Guide promises to handhold bosses through the Companies Act
A new guide designed to help company directors comply with the Companies Act has been launched.The Companies Act 2006: Directors Duties Guidance promises to help directors in a new obligation to consider their business’ impact on people and the environment. The Act, which has been described as the “biggest shake up of company law for […]
Acas aid averts 16,000 employment tribunals
Acas, the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service, has claimed to have saved businesses £120 million in 2006 as 16,000 cases were prevented from ending up in costly employment tribunals.The independent research from the Institute for Employment Studies shows that almost a quarter (23 per cent) of employees had been considering making an employment tribunal claim […]
Public sector chief scoops £2.7m pension payout
Sir Richard Mottram, a top public sector chief, will take home the most generous public sector pension ever awarded, amounting to £2.7m.Reported by The Telegraph, Mottram, who currently oversees the country’s intelligence and national security policy, will receive a tax-free lump sum of £335,000 and an annual pension of more than £110,000. Annual payouts will […]
Ask the expert: Redundancy and re-employment
What are the implications of re-employing former employees who had previously been made redundant? Esther Smith, partner at Thomas Eggar, and Martin Brewer, partner and employment law specialist at Mills & Reeve, advise. The question:My company has recently undergone TUPE re-organisation and redundancy (they had good economical reasons to do this). This was a massive […]
Capability and misconduct: Clearing up the confusion
Employers who confuse capability and misconduct policies do so at their own risk, warns barrister Charles Price. Mike has been repeatedly swearing at members of staff and is called in for a head-to-head with his employer. The employer gives him a telling off and sets targets for improvement as per the capability process. This approach […]
Disability diversity: The real equal opportunities challenge
Disability is an area far more contentious and complex than race, age and gender when dealing with diversity. Paul Avis, corporate development manager at Ceridian’s LifeWork’s division, explores why disability is often the hardest area of equal opportunities and can be overlooked by employers. While it is easy to imagine the uproar if an employer […]
Skills shake-up for tourism and leisure
People 1st, the sector skills council for hospitality, leisure, travel and tourism, is promising a radical shake-up of qualifications in consultation with employers in its arena.The skills council is conducting a series of 75 meetings across the UK to get employers’ views on what they would like to see included in qualifications for the industry. […]
Tax and NI allowances set for 2008/09
The Treasury has now published the income tax, national insurance contributions, child and working tax credit rates for 2008/09 and other rates.Highlights:The single person’s personal allowance will be £5,435 (2007/08 £5,225), and there are greater increases for those over 65 years and those over 65 and entitled to the married persons allowance as already announced […]
Yule be sorry: Christmas temps fuel tribunal fears
Retailers and other businesses reliant on the heavy use of temporary staff during the festive season are being warned that less favourable treatment could wind them up at an employment tribunal.This is the warning of law firm DWF. The company says that bosses who take on temporary cover should ensure those staff are given the […]
HR sets the pace at Softworld event
HR software is rarely a source of excitement, but traditional priorities were turned on their head at the Softworld event at the Birmingham NEC last week. John Stokdyk reportsSandwiched between accounting/finance and project/performance management exhibitors, the HR & payroll companies were frequently swamped with visitors while rival exhibitors were left moaning about the lack of […]
Entrepreneurs ‘left all alone’ with staff rules
More than three quarters of small company owners have to deal with increasing levels of employment law by themselves, new research reveals.The study by the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) showed 78 per cent of entrepreneurs deal unaided with employee-related paperwork while a third complained they did know where to turn for government advice on […]
Brown’s jobs pledge at odds with EU law
The Prime Minister’s vow to find an extra 500,000 jobs for British workers is questioned as the legality of the pledge is in doubt.Reported by The Telegraph, the impartial House of Commons library says that European law stipulates that workers from EU member countries must ‘enjoy equal treatment’ when applying for jobs under European treaties […]
Inefficiency costs bosses £80bn
UK companies waste around 18 per cent of all working time due to a crass and inefficient use of labour, resulting in 40 average working days being lost every year.Proudfoot Consulting, the report authors, claims this equates to a bill of £80bn, or around 7 per cent of gross domestic product.According to the report, more […]
Misconduct cases soar as prison officers break codes of conduct
Assault and sexual harassment are among the misconduct offences brought against more than 1,000 prison officers in England and Wales between 2000 and 2006.According to a report by The Guardian newspaper, problems reached a critical level at a number of well-known prisons. At Birmingham, 51 staff were sacked or put on warning; at Risley in […]
L&D pay and job satisfaction on the up
For the first time in 10 years, learning, training and development professionals are earning higher than the average HR salary, according to a survey by Croner Reward and the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD).Managers in the learning and development (L&D) field earn an average of £45,000, compared to £37,739 last year. They have […]
BBC to cut thousands of jobs
Around 1,800 BBC staff will be made redundant as part of a £2 billion cost-saving plan, it was announced on Thursday.The cuts will primarily affect those working in news and factual production. The BBC expects to close an estimated 2,500 positions between now and 2012/2013, whilst at the same time creating around 700 new jobs.According […]
Employer branding: PR for HR. By Matt Henkes
HR often talks about the need to fill a more strategic role, and building a successful employer brand might be the key. But, as Matt Henkes discovers, to sell the dream you must first make your own people believe in it. In today’s talent desert where good people are increasingly harder to find, a strategy […]
Interview: Dave Duffield, founder of PeopleSoft
In an exclusive interview with HR Zone, Stuart Lauchlan talks to Dave Duffield, CEO of SaaS start-up Workday and founder of leading HCM solution provider PeopleSoft, about his impressive career to date and how a successful business is all about hiring people with the same “corporate DNA”. There are only a handful of people in […]
Managing maternity six months on
In April 2007, the main provisions of the Work and Families Act 2006 came into force. Six months on, Liz McCaw from ICAS and Anna Hayward from Managing Maternity Ltd look at current experience of maternity within organisations. The Work and Families Act has been the prompt for many organisations to re-evaluate whether they are […]
HR business partnering 2.0: Delivering on the original promise
Simon Constance and Chris O'Brien, from Orion Partners, discuss how HR has missed the real point of Ulrich's work and look at the future for HR business partnering. Research, anecdotal evidence and first hand experience suggests that despite the introduction of the HR business partnering (HRBP) role, HR is still seen as not making […]