Lessons in management: we asked some senior leaders what their first-time mistakes were

When it comes to pivotal points in your career, being a new manager has to be one of the most challenging. You’re used to being a star performer – that’s why you were promoted – but to succeed as a manager, you need to master an entirely new set of skills. To help new leaders […]

Getting ahead at work: social class divide, power and office politics

Why is it that individuals with relatively high social class often dominate the upper ranks of management in offices across the country? A study I recently conducted with Kristin Laurin of the Stanford Graduate School of Business found that class-based inequality in the workplace persists not only because of external factors like bias and “glass […]

Employee misbehaviour and reputational damage on social media – what can businesses do?

As well as individuals, most businesses now have their own social media presence, but these new channels bring their own potential problems. In this series, Social media policy & law: a guide for HR, we'll share some examples of employee misbehaviour, changes to law & organisational policy off the back of these incidents, and what businesses can […]

The multiple benefits of improving your self-confidence

Self-confidence can be hard to come by. It’s much easier to criticise yourself – and skip over positive thoughts about a job well done. But listening to a negative internal monologue isn’t just bad for you, it’s also bad for your business. Confidence in your company starts with confidence in the leader of your company; without […]

Financial wellbeing – time for businesses to act?

As we move further into 2017 and still counting the cost of our Xmas extravagances, many of us will be watching the pennies. January is traditionally a difficult time for families in the UK. Getting through the month is estimated to be a struggle for one in four adults and it’s a time of year when […]

Who are you under your suit?

Steve Jobs once said that intuition is more powerful than intellect. As it turns out, he was onto something big. And the scientific community backs him up. It seems we’ve been giving intuition far too little respect.  “Intuition will tell the thinking mind where to look next.” – Jonas Salk The importance of slowing down […]

Personality at work: are you from the dark side…?

You have both light and dark personality traits If you’re a Star Wars fan you’ll no doubt be familiar with the ‘dark side of the force’, the battle between light and dark with characters drawing power from the mystical dark side. The idea that we can have both light and dark aspects of our personality, […]

Coming to terms with discrimination: how to push past adversity and take control

I was training in London recently and one participant, Jasmine*, mentioned that she had experienced 'horrendous' sexual harassment in her previous workplace that had affected her both mentally and physically.  She had lost weight, could not sleep and, at one point, thought she might have been diagnosed with clinical depression if she had consulted a […]

Going beyond the stereotypes: managing employees with Asperger’s

Asperger's syndrome (AS) is a condition occurring in about 1 in 200 of the population.  It lies on the autistic spectrum and until recently has been a condition about which little is known in the employment context. What is interesting about AS is that it is both a disability protected by law, and at the […]

“Engagement is about what happens at the actionable step.”

At the recent Engage for Success conference, Dr John Neil, who led the management buyout of logistics and manufacturing company Unipart, said that engagement is about "what happens at the actionable step," highlighting the importance of measuring whether engagement has resulted in a genuine improvement to process or service. He added that growth and productivity […]

How to keep team players engaged

This was authored by Patrick Lencioni with assistance from Steve Turner and Mike Snelling. With the triple whammy of austerity, exiting Europe and its uncertain impact and the need for a government to demonstrate a new type of leadership it’s no wonder that when we at The Table Group consult in organisations we are hearing […]

What makes the ideal team player?

This was authored by Patrick Lencioni with assistance from Steve Turner and Mike Snelling. When it comes to visible team performance we in the UK have seen some amazing examples in recent times. From the history-making season Leicester City FC just completed to the now four-times Tour De France winning Sky team. It makes us […]

Why do good people do bad things?

Over the last few decades, ethical scandals in business have been increasing. This could be due to increased media attention around the issue, or due to an actual increase in the number of occurrences: ultimately, it’s hard to say. After all, there are many factors which can be attributed to the rise in numbers. Digital […]

Infographic: What are the main challenges facing customer support?

It's HR in Retail month on HRZone! We're focusing on all things retail – check out our HR in retail hub to read all our great content! Research into the customer support field in the UK has highlighted a juxtaposition emerging based on the level of importance being placed on contact centres vs the relative […]

The stark nature of wisdom – and what you need to know to have more of it

There's so much rich insight coming out of the academic sector that HR professionals need to know. At Academics' Corner we feature the best HR researchers that tell you what they’ve found and what you need to do differently on the back of the research. Get connected to the academic sector through Academics’ Corner and […]

What your voice in the workplace says about you

In business we usually get things done by talking. But how well are you doing this? Kate Laws from people business Connor takes a look at why it’s important to assess your communication and influencing skills at work. When it comes to business, talk isn’t cheap. From the board room to the shop floor, the […]

How is customer experience affected by employee engagement?

It's HR in Retail month on HRZone! We're focusing on all things retail – check out our HR in retail hub to read all our great content! When it comes to the root causes of customer complaints, evidence demonstrates that it is staff performance that is the biggest culprit. A survey of 3,000 consumers by […]

Politician analysis: Boris Johnson

His heroes are Winston Churchill and the Mayor from Jaws. He has been described as colourful, flamboyant, and unpredictable. His imaginatively offensive comments about many of the world’s political leaders will no doubt be recalled for years to come. Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson, or should we say the Rt. Hon Boris Johnson our foreign […]

In praise of procrastination: the good, the bad, the ugly

Are you a procrastination PRO? As a matter of fact, I have never met anyone who never procrastinated in their life, including myself. I write and blog about personal effectiveness and smart working amongst other things, but after accepting Jamie’s [HRZone's editor] offer to write for HRZone about this very topic, I proceeded to postpone […]

How to deal with people you just want to strangle

One of the most common challenges I’m presented with as a behaviourist, is how to handle individuals who exhibit especially challenging behaviours. The fact is that the larger the group of people, the more likelihood there is for conflict and the more likely we are to work with or alongside people that we don’t especially […]