UK’s most prestigious business accolade:The Queen’s Awards
The UK’s most prestigious business accolade is now available thanks to the encouragement of HRH The Duke of York and the creation of The Queen’s Awards for Enterprise 2004.His Royal Highness, who is British Trade International’s Special Representative for International Trade and Investment said:“Apart from the prestige of earning the UK’s top business prize, the […]
Full employment rights denied to over-65s
A victory for the government was announced today regarding their appeal to prevent over-65s securing full employment rights. The government’s lawyers successfully appealed against a ruling that gave over-65s the right to claim unfair dismissal and redundancy pay. The new ruling will mean that an estimated 250,000 working men and women will be without any […]
‘Fit for purpose’ – Selecting an HR system
How do you navigate the suppliers and select the right system for your need? Mark Dorgan, a member of the Management Group at PA Consulting Group, and one of the guest speakers at the recent Softworld HR and Payroll event, offers advice. Selecting an HR system is as important as any other system selection – […]
HR Tip – Banning smoking at work
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: Are we entitled to introduce a smoking ban and, if so, how? Must we provide a smoking room or allow people to leave the premises for a smoke? Most of our employees […]
How Did I Get Here? Nikos Lambridis, Management Centre Europe
Nikos Lambridis of Management Centre Europe, shares his experiences of working in HR to date, which includes an 8-year HR and training career with Vodafone. What’s your current job role?My new role is two-dimensional: I am the Representative of MCE in Greece, a European provider of business training and development, with the primary focus to […]
Legal loophole allows genetic discrimination in the workplace
GeneWatch UK, the TUC and the British Council of Disabled People (BCODP) are calling for changes to the law to prevent employers from refusing people jobs on the basis of genetic test results. A timely new report, 'Genetic Testing in the Workplace' [PDF] has been published, as the Human Genetics Commission (HGC) meets to consider the […]
Employers “unprepared” for new religion, belief and sexual orientation legislation
As the deadline looms for the introduction of the Government’s sexual orientation religion or belief discrimination legislation, a majority of UK HR professionals believe their businesses are not fully prepared to comply.Over half of the respondents in a Croner survey of HR managers indicated that their organisation was not fully prepared for the new legislation, […]
Guidelines on directors’ severance packages
In its response to the DTI consultation on termination payments for directors, the CBI unveiled guidelines on directors’ severance packages. They recommend immediate disclosure of contractual terms and conditions, one year rolling contracts, part-payment in shares and regular contractual reviews. They also outline ways of handling the different elements of severance packages – basic pay, […]
New “Academy” to make recommendations on Corporate Social Responsibility
Plans for a new Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Academy have been announced by Stephen Timms, Minister for CSR, that will take forward recommendations for driving forward skills for CSR.Members of a new Steering Group, including Mike Emmott, Head Employee Relations at the CIPD, will explore and test the recommendations of the “Changing Manager Mindsets” report […]
Increase in National Minimum Wage rates
KPMG warns that the rise in the National Minimum Wage on 1 October from £4.20 to £4.50 an hour could increase operating costs by over 1% of turnover for many small and medium sized companies. And the news that there are plans to for it to be increased to £5.00 per hour by next year […]
E-mail monitoring – staying on the right side of the law
What steps do employers need to take to ensure that monitoring of e-mails is done in accordance with employment legislation? Lucy McLynn, a solicitor in the Employment Department at Bates, Wells and Braithwaite, looks at the legal framework and offers practical advice to help employers avoid the potential liabilities that may arise from employees’ inappropriate […]
Complexity is the new barrier to change
Jean Gomes, Managing Director of change management specialists, dpa Corporate Communications, argues that complexity is the new barrier to change – drawing on on recent research and Sony Business Europe as a case study. HR leaders are still asking two questions that have exercised managers since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution.How do we tap […]
Softworld seminar: Review of payroll legislative changes
Stuart Chamberlain, an Employment Law consultant with GEE Publishing, will be reviewing recent and upcoming payroll legislative changes at the Softworld HR and Payroll Conference on Wednesday 24 September at 13.15 – 14.00. The seminar will focus on three major legislative changes that have had a significant impact on HR and payroll… First, he will […]
Case Study: Purchasing and HR working together – Nomura
The Japanese investment bank, Nomura, has over 500 staff based in its City of London offices. Purchasing has been “much more” involved with the procurement of Human Resource services over the last 5 years, making estimated HR expenditure savings of £1.5 million every year.“It is all about personalities – developing trust and communication”, says Nicola […]
Case Study: Purchasing and HR working together – Environment Agency
“Once you get a joint success, that builds trust”, says Mark Yeomans, Head of Procurement for the Environment Agency, about relationships between HR and Purchasing in this organisation which employs over 11,000 people in more than 100 offices across England and Wales.The Environment Agency believes HR and Procurement professionals are both in the same business: […]
How Did I Get Here? David Kelly, Aventis UK
David Kelly, Head of Development and Training for Aventis UK, a global pharmaceutical company, shares his experiences of working in HR to date. What's your current job role?Head of Development & Training for Aventis UK. Main responsibilities include cultural transformation and maintenance; executive and leadership/management development; talent management; generalist HR for subsidiary company. What did […]
Pay settlements remain stable at 3%
In the three months to 31 August 2003, basic pay settlements have stayed focused around 3%, according to the IRS Pay Databank, covering just over 240,000 employees. At 3%, the median or mid point in the range of basic awards is unchanged for five successive rolling quarters. This represents the longest period of settlement stability […]
HR Tip – burden of proof
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: We recently wanted to dismiss an employee for fiddling his expenses but we didn't have absolute proof, so let him off. Was this the right thing to do? A: Had the employee […]
50 Tax-Saving Ideas for Employers and Employees
TaxZone, part of HR Zone’s sister site Accounting Web, is currently offering you the opportunity to buy fifty tax saving tips for employers and employees for just 99 pounds plus VAT (that’s under 2 pounds per tip!) as part of a subscription to Ray Chidell’s popular Employee Benefits guide series. Your initial outlay of £99 […]
Middle managers identified as organisational “fault line”
Middle managers are under such severe strain that the future success of many organisations is in serious jeopardy, claims a new report by global HR consultancy DDI.Inadequate skills, divided loyalties, an obligation to implement projects that they don’t believe in and lack of support from senior managers is undermining middle managers’ ambition and prompting some […]
