Ask the expert: Rights of agency workers
Do temporary workers have the same employment rights as permanent employees, when it comes to disciplinary procedures? Esther Smith, partner at Thomas Eggar, and Martin Brewer, partner at Mills & Reeve, advise. The question:If someone is on a recruitment agency contract, do they have the same rights with regards to disciplinary and capability? My brother […]
Romance at work on the rise as Valentine’s Day looms
Half of workers have a secret crush on a colleague and a third admit they have exchanged flirtatious emails despite being in a relationship. These are the findings of recruitment outfit Reed, which quizzed 2,000 office workers. According to the research, 38 per cent have gone all the way and had an office romance with […]
Appraisal failure costs over £2 billion
Poorly planned and executed appraisals are costing the UK economy over £2 billion.This is according to Talent Q, a people assessment company that says just 58 per cent of the UK’s 29 million-strong workforce receive a formal appraisal.The research found that where good appraisals are conducted, followed by effective development planning, productivity rose by 2.7 […]
UK star of European coaching survey
A massive European-wide coaching survey has revealed that the UK and Germany are ahead of the coaching pack, with 70 per cent of all EU coaches working in these countries. The survey confirms what everyone is talking about – that coaching is in its ascendancy in this country.The European Coaching Survey 2007/2008, for the first […]
Monday blues cured
Dreading the end of the weekend and the start of the working week is overrated, with as many as 28 per cent of workers actually looking forward to Monday.This is according to a new survey of 5,000 jobseekers by recruitment website reed.co.uk. Only 13 per cent of respondents said they actively hate Monday, with 29 […]
Employees not engaged with HR
Half of UK office workers believe HR teams make no difference to their jobs, a survey has revealed.The employee engagement survey, by HR service provider Ceridian, also found that 22 per cent of workers feel the HR function actually makes them less satisfied at work, due to HR mistakes that are being made.Doug Sawers, managing […]
Is a McDegree next on the menu?
A new not-for-profit consultancy will be launched in March to help employers that want to develop their own higher-education qualifications.HE@Work will help organisations develop their in-house training programmes to meet the standards required by higher education institutions. Instead of being restricted to a company-specific qualification, employees will be awarded recognised and transferable higher education credit […]
Virtual meetings: A way of life?
The benefits of online meetings are clear: substantial time and cost savings for businesses, employees and clients. But, as Lucie Benson discovers, there are other reasons to consider web conferencing within your organisation. In today’s modern and global business environment, online meetings are fast becoming a popular and effective way of communicating with customers or […]
Illegal working and unfair dismissal
Employing people from overseas can create many issues for employers, especially if the employee’s work permit has expired. Mandy Higgins offers advice on how to deal with this and avoid a finding of unfair dismissal. According to the Home Office (October 2007), people born overseas account for one in eight of the UK’s working population. […]
Colborn’s Corner: Jobs for the boys?
Few reading the headlines recently can have failed to notice the furore about MP Derek Conway and his alleged misuse of House of Commons funds in employing his two sons to do Parliamentary work. But are all recruitment decisions free of bias? Quentin Colborn examines favouritism at work. You might think that the employment of […]
International executive coaching: Trends for 2008 and beyond
Dr Sabine Dembkowski, Fiona Eldridge, Prof David Lane, Wendy Johnson, and Stephan Oberli exchange views on the developing profession of executive coaching and share the conclusions of their discussions. It’s that time of year when we develop a Janus-like approach – reflecting back on the past year and looking forward to the new. We have […]
HR tip: Lawful discrimination
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:"We have a large number of Pakistanis in our workforce but no Pakistani supervisors, although we believe that some of them could perform well in that role if they were given training. Will […]
Acas receives extra funding to aid workplace disputes
Secretary of state for business and enterprise John Hutton has announced that the government will be awarding up to £37 million to employment relations specialist Acas, in an attempt to prevent workplace disputes going to employment tribunals unnecessarily.The extra funding, spread over three years, forms part of the process designed to simplify the dispute resolution […]
Hello, is it me you’re looking for?
The CV is the personal sales tool of modern times, but many are ill-prepared and littered with mistakes; should this mean they go straight in the bin? Matt Henkes looks at some of the ways recruiters can utilise these mysterious and sometimes downright misleading documents. A person’s CV is their sales tool to prospective employers. […]
Make ’em laugh: Using humour in training
Dawn Smith looks at the link between humour and learning, and how laughter can be used in the training room to help make the message stick. The use of laughter to aid learning is of course nothing new. The king of silly walks, John Cleese, helped to pioneer the use of humour in corporate training […]
Why your top HR executive should be on the board
Chris Seabourne states that one of the main reasons why there should be a dedicated HR professional on the board is to ensure that people are always at the top of the agenda. So much has been written and spoken about HR management in the last 30 years that it is easy to forget why […]
Ask the expert: Enforcement of holiday cancellation
Can an employer force employees to work over a holiday period such as Easter, if there are good business reasons to do so? Esther Smith, partner at Thomas Eggar, and Martin Brewer, partner at Mills & Reeve, advise. The question:We may have a need to work over the Easter break. We are going to offer […]
HR scared top talent will take flight
Retaining key staff is the number one concern for HR managers.This is according to Taleo, a talent management solutions provider that quizzed 200 senior HR managers about their biggest challenges in 2008. Topping the poll is retention with 30 per cent citing it as their number one concern, closely followed by hiring talent (23 per […]
Interview success pinned on stress management
The most popular interview question is how job seekers’ handle stressful situations, experts have revealed.According to A&DC, suppliers of online competency-based interviewing tool CBI-Smart, the question that comes up most frequently at interview is: “Can you please describe a situation when you have had to cope with a particularly high workload for a significant period […]
Coaching flagged as a business essential
Business now sees coaching as an essential part of training and talent management programmes – with real commercial benefits.Recent research undertaken by PricewaterhouseCoopers for the International Coaching Federation found that the approximate annual worldwide revenue produced by coaching was $1.5 billion.Speaking on the eve of International Coaching week, which starts today, Helen Caton of coaching […]
