A quick guide to HR for your accountancy firm
As recent postings on sister site AccountingWEB suggest recruiting high calibre staff is a challenge for any business. Within the accountancy profession specifically, the need to find talented and loyal employees is more important then ever. This brief guide helps accountants get to grips with the basics. Recruiting outside the Big FourSmall and medium firms […]
Figuring things out: Why doesn’t HR get any respect?
<img src="/files/siftmedia-photolib/photo_joe.jpg" In far too many cases HR is sanctioned only to play the role of watchdog and police officer, making sure that policies and procedures are adhered to and that the business is keeping on the right side of employment legislation; and yet we know in our bones this approach isn’t about adding value. […]
HR Radar: How are you handling age discrimination laws?
Our new column, the HR Radar reports on how HR professionals are handling new and impending legislation and HR issues; this week three HR Directors reveal just how they are preparing for Age Discrimination Regulations due to come into force this October. Age Discrimination legislation comes into force on 1 October 2006. Following the introduction […]
Hard(y) Law Talk: What’s brewing in 2006?
Dr Stephen Hardy, senior lecturer in Law at the University of Manchester and a Barrister specialising in employment and EU labour law looks at the raft of employment law that lies in waiting for the year ahead. Now that we have all settled back into work after the excesses of the festive season, its time […]
The Couch?! Gets a pooch
The Couch?! team has recently acquired its own bundle of executive fun in the shape of Pumpkin the puppy but it’s not the first high-brow, award-winning team to go mad about those with four-legs.Reported in the Times, is Jilin Jiangshan Human Resources Development Company who allegedly upset Shanghai college graduates by advertising for dogs. That […]
News in Brief: The week in HR – Bird Flu puts flight to absence panic
Read on to find out more about the Bird Flu business panic, pension deficit rises again, why graduate recruitment is rosy and news on national stereotypes being played out in European boardrooms. W/C 9/1/06Bird Flu puts flight to absence panic The virus threatens to cause up to half of all workers to fall ill or […]
Tips: to boost motivation
When the festive break is a distant memory and spring a long way off, the result can mean long faces and heavy hearts. Performance development consultants Maximum Performance have put together the 10 motivating tips to cure that post-holiday malaise. 1) Do something just for you every single day.You can get caught up in doing […]
Legal briefing: Notice of termination
It seems that there is some uncertainty about an employer’s obligations when dismissing, writes Peter Done, managing director of Peninsula. With the relatively rare exception of gross misconduct dismissals, all dismissals require the employer to give notice of the ending of the contract. (This does not currently apply where an employee retires on the normal […]
Opinion: Blackhole three times deeper than previously thought
James Fraser, head of LEK Consulting’s financial services practice, warned in the Financial Times on 9 January that the pension deficit facing the largest companies in the UK might be three times bigger than the sum they have estimated it to be using FRS 17. It has been generally agreed that the pension deficit calculated […]
What’s the answer? Sex discrimination
Lorraine Whale gets legal guidance this week on how to quash a potentially explosive sex discrimination claim. The question:One of our employees asked to shorten their working hours so she could leave early on a Monday to collect her child from an after school club that closed at 5pm. Someone who should have known better […]
What can HR learn from: Media moguls
Kick-starting a new series looking at what can HR learn from other functions and skill sets is George Dearsley, a senior tutor at Television and Radio Techniques who explains why sacking by text message is akin to business suicide. When Mark Langford’s company The Accident Group collapsed three years ago 2,400 workers learned they were […]
Opinion: Psychometrics and people decisions
Open any tabloid and the chances are there will be several stories based on getting ‘people decisions’ badly wrong; ‘paroled prisoner kills again’, ‘betrayal by trusted royal aide’, ‘attack by care in the community patient’ – so how can psychometrics help to prevent crass hiring errors such as these from occurring? These decisions will have […]
Case Study: Investing in staff retention
Frimley Park NHS Trust, employers of 2,500 staff undertook the Investors in People journey in an attempt to reconcile retention difficulties; read on to see if it worked. The challenge:A key motivator for Frimley Park NHS Trust Hospital in Surrey in achieving Investors in People status was improving retention and attraction of staff. The area […]
Change management: Where did it all go wrong?
Peter A Hunter author of Breaking the Mould looks at the irony of crass management practices within a centre for learning and excellence and explains why even business experts can get it wrong. I witnessed some interesting behaviour from one of our premier management schools this summer. A behaviour that I have since discovered is […]
HR Tip: National Insurance Numbers
These questions are being answered by Learn HR, a market leader in the provision of HR and payroll training and nationally-recognised professional qualifications. Q: What can be done to minimise the problem of missing NI numbers? A: Most employers have difficulty in obtaining a National Insurance (NI) number for every employee. Some new employees are just […]
Bite-size learning: Age discrimination – ’10 year’s experience required’
In the final part of this five-part, bite-sized series, Lucy Lewis, associate in the employment and incentives department of Lewis Silkin spells out just what employers can and cannot say in recruitment advertisements. Age Discrimination legislation comes into force on 1 October 2006. Following the introduction of the legislation it will be unlawful to discriminate […]
HR Zone Members Newswire #132 How to Become an Employer of Choice
================================================================ HR Zone Members Newswire Issue 132 10 January 2006 www.hrzone.co.uk ================================================================ Editor’s note ============= Standing out from the crowd is the stuff of HR dreams. So how do you become an employer of choice? Nadine Maggi of Hallmark would like to find out. Please add your tips and guidance and we’ll report back on […]
Life Coach at Large: Living in the ‘now’
Coach, Emma Ranson Bellamy helps a hapless single get his floundering career and personal life back on track with a few home truths and some basic planning. Rory came to life coaching via a friend who suggested it might be a way of getting his career back on track which after a promising start had […]
How Did I Get Here? Sue Morrison, HR Director, Battersea Dogs & Cats Home
Sue Morrison explains how she fostered a workable and purposeful HR function in an environment where people come second to the animals cared for. 1. How strategic is your role?Five years ago, when I joined the Home, there wasn’t a personnel function; since then we have grown into a small team of three, which now […]
Review: Time To Think: Listening to ignite the human mind
Title: Time to Think: Listening to ignite the human mindAuthor: Nancy KlinePublisher: Cassell IllustratedISBN: 0706377451Price: £9.99Reviewer: Jacky Pratt, Accredited Practitioner CoachTime to Think is a book that changes behaviour. It has a simple, but powerful message, which is that the quality of our thinking depends upon the quality of another person’s attention when listening to […]
