Implementing flexible benefits at Prudential
Prudential’s ‘You Choose’ flexible benefits scheme implemented an award-winning communications strategy combining traditional media, face-to-face meetings with benefits champions, roadshow events, and digital tools to engage employees and help them make informed choices about their benefits packages.
Review: Strategic Compensation
This third edition textbook by Joseph J Martocchio provides a comprehensive 505-page guide to strategic compensation management across 14 chapters. Written with a strong American focus and organized for 10-week or 15-week courses, it covers compensation strategy, pay structures, benefit design, and contemporary challenges with learning objectives, case studies, and an extensive glossary.
Age Positive launch national awards to find Britain’s age crusaders
Age Positive, a Department for Work and Pensions campaign against age discrimination, has launched national awards to recognize employers and individuals challenging ageism in employment across England, Scotland, and Wales. The 2004 Awards seek entries from organizations demonstrating age diversity in recruitment and individuals who overcame age discrimination in their careers.
Freedom of speech or harassment?
Workplace harassment is defined by the recipient’s perception, not the speaker’s intent. Employers face legal liability for discrimination claims and harassment—now covered under anti-discrimination legislation with unlimited compensation—if they ignore inappropriate comments, jokes, or unwelcome behavior from staff.
Enhancing employee productivity by improving your office
A well-designed office environment can significantly boost employee productivity and morale. HR managers should take a more active role in workplace design decisions, including color choices and layout optimization, to create spaces that enhance both creativity and performance.
CIPD pushes for extension of flexible working rights
The CIPD is calling on the Government to extend flexible working rights beyond carers to all employees during its three-year legislative review. Survey data shows most employers support flexible working requests from all workers, and nearly half of organizations report resentment among ineligible employees.
Carers to be given flexible working rights
The UK government has pledged to extend flexible working rights to carers of elderly and sick relatives, bringing them in line with rights previously granted to working parents. This change would allow over three million working carers to better balance employment with their caring responsibilities.
HR Tip – Transferred business
When a business transfers ownership, your employment automatically transfers to the new employer with terms and conditions largely unchanged. If you choose not to transfer, your employment ends but you receive no compensation, as this isn’t considered a dismissal under transfer law.
HR Managers Say Training Spend is Too Low
A Croner survey reveals 85% of employers believe their training budgets are insufficient, with over half having cut spending last year. HR managers warn inadequate training investment hampers talent attraction and retention during a period of significant skills shortages.
Negotiating the “negotiation differential”
Women are systematically underpaid partly due to a “negotiation differential”—gender-based differences in how men and women approach salary and promotion negotiations. Credos explores why these differences exist and offers HR strategies to address the wage gap and retain talented female employees.
Review: The Employment Relationship – Key challenges for HR
This important book examines nine key challenges facing HR managers in today’s workplace, including shifts in the psychological contract, workplace flexibility, organizational climate, and changing employee attitudes. Written by Paul R. Sparrow and Cary L. Cooper, it provides valuable insights into how technological change and evolving social expectations are reshaping employment relationships and organizational dynamics.
How Did I Get Here? Fiona Knight, KPMG
Fiona Knight, Lead HR Manager at KPMG, shares her career journey from HR operations to strategic leadership. Discover how a transformational change programme and continuous professional development shaped her path in human resources.
Training Spend Set to Rise
A CIPD survey finds one-third of private sector training managers expect budget increases this year, with 81% of organizations maintaining training budgets. The rise is driven by skills shortages affecting recruitment, though the public sector is experiencing declining training investment despite government spending on public services.
Developing staff through overseas assignments
Overseas assignments remove employees from their comfort zone and deliver genuine professional development by addressing real-world problems in developing communities. This approach combines cultural immersion with meaningful impact, developing critical business skills like leadership, adaptability, and cultural awareness that classroom training cannot provide.
40% of workers willing to work overseas
Only 40% of UK workers would be willing to work overseas, with 74% of those preferring distant locations like New York and Sydney. Higher salaries and benefits are the primary motivation for relocating abroad, while career concerns deter the 60% unwilling to move.
The 10 key problems with competencies
Competencies often fail in practice due to common design flaws including overlapping definitions, ambiguous language, inconsistent indicators, and unclear standards. These problems undermine assessment validity and create confusion in HR processes like appraisals and 360-degree feedback.
Flexing the benefits?
Flexible benefits schemes help organisations attract and retain talent while potentially reducing costs. Amanda Stainton explores the practical aspects of implementation, including improved employee understanding of reward packages and increased individual responsibility in benefits selection.
Recruitment is increasingly a shared responsibility
Over half of employers have restructured their recruitment roles, with line managers now playing a larger part in hiring decisions. The shift reflects broader changes across HR departments, including greater involvement from personnel directors, centralized HR staff, and employment agencies in the recruitment process.
Failing to act on employee surveys destroys commitment
Employee surveys without follow-up action significantly harm workplace commitment. Research shows only 40% of employees report high commitment when surveys are conducted but ignored, compared to over 80% when organizations act on feedback. Failing to implement survey results wastes resources and signals to staff that their input doesn’t matter.
HR Tip – Garden leave
Garden leave is an arrangement where employers require notice-giving employees to stay home while remaining employed and paid, preventing them from working for competitors during their notice period. This practice is lawful and allows employers to maintain control over departing staff while ensuring they remain bound by employment contract terms and restrictive covenants.
