CIPD fight conflict at work with new guide
The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) has launched a new conflict management guide for line managers.Managing Conflict Guide for Line Managers aims to help equip line managers with the skills and confidence to intervene at an early stage to prevent disputes from escalating to the point where the formal disciplinary or grievance procedures […]
Voice from the workplace: Consulting staff
We continue with our series looking at problems experienced by an employee working for a government organisation and how HR can help to put it right. In this instalment, John Pope advises on how best to consult staff and make them feel involved. Like many others, I find dealing with call centres very frustrating. I […]
Case study: An analytical approach to managing talent
Driven by new performance criteria, the UK public sector is taking innovative new steps in how it manages its people. John Stokdyk looks at the pioneering work of Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council’s HR department. For the past year or two, talent management has been discussed on many occasions on HR Zone, but primarily on a […]
Livingstone shames London with inequality film
Mayor of London Ken Livingstone has today launched a new documentary Mind the Gap, highlighting the capital’s continuing discrimination and inequality facing women that work in the region.Companies across London will get the chance to view the film that is being launched alongside Closing the Gap, a brochure showcasing practical examples of companies that have […]
HR shared service centres on the rise
HR departments are increasingly favouring a shared services approach for transactional work.According to global HR services outfit, Hewitt Associates, HR Shared Service Centres (SSCs) already in place are in a growth phase, with 84 per cent of organisations that use them having plans to extend their scope in the near future, both in terms of […]
HR says line needs to be ‘better equipped’
Better equipped line managers are the key to improving HR effectiveness.This is according to a new survey by online HR toolkit for line managers Youmanage, whose findings reveal that as many as 81 per cent of HR managers believe this is the key to improved HR activity.In addition, 83 per cent of HR working in […]
Ask the expert: Handling a demotion
An employee, who was promoted a few years ago, has failed to deliver to a satisfactory level so her employer now wants to demote her back to her original role. Esther Smith, partner at Thomas Eggar, and Martin Brewer, partner at Mills & Reeve, advise on how to handle such a situation. The question:We have […]
Love at work – it’s a corporate affair
Check these four rules on how to survive an office romance by employment relations experts Acas.With Valentines Day knocking at the door, thoughts of the amorous kind are growing, so Acas has produced four rules on how to manage love at work. Steve Williams, head of equality at Acas, said: “Relationships at work are quite […]
IT women feel let down by HR
Women in IT complain that HR departments are less supportive to women than line managers and colleagues.When asked to rate the support they received as a female employee, respondents in a joint Microsoft and womenintechnology.co.uk survey saw HR departments as the least supportive area, with only 39 per cent rating them as good or excellent. […]
Big guns get qualifications green light
Network Rail, Flybe and McDonald’s have been given the right to award nationally-accredited qualifications to employees for the first time.The employer recognition scheme will form part of the new Qualifications and Credit Framework (QCF).John Denham, secretary of state for the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills said: “By accrediting high quality in house training schemes […]
Employers help IT professionals meet globalisation challenge
A revolutionary development programme to fast-track the careers of new IT professionals has been announced by e-skills UK, the employer-led Sector Skills Council for IT and Telecoms. The Masters’ level programme will unite universities and employers to increase training, while minimising time away from work.Karen Price, CEO e-skills UK, said that many traditional entry-level IT […]
Digital skills shortage blights sector growth
Research by digital media recruitment website Chinwag Jobs reveals that business is finding it increasingly difficult to recruit and retain people with digital skills. Chinwag’s ‘Digital Skills Survey 07’ canvassed employers, recruitment consultants and HR professionals. While digital opportunities increased, 97 per cent of respondents found it either difficult or impossible to attract suitably qualified […]
£6 minimum wage ‘too much’, warns expert
Raising the minimum wage to £6 an hour would have significant implications for all businesses, warns a payroll specialist.HR Zone recently reported on fresh calls from the Trades Union Congress (TUC) to raise the minimum wage to more than £6 an hour this year. Workers (aged 22 years plus) are entitled to a basic wage […]
Office ‘speak’ exposed
Phrases used in the office are more complex then ever, with latest research suggesting a whole new language must be grasped for those wanting to fit in.According to recruitment outfit Office Angels, workers are engaging in new expressions including ‘blamestorming’, which means to debate with colleagues why a deadline was missed and who was responsible, […]
TUC campaigns for an end to ‘cheap’ apprentice labour
The Trades Union Congress (TUC) is calling on the government to tackle what it is dubbing the apprenticeship ‘quality divide’.According to the TUC, there should be a wage hike for the 250,000 apprentices in England to improve the quality of training and put a halt to increasing drop-out rates.Decent Pay for Apprentices – the report […]
Weekend hangover gives rise to Monday drag
Nearly a quarter of UK businesses admit to problems with hungover staff on Monday mornings. Sarah Clayton, head of employment law at Heatons, said the problems are far greater than slower rates of productivity:“It can also have more serious health and safety consequences as operating machinery or driving when feeling a little worse for wear […]
M&S laptop containing staff details is stolen
Marks & Spencer (M&S) has been found to be in breach of data protection laws, following the theft of an unencrypted laptop containing the personal details of 26,000 employees.An investigation by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) revealed that the laptop, which contained M&S employees’ pension details, was stolen from the home of an M&S contractor.The […]
Partners over 65 can be forced to retire
A recent industrial tribunal has ruled that business partners over 65 can be forced to retire.When the government imposed a default retirement age in 2006, professional business partners were deliberately excluded. But the recent tribunal has nullified that exemption, ruling that it was proportionate to force partners to retire from the firm in order to […]
HR professionals are unhappy at work
HR workers are the most unhappy at work for the third quarter running, according to the ‘Happiness at Work’ index.Recruitment consultancy Badenoch & Clark carried out the research, and surveyed over 1,000 UK office workers in the following professions: legal, HR, finance & accounting, sales, media & marketing, IT & telecoms, retail, catering & leisure, […]
Once a bully always a bully? Dealing with the perpetrators
‘Helping’ the bully is a side of the coin that is not much talked about, yet more and more businesses are beginning to realise their role in helping the perpetrator as well as the victim. Annie Hayes reports. Where we’re atThere’s no shortage of statistics to paint what is a rather bleak picture of bullying […]
