published by […]
What does service excellence look like for HR?
One key question on every HR Director’s mind recently is how to get their HR teams delivering a truly excellent service to the business. So how do you? With constant pressure to cut costs while enhancing value, HR functions in both the public and private sectors in the UK, across Europe and globally are trying […]
Take five – communicate better (part two)
Continuing our two part series on improving communication in your organisation, Michael Richards adds a further five tips to help you communicate better. 6. Keeping the brand at arm’s lengthHow you communicate internally should always reflect your brand. So it’s a wonder that so many organisations keep the brand at a distance from employees – […]
Layla Bunni’s On the case: Get to grips with DDA
In this month’s On the case, Layla Bunni explores how to deal with a possible disability discrimination case and provides some tips on avoiding DDA claims. A catering company is recruiting for a number of vacancies for kitchen support staff. Mr X attends an interview and is offered one of the vacancies. He receives a […]
Want engaged employees? Engage with the wellbeing of your employees
In times of financial uncertainty it can be difficult to motivate a workforce, and even harder to motivate and engage with individual members of staff. For an employee, feeling that their boss cares about them is one important aspect of engagement. However, ‘showing you care’ in a genuine and effective way can prove difficult. Showing […]
Tories unveil plan to ‘get Britain working’
If elected to power, the Conservatives have pledged to set up a ‘Service Academy’ that they claim would create up to 50,000 training places and work placements for the unemployed in partnership with business. Eleven employers in the hospitality, leisure and tourism sector have already signed up to the scheme, which forms part of […]
Fathers want employers to be flexible friends
While less than one in five men would be prepared to take all of their proposed new six month-long paternity leave entitlement, nearly eight out of 10 would be keen to go for a flexible working arrangement if their employer encouraged it. These are the findings of a recent poll undertaken by YouGov and commissioned […]
HR 2.0 – how you’re using social media
HR professionals now routinely use social media not only to stay up-to-date and network with peers but also to build up their personal brand. These are the findings of a poll undertaken among 925 HR executives from across the world this January by online knowledge sharing communities platform, Toolbox.com, and advertising and marketing agency, PJA. The […]
Workers should not be held back by lack of part time work
A campaigning charity has joined the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions in calling for the creation of more part-time and job-share positions in order to give women and carers a fairer chance of employment. But the call came as a study revealed that one in three UK workers were being forced to take […]
Win an athlete at work™ development programme!
What you can win: The athlete at work™ K2’s athlete at work™ programme takes what elite athletes know about performance and applies it to the business world. There’s no mumbo-jumbo; the athlete at work™ simply makes the secrets of world-class performance available to key performers in the corporate arena. With the right skills, tools and […]
Identify the right skills and the skill gaps
Third in our series about workforce planning, discover how to identify skills and skill gaps in your organisation with a handy 'can do' chart. George Blair takes you through it… The story so far… We saw how to improve customer care, by matching staff more closely to customers in age, gender and ethnicity, in the […]
Can you afford to ignore your disengaged employees?
We often hear about how to better engage with employees, but what about the actively disengaged employee? Don’t stick your head in the sand, says Mike Friend. Tackling the drivers of both engagement and disengagement is critical to achieving high performance. The concepts of the service profit chain as proposed by Heskett, Sasser and Schlesinger […]
Proof of engagement – it worked for me
Councillor Alan Rudge, cabinet member for equalities and HR at Birmingham City Council has driven forward an award-winning employee engagement programme that will increase performance and productivity and protect the quality of the service delivered. He explains how it has improved staff engagement and the importance of putting people first. People are at the […]
Ask the expert: Off sick but on Facebook
One of our employees is on sick leave but still manages to go out drinking and update Facebook. Where do we stand? Adam Partington and Esther Smith advise. The situation: An employee is off sick with work-related stress – but we've seen them out clubbing and have Facebook evidence of them being out drinking. What should we […]
‘Must speak Polish’ job ad investigated
The government’s equality watchdog is investigating claims that a pre-packed cooked meat manufacturer discriminated against UK workers by advertising jobs for Polish speakers only. According to the Mail on Sunday, OSR Recruitment sent email notices out to hundreds of potential applicants on its books on behalf of Forza, which is a major supplier to […]
A bold step for IT L&D
The Institute of IT Training’s decision to become a self-governing body has been endorsed by thought leaders in the learning and development space. The not-for-profit organisation completed a management buyout from membership and research organisation, the National Computing Centre, earlier this month in a move that Colin Steed, its chief executive, described as a “great […]
Gas workers may strike over bullying
British and Scottish Gas workers are being balloted for strike action over claims of macho management and bullying by their employer. The GMB union has sent the ballot papers out to 8,000 of its members employed mainly as gas service engineers, central heating boiler engineers and distribution depot workers. The process is due to close […]
Manufacturing must retrain to stay competitive
The manufacturing and process industry has called on the government to invest directly in retraining its workforce to cope with new technology in order to help pull the sector out of recession and ensure that it remains competitive in world markets. Proskills, the Sector Skills Council for the industry, has got together with the […]
McDonald’s: Would you like a GCSE with that?
McDonald’s is launching the UK’s first national work experience-based qualification at the same time as a poll revealed that young people believe a strong academic background alone is no longer enough to secure them a job. Recent figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) appear to confirm this view. They indicated that, although youth […]
Graduates? No thanks!
Neither school leavers nor university graduates are providing employers with what they need due to basic problems with literacy, numeracy and attitude, a Tesco executive said today. The broadside came only days after university union, the UCU, slammed the business community for failing to “make a proper contribution” to funding for higher education, despite being […]