Does the answer to city parking rest in Shamanic meditation?
Anyone who’s taken a vehicle into the Scottish capital of Edinburgh will know that parking is not an easy task. Well to be fair the parking is straight forward – it’s finding the space that’s difficult. The whole system is made more interesting by the city’s traffic wardens known locally as the “blue meanies”.APCOA Parking, […]
Breaking the cycle of low self-esteem
Possibly useful as a resource for trainers and HR practitioners one of mental health charity MIND‘s latest publications tackles the issue of low self-esteem.Low self-esteem can leave you feeling low, depressed and hopeless about life. On the other hand good self-esteem can make us feel like the world is a good place full of friends, […]
Money for bullying crackdown and work-life balance development and training
Government Employment Relations Minister, Alan Johnson, is reported to have announced that companies aiming to have a crackdown on bullying and wishing to develop better work-life balance and family friendly policies will benefit from a £1.5 million payment from the Partnership at Work Fund.The money from the fund will be used for training and other […]
Unions and business leaders agree thousands of jobs are at risk
Responding to figures showing an official recession in the manufacturing sector, Brendan Barber, TUC Deputy General Secretary, said, "Last week's interest rate cut was a welcome move but there is far more we could be doing to help our manufacturing sector. Britain gives less state aid to manufacturing than almost any other country in Europe. […]
Corporate manslaughter verdict
"Companies which flout health and safety laws at the expense of their employees' safety will be made to pay." That is the message sent out to the construction industry today as Wisbech company English Brothers Ltd. was convicted of causing the death of gang-foreman Bill Larkman. The company was fined £30,000 plus £12,500 costs after […]
Raise the profile of your T&D function with an ‘internal identity’
Lynn Fraser of The Wayland Partnership is the contributor of the following guest article. We will be publishing more articles from Lynn during the next fortnightOrganisations invest hugely in training and development to both make the most of current employees and attract the very best potential employees. The investment is wasted if no one knows […]
No brave new world for home teleworking
Frequent predictions of a work revolution as office jobs go to be replaced by people working from home using high tech links have failed to materialise, according to a TUC report published on Friday. Instead home computers are more likely to be used by stressed executives taking work home this weekend or by the kind […]
What to do when your staff miss deadlines
This week’s FTdynamo column allows Prof. Robert Austin of Harvard Business School a platform for airing his views that the way to treat staff who don’t meet deadlines is to tighten the timescales!If employees consistently miss deadline and are over-stretched and stressed, the answer is not to give them more time but to impose even […]
What do you do in your five minute mini-breaks?
I’m a lucky fella. I have a wonderful family, and a job that I enjoy, and being a teleworker I work at home most of the time. I sit in my office in front of the screen but that’s maybe where the downside comes into play, because teleworkers, working in isolated situations can find themselves […]
Training 1.5 million employees – a logistical challenge
With over 28,000 outlets across 120 countries, and a product and service standardisation across all of those outlets, McDonald’s burger chain has a big task in maintaining training consistency through the organisation.The organisation cannot afford to stand still in its training activities, and keeping some 1.5 million employees upto date in training could be a […]
HOT PRESS! Bank rates reduced…. European rates remain unchanged
The Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee has just announced that it is reducing interest rates by 0.25% to 5% Reactions and further news to be added as they arrive See last weeks HR Briefing editorial European Central BankPRESS RELEASEMonetary policy decisions2 August 2001 At today's meeting, which was held in the form of a […]
Consultation starts on winding up occupational pensions
Draft Regulations setting out measures to speed up and introduce greater accountability into the winding up of occupational pension schemes were yesterday issued for consultation.Launching the consultation document the Minister for Pensions, Ian McCartney, said: “These Regulations are a significant step towards making the process of winding up pension schemes more efficient and transparent. This […]
TUC: Successful RSI cases are ‘just the tip of the iceberg’
For every person who wins compensation for repetitive strain injury (RSI) there are another 50 suffering in silence, according to the TUC.Over 150,000 people each year are suffering RSI but just 3,000 managed to take a successful case last year. The TUC hopes that better preparation will help more sufferers to obtain fair compensation, while […]
Home Office statement on ‘Code Red’ worm
The following is the complete statement by the UK Government Home Office on the impact of the Code Red worm in the UK – the statement is accompanied by briefing notesEarly indications are that the impact of the Code Red worm appears to have been minimal. Fears that the worm would have a potentially devastating […]
Worker safety adviser pilot scheme goes to York
Health and Safety Commission Chair Bill Callaghan announced that the Health and Safety Executive has awarded a contract to run its Worker Safety Adviser (WSA) pilot scheme to York Consulting of Leeds. This is a step to developing consultation and partnership over health and safety in the workplace.The scheme will introduce specially trained safety advisers […]
Big fine for a big burger outlet for making schoolchildren work big hours!
A McDonald’s restaurant franchise has been fined £12,400 for employing schoolchildren illegally in what is reported to be one of the biggest prosecutions of its kind.Child employment officers from Surrey County Council discovered over 50 breaches of the law at the franchised restaurant in Camberley, Surrey. Ikhya Enterprises, which run the franchise, was fined £12,400 […]
Museums and galleries to help adults into learning
Adult Skills Minister, John Healey, today announced that four museums and galleries will receive a share of £150,000 from the Government to fund projects to encourage adults back into learning. Museums and galleries have a role to play in providing educational opportunities to adults who have had no experience of education since leaving school.The new […]
Re-building the enterprise culture
A series of pro-enterprise reforms to competition and bankruptcy rules to ‘make Britain the best place in the world to do business’ has been announced by Patricia Hewitt, Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, through two government white papers.The changes include measures designed to increase consumer choice, strengthen the economy, put downward pressure on […]
‘Statutory learning reps go against better regulation’ says EEF
Plans to introduce statutory rights for learning representatives in the workplace are a direct breach of the principle of ‘better regulation’, according to the Engineering Employers’ Federation (EEF). The principles of ‘better regulation’, as set out by the Government’s own Better Regulation Task Force, emphasise that regulation should only be used where there is no […]
What value science and technology degrees?
While the dotcom meltdown has dented prospects, IT graduates can still find good jobs in a buoyant economy, as can electronics engineers and biotechnologists. But not all science, technology, and computing (STC) degrees are of equal value in the labour market, and technical skills alone are not enough. Graduates need to be numerate and have […]
