Opinion: Assessment centres the Sugar way
Assessment centres have remained largely unchanged for 50 years despite dramatic shifts in workplace dynamics. Kathy de Beer explores how The Apprentice’s task-based, results-driven approach could innovate graduate recruitment assessment, potentially revealing more authentic candidate behaviours than traditional exercises.
Internet surfing: Kicking the habit
Internet addiction is becoming a significant workplace productivity problem, with studies showing employees spend an average of 3.5 hours per week surfing the internet during work hours. Employers can identify addictive internet behavior by recognizing warning signs like hidden screen usage, time distortion, and chronic fatigue, then implementing management strategies to address the issue.
Stone speaks: Balancing the scales
An Equal Opportunities Commission report reveals women will wait 200 years to achieve equal parliamentary representation and face significant underrepresentation across leadership roles. Legal requirements for pay equality audits and workplace culture shifts are proposed as solutions to close persistent gender pay gaps and advance women’s economic equality.
Preparing for an avian flu pandemic
HR departments must prepare for potential avian flu pandemic threats by developing comprehensive contingency plans addressing employee health and safety, business continuity, travel policies, and risk reduction strategies. With the virus potentially mutating into a highly contagious human pandemic strain, organizations should proactively synchronize pandemic response plans with existing business continuity protocols.
HR Tip: A live issue
An employee brought stick insects to work, causing complaints from colleagues who compare them to potted plants. Employers can determine workplace policies on personal items, and since stick insects pose different concerns than stationary plants, management may reasonably restrict them.
A quick guide to HR for your accountancy firm
Find and recruit high-quality staff for your accountancy firm with this practical HR guide. Learn how to identify your recruitment needs, craft effective job specifications, and overcome the unique challenges small firms face competing with the Big Four.
Figuring things out: Why doesn’t HR get any respect?
HR departments struggle to gain respect because they’re often perceived as mere enforcers of policies rather than strategic partners. To change this perception, HR professionals must communicate their value in business language, focusing on measurable outcomes like cost reduction and revenue growth rather than HR-specific terminology.
HR Radar: How are you handling age discrimination laws?
Three HR directors share how they’re preparing for age discrimination laws set to take effect in October 2006. The legislation will make it unlawful to discriminate against employees based on age and will apply across recruitment, benefits, pensions, and retirement. Companies are conducting policy audits, staff training, and revising hiring practices to ensure compliance.
Hard(y) Law Talk: What’s brewing in 2006?
Dr Stephen Hardy examines key employment law developments affecting HR professionals in 2006, including upcoming TUPE Regulations and Age Regulations. He reviews significant 2005 court cases and statutory changes that shaped employment law practice.
The Couch?! Gets a pooch
The Couch?! team welcomes Pumpkin the puppy to the office, joining a growing trend of companies embracing canine companions. The post humorously explores office behaviors through a dog-themed lens, coinciding with the Chinese Year of the Dog in 2006.
News in Brief: The week in HR – Bird Flu puts flight to absence panic
Bird flu threatens to cause up to half of UK workers to fall ill or be absent, yet many businesses lack contingency plans. Croner advises employers to develop pandemic preparedness strategies involving HR, health and safety, and senior management to minimize disruption.
Tips: to boost motivation
Combat post-holiday motivation slumps with these 10 proven strategies, including daily personal time, continuous learning, networking, and stepping outside your comfort zone. Experts recommend using planners, practicing self-recognition, and maintaining a lighter perspective to boost performance and well-being.
Legal briefing: Notice of termination
An employer must provide notice when dismissing an employee, except in gross misconduct cases. The notice period is either contractual or the statutory minimum: one week for less than two years’ service, or one week per year of service if employed two years or more. Employers can use garden leave or pay in lieu of notice to prevent the employee from working during the notice period.
Opinion: Blackhole three times deeper than previously thought
Research suggests the UK’s pension deficit could be three times larger than estimated under current accounting standards, potentially reaching £150 billion instead of £50 billion. The discrepancy stems from overly optimistic investment return assumptions and underestimated longevity costs in pension calculations.
What’s the answer? Sex discrimination
An employee’s request to reduce hours faces potential sex discrimination claims after a manager states senior management frowns on women working fewer hours, potentially affecting promotion opportunities. Legal guidance addresses investigation steps and remedial actions to resolve the situation.
What can HR learn from: Media moguls
HR leaders can learn powerful communication lessons from media professionals and public figures like military commanders. Effective crisis communication requires careful preparation, authenticity, and focusing on solutions rather than problems—as demonstrated by successful leaders who maintained organizational morale, versus Mark Langford’s notorious text-message layoffs that destroyed The Accident Group’s reputation.
Opinion: Psychometrics and people decisions
Psychometric testing provides objective, evidence-based assessments for making critical people decisions in hiring, education, and rehabilitation. Unlike intuitive judgment, which research shows is often inaccurate, psychometrics uses rigorous methods and comparative data to deliver reliable estimates of individual characteristics.
Case Study: Investing in staff retention
Frimley Park NHS Trust achieved Investors in People status to address staff retention challenges in a high-cost employment area. The hospital implemented a phased approach starting with HR, eventually gaining trust-wide accreditation, resulting in improved morale, structured planning, and enhanced patient care standards.
Change management: Where did it all go wrong?
Poor change management at a prestigious business school created unnecessary anxiety among staff, ultimately damaging trust and causing valuable employees to leave. Despite assuring PAs that no redundancies would occur, the vague communication and prolonged uncertainty led staff to assume decisions were already made, illustrating how management experts often fail to implement their own best practices.
HR Tip: National Insurance Numbers
National Insurance numbers aren’t statutorily required, but employers should obtain them for tax and NI compliance. HMRC prefers educational approaches over penalties and provides procedures to trace missing numbers, including using forms P46, CA5400, and CA6855.
