Could the recession be tarnishing your employer brand?
How can organisations ensure they maintain their employer brand in a recession? Tim Holden explains how to keep brand values visible throughout any change process, and how HR can ensure the brand is protected during a redundancy process. What is an employer brand? According to the Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development (CIPD), employer […]
HR blunder of the month: Fired worker reinstated due to printer malfunction
You have probably had to repeat this HR mantra to managers and supervisors many times: Document, document, document. Here’s yet another example of what can go wrong when documentation is missing. A hearing officer has ruled that an employee from Denver, USA should get to keep his job after failing a breathalyzer test because […]
HR tip: Reducing wages
These questions are being answered by Learn HR, a market leader in the provision of HR and payroll training and nationally-recognised professional qualifications. Question: "Because times are hard we would like to reduce the wages of our employees. Can we do this?" Answer: You cannot do this unilaterally since it would constitute breach of contract. You […]
The drive towards equality in the workplace
Cases involving discrimination on the grounds of age, religion and belief or sexual orientation are on the increase. Pam Loch discusses the opinion as to whether some equality rights are more equal than others. Since 1975 and the introduction of the Sex Discrimination Act, there have been many challenges in tribunals and courts which have clarified […]
Ten top tips on rewarding in a recession
Mark Eaton outlines some of the simple steps you can take to ensure you are ready to keep rewarding in a recession. It’s realistic that employers need to be prudent and take some tough decisions in the current recession and ongoing economic uncertainty. Yet, there’s much employers can do to galvanise their people and use […]
Can the private life of an employee affect their employment?
Widespread use of the internet and social networking sites have made the ‘personal’ potentially ‘public’, and this blurring of the boundaries can present HR professionals with some tricky situations, says Steven Thomas. Only last month, an insurance worker was dismissed after surfing Facebook while off sick. Not such a bad thing, you may think, until […]
Mergers and acquisitions: Creating a stronger HR function
Jan Hills and Stefania Cappello offer practical advice on how merging HR functions can be implemented, and how it should be seen as less of a daunting task and more of an opportunity for a stronger HR function. Most advice on mergers and acquisitions is about HR helping the business. The challenge for HR […]
Ask the expert: Dismissal process with less than one year’s service
An employee, with just five month’s service, is not performing well and the employer wants to dismiss him. Esther Smith and Matthew Whelan advise on the correct process to follow. The question: If a member of staff has less than one year’s service (only five months in fact), can we dismiss him without following a […]
A week in HR: Is the recession the key to job satisfaction?
This week, Lucie Mitchell reports on a mass UK jobs exodus, a rise in job satisfaction, and the swine flu outbreak. The recession will cause a permanent UK jobs exodus, according to new research. A study by Roland Berger Strategy Consultants has revealed that 81% of the UK’s largest multinational firms are planning or […]
Colborn’s Corner: Swine flu – a media frenzy
The media has been in a frenzy over swine flu and we are all being subjected to a government communication plan that includes telling us what to do when we sneeze. But what does it all mean at work? Quentin Colborn examines what HR professionals should be doing about swine flu. Recently, if you say that you […]
No time for silence: Breaking news to employees
No news is good news – but sometimes breaking bad news to employees is unavoidable. Rob Ashton explains how to do it and provides five steps to effective employee communication. It’s bonus time. And your employees are waiting for their yearly salaries to be topped up with performance-related pay. The trouble is that sales have […]
HR Tip: Recovering relocation expenses
These questions are being answered by Learn HR, a market leader in the provision of HR and payroll training and nationally-recognised professional qualifications. Question: "Recently we recruited a man and paid a generous proportion of his relocation expenses, only to have him leave after six months to work for a nearby company. We suspect he used […]
How to beat the recession by empowering your line managers
In a downturn organisations are faced with the challenge of cutting costs whilst ensuring staff remain productive and motivated. Phil Brown examines the benefits of drawing on the capabilities of your line managers as a means of weathering the economic storm. The role of line managers has been a hot topic in recent years in […]
Views on HR news: The dangers of a tyrannical approach to Web 2.0
Jon Ingham trawls the net to provide his round-up of the great and the good of HR thought and opinion found on the web, so you don’t have to. This week he focuses on HR’s views on Web 2.0. I’ve just come back from presenting at a conference on HR 2.0 (the application of Web […]
HR in a recession: A change of focus
John Pope examines how HR professionals’ roles have changed since the downturn and how they must now adapt to the current climate. Business is a bit like gardening. To get good roses in summer, you have to prune in winter, root out diseased old stock, get rid of those which flower poorly or are no […]
Up in smoke: True liberation
In the last of her updates on her efforts to stop smoking, Becky Midgley is celebrating the fact that she can officially call herself a ‘non-smoker’. It’s official, I am a non-smoker. I just can’t stop celebrating the fact! People keep asking how it’s going, and the only answer I give is ‘it’s amazing, I […]
Vox pop: HR’s role during a recession
The downturn has meant that HR departments have had to alter their focus to adapt to the shifting environment. Lucie Mitchell speaks to some industry experts about what HR’s role is during a recession, and how it has changed as a result of the economic conditions. Anton Franckeiss, practice director, ASK:"In good times, what has […]
Ask the expert: Disability and failure to attend work
An employee, who has mental health issues, has been suspended for not attending work for one day. Esther Smith and Martin Brewer advise on whether this was the right decision to make, and the employer’s duty of care in this instance. The question: An employee has been suspended from employment pending an investigation. The employee […]
Cutting the cost of wellness
Ensuring staff wellbeing is obviously paramount, whether we are in a recession or a growth economy, but with budgets being cut wellbeing benefits could face the chop thus sending out the wrong signal to staff. Rob Woollen explains how to implement cost-effective wellness strategies. The business case for wellness is now well established, and forward-thinking […]
HR tip: Proof of drunkenness
These questions are being answered by Learn HR, a market leader in the provision of HR and payroll training and nationally-recognised professional qualifications. Question: "One of our supervisors sent a man home for turning up to work drunk. However when we held a disciplinary meeting, the man insisted that he was not drunk and that we […]
