Ask the expert: Employee AWOL
What options does an employer have when one of their employees is absent without leave and has made no contact at all? Esther Smith, partner at Thomas Eggar, and Martin Brewer, partner at Mills & Reeve, advise. The question:We have an employee who recently underwent disciplinary action, was issued with a final written warning, and […]
Bosses turn down two-thirds of home-working requests
More than two thirds of employers never or only occasionally accept employee requests to work from home. These are the findings of the latest quarterly Labour Market Outlook (LMO) survey from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) and KPMG. This is despite the fact that, of the employers who offer home working, only […]
Take control of business through training, managers urged
As National Learning at Work Day kicks off today (Thursday), the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) is urging managers across the country to take control of their business through training. According to the National Employer Skills Survey 2007, almost 163,000 managers in England alone experience a skills gap. Of these, almost three quarters lack management […]
Mediation: The ‘win-win’ of dispute resolution?
With the annual cost of dealing with an employment tribunal clocking in at an average £20k, businesses are increasingly turning to mediation to resolve their workplace disputes. So does it work and is it the best solution? Annie Hayes investigates. What is mediation?Fallings out at work are triggered by numerous reasons: behaviour, performance, sickness absence, […]
Cost-effective ways of motivating your workforce
We all want an engaged and motivated workforce. And we all want to ensure strategies are applied in the most cost-effective way possible. Here, James Brook shows you how. In the current uncertain economic environment, no concept is arguably more important than motivation. How can companies keep employees motivated while keeping salary, wage and other […]
KISS — Easy Rules for Online Applications
In life and in business the every-day activities should be easy and simple. People like simple. I keep hearing horror stories about poor candidate experiences which tend to make me cringe. A couple of months ago I attended a networking event presented by Dan from Broadbean. He gave a painful demo of a bank’s online […]
Career management: A strategic tool
Over the coming months, Donna Murphy will explore findings from the five components of the Adecco Institute’s ‘Demographic Fitness Survey’, starting with career management, and will discuss what HR practitioners can do to improve their demographic fitness and prepare for the changing demographics of the workforce. The Adecco Institute launched the first Demographic Fitness Survey […]
The virtual world of recruiting
It is becoming increasingly common to use virtual world technology as a recruitment tool, but is this really going to be the recruitment platform of tomorrow? Heidi Innes explains. The use of virtual worlds as a recruitment tool has been much hyped of late – TMP hosted the UK’s first ever ‘virtual world’ careers fair […]
HR tip: Calculating pay-in-lieu of notice
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:"How is pay-in-lieu calculated?" HR tip:There is no designated formula as such because pay-in-lieu is a sum of money agreed by employer and departing employee due to the fact the latter is not […]
Major recruitment companies have merged
International recruitment companies Randstad and Vedior have merged to form one group, which will create the world’s second largest recruitment and HR services organisation.The merge was effective from last Friday, 16 May and the new group will employ 34,000 people worldwide, with clients and candidates supported by a much larger geographical spread. It is estimated […]
Is your vendor in the running for the 2008 Software Satisfaction Awards?
Technology editor John Stokdyk sets the scene for the 2008 Business Software Satisfaction Awards. Is your supplier in the running? More than 20 training and HR software companies have asked to be considered for the 2008 Software Satisfaction Awards, and entries will be accepted up until Friday 23 […]
Flexible working will aid economic downturn
The Trades Union Congress (TUC) is urging bosses to implement flexible working to steer through the economic uncertainty.Speaking today (Wednesday) at the annual Work Wise UK summit, TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said that whilst flexible working practices had progressed, there are worrying signs that long hours are enjoying a cultural renaissance, along with unpaid […]
HR enjoys boosted earnings amidst fear of redundancies
In a further sign of a confused economy, new figures show HR jobs are being axed whilst salaries are increasing.The 2008 National Management Salary Survey, published by the Chartered Management Institute and CELRE, shows that within the HR sector, the redundancy rate is 1.7% up from 1.1% last year. Overall redundancies for UK executives have […]
Skills fear continues as adults fail basic literacy test
Findings from a new survey reveal that 67% of Britain’s adult population has below basic literacy skills.The basic writing skills survey, undertaken by educational software developer Basic Writing Skills, also discovered that women have higher average literacy levels than men, scoring an average of 15% higher than their male counterparts in the test. The results […]
Remote control: Home working technology
What gadgets, gizmos and gremlins do employees need to worry about to work remotely? Matt Henkes investigates. With over 41 million employees globally working out of the office for at least one day a week, the technological requirements of the modern mobile workforce can have IT managers wringing their hands. […]
Taking control of absence
Absence can be controlled by setting and maintaining the standards required – and sticking to your guns, says John Pope. Some organisations have very high rates of absence through sickness and this government has recently talked about reducing such absence by replacing sick notes with well notes, stating what work an individual would be able […]
Opinion: A ‘debate’ about Investors in People
HRZone.co.uk member Sue Harrison shares her experiences when researching Investors in People status as a business objective for her organisation. I meet regularly with a group of HR managers as part of a network for our sector. I had put Investors in People (IiP) as an agenda item, with the […]
The perfect manager
Matthew Jennings offers some invaluable advice on how to strive towards becoming the best manager you can possibly be. “Ultimately, the truly great managers are the ones who stop to think where they want to go and then have the shameless audacity to set out.” Gerard Blair. If we went to the shops and bought […]
Agreement reached on agency workers
The government has agreed a deal between unions and employers that will allow UK agency workers to receive equal treatment after 12 weeks of employment.Announcing the news today (Tuesday), business secretary John Hutton said that this is the right deal for Britain. “Today’s agreement achieves our twin objectives of flexibility for British employers and fairness […]
CIPD annual conference to move
The CIPD annual conference and exhibition is to move from Harrogate to Manchester in 2009.To coincide with this move, it will also change from its current September slot to November, so next year the event will be held at the Manchester Central Convention Complex from 17-19 November. This does not affect this year’s conference, which […]
