Government leadership programme goes international
The National School of Government Centre for Strategic Leadership is introducing an international week into its flagship leadership development programme.Hosted by the LIMAK business school in Vienna, the week will allow participants on the Top Management Programme (TMP) to visit a variety of central and eastern European cities. Speaking at a Whitehall event to celebrate […]
Curing the absence disease
Paul Roberts, healthcare consultant at IHC, outlines a number of steps that organisations should take to maximise their absence management procedures and minimise the effects of absence on the individual, the team and the organisation. Absence is a disease that is infiltrating the vast majority of UK workplaces, yet under half of organisations monitor the […]
‘Office rage’ felt across Europe
Being spoken down to by a boss or colleague is the main cause of work-related stress and anger in the office, a survey has found.New research into the causes of anger felt by office workers in the UK and Europe, has revealed that long and pointless meetings are the key causes of frustration across European […]
Disciplining stressed employees
Disciplinary procedures can often result in the employee being absent from work due to stress-related illness, putting the employer in a difficult position. Paul Archer, head of employment law at Lemon & Co Solicitors, discusses the options available in this situation. Employment law has sometimes been described as the triumph of process over substance. The […]
Ask the expert: Gross or non-gross misconduct?
Esther Smith, partner at Thomas Eggar, and Martin Brewer, partner and employment law specialist at Mills & Reeve, discuss whether an employee, who has also been working for another company, should be dismissed immediately and whether the situation should be classed as gross misconduct or not. The question:We have an employee at the moment who […]
City bosses plan new year job sacking spree
The credit crunch will trigger a number of job sackings in the city in 2008, say business analysts.The centre for economics and business research (cebr) says that city jobs will decline by as many as 6,500 in 2008 from the previous year. The figures are skewed, however, since 11,000 jobs were added in 2007 beating […]
Bad interviewers damage brand
Job seekers are turning down offers from UK companies because of the poor standards of many interviewers.A survey released by T-Mobile found that 56 per cent of people who had suffered a bad interview laid the blame on the interviewer, accusing some of lateness, rudeness, sexism and even drunkenness. Around 40 per cent of interviewees […]
Royal Mail signs manager deal as strikes continue
Royal Mail is set to get back around the table with its workers today, as a 48-hour strike continues to disrupt services. Around 130,000 members of the Communication Workers Union (CWU) downed tools on Thursday in the dispute over pay and planned company “modernisation”, which it believes may put up to 40,000 jobs at risk. […]
Victory for sacked nose stud worker
A Heathrow airport worker who was sacked for wearing a nose stud has been reinstated in her job.Mrs Lalji maintained that the nose stud was part of her Hindu religion. Backed by the GMB union, the mother of three appealed against her dismissal and was duly given her job back. A spokesperson for the company […]
Small shops beat superstores over staff benefits
Unlike their larger counterparts who reacted angrily to this week’s minimum wage rises, independent retailers are already willingly paying a premium to attract and retain staff, new research reveals.According to the British Shops and Stores Association (bssa), independent store owners have recognised that while they often cannot compete on price with supermarket chains, they are […]
HR services on offer by joint IBM and council venture
Somerset County Council and Taunton Deane Borough Council have joined forces with global business services provider IBM to establish a new shared-services £400 million, 10-year deal.The new company Southwest One claims it will deliver services including customer services and access, workforce development and procurement to half a million residents in what it terms a ‘unique’ […]
Jobs to go as chocolate giant takes manufacturing overseas
Cadbury Trebor Bassett has announced the closure of its Keynsham factory in south-west England; the news is part of an efficiency drive which will see some operations move to Poland.A phased closure will see the factory wind down from 2009 to 2010; a move that will affect all 500 employees. A further 200 jobs will […]
Pay rises on the fall
The rate of wage growth fell last month as companies tightened their belts in the face of increasingly difficult trading conditions, according to figures released by the payment group VocaLink.The group’s monthly take home pay index for September showed a 0.5 per cent slowdown in UK wage growth, the most significant drop since May. It […]
Age discrimination: One year older, but are we wiser?
Legislation to outlaw age discrimination arrived with quite a fanfare in October 2006, but one year on, a number of HR professionals believe the new laws have done little to change attitudes towards age. Owen Warnock, employment law partner at Eversheds, looks at how employers and employees have fared in the new legal landscape. The […]
Writing skills: Mind the gap
A growing number of the workforce simply can't write well enough to do their job properly, says Robert Ashton, chief executive of business-writing specialists Emphasis. But what can HR professionals do to address it? From Fleet Street to Whitehall, Oxford University to the CBI, everyone is lamenting the sorry state of the nation's literacy skills. […]
Entrepreneurs ‘born not made’
There may have been an increase in the number of courses offering instruction in how to run a company but new research reveals that two-thirds of small business owners believe entrepreneurship cannot be taught.The poll, on HR Zone’s sister-site www.ukbusinessforums.co.uk, found just 33 per cent thought that the attributes of entrepreneurship can be learnt in […]
We have to stop meeting like this
With UK workers facing meeting overload, Bert van der Zwan, from WebEx, explains why cutting the number of face-to-face meetings can benefit both companies and their staff. How many meetings do you attend every month? For some of us it may only be one or two, but for others a meeting every day, or every […]
Colborn’s Corner: Online distractions at work
There has been much press comment over the past few weeks about employees’ online activities at work. Whether it be engaging in eBay trading or accessing Facebook during office hours, there have been plenty of opinions from both the specialist and mainstream press. Quentin Colborn addresses what online access means at work today. Given the […]
Royal Mail faces further protracted industrial action
The union representing postal workers has turned up the heat in its dispute with Royal Mail (RM), launching a series of strikes which are likely to disrupt the postal system for the foreseeable future. Talks between RM and the Community Workers Union (CWU) are ongoing, though the first 48-hour stoppage is set to begin when […]
HR tip: Age 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 are uncomfortable with age discrimination constraints. How can we ensure that a candidate has the appropriate length of experience for the job if we cannot ask for minimum periods of experience in […]
