Talent Spot: Fiona Lawlor, HR director at Jack Morton Worldwide
During Fiona Lawlor’s time at Jack Morton Worldwide, she has seen the HR function develop from being a lowly back-room admin operation to become a strategic partner of the business. Today, Lawlor is HR director and a senior vice president of the brand experience agency, but when she joined 18 years ago, it had no […]
A typical HRD: Part 1 – Financial services
HR directors with a global or Europe, Middle East and Africa remit who occupy senior positions within the financial services sector will ordinarily have enjoyed a successful first career elsewhere, before moving across and starting their ‘second’ one. As the strategic importance of HR – and all of its constituent parts, which includes talent attraction, […]
News: Employers ‘must collaborate to stem falling adult learner numbers’
A national body has called on employers, policy-makers, unions, providers and charities to work more effectively together in a bid to stem the dwindling numbers of adults involved in learning. An annual survey among 5,237 people undertaken by the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education to mark Adult Learners’ Week, which started on 12 May, […]
Blog: The power of the personal relationship
"Six years ago, Fred had a friendship with a rep for a small brand. "The brand’s contribution to our sales was insignificant, so going to a dinner with him during a shoe show, when there were hundreds of other brands there, didn’t make a lot of sense. But it was still something Fred prioritized, based […]
Legal Insight: Positive discrimination – A trap for the well intentioned?
Recent publicity on the use of positive action in recruitment or promotion in tiebreak situations has left HR directors with a dilemma. Should positive action be used to improve diversity either in the organisation generally or to help women and members of ethnic minorities break through “glass ceilings” into management? Section 159 of the […]
Blog: CEO confessions – What it takes to create a successful company culture
Recognise This! – No company will build the same culture, but every organisation should focus intentional effort on building the right culture for them. I’ve been traveling a good deal again lately, which means I’ve had time to dig into my “organisation culture and leadership” pile of books. A short flight recently gave me […]
Blog: M&A success – It’s a people thing
“I knew enough to allow them to handle their own culture, headquarters and management,” said Paul Murry, CEO of Calvin Klein, a PVH Corp. company. In 2003, PVH bought Calvin Klein when sales were $2.8 billion. Last year, the numbers ended with sales at $7.6 billion. That statement alone tells why M&A must have a people […]
Talent Spot: Kevin Fisher, HR director at Blemain Group
One of the six key tasks that Kevin Fisher was set when he joined specialist lender Blemain Group as an interim was to find a permanent HR director. And he found the perfect candidate: himself. From Blemain’s perspective, having Fisher on board as an interim HRD first of all enabled senior managers to ‘try before […]
News: Informal training as effective as traditional methods – study
The majority of employers that turned to informal training methods as a means of cutting learning and development costs have found that they are just as, if not more, effective than more traditional approaches. According to a study by by XpertHR, two-thirds of the organisations that it questioned have taken steps to prune training expenditure […]
The HRZone Interview: CIPD’s Stephanie Bird on the evolution of HR
About a quarter of HR directors these days come into the function from other areas, while the most successful act as “boundary-less leaders”, borrowing and reapplying ideas and techniques from other disciplines. According to Stephanie Bird, director of HR capability at the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, an increasing number of HRDs have “zigzag […]
Book and Film Review: Moneyball by Michael Lewis
The plot Moneyball, which first appeared as a book in 2003, was re-published following the release of a recent film, which starred Brad Pitt and earned him an Oscar nomination. I decided to review it because, as I read the book and watched the film, I found myself thinking about the broader business implications […]
News: Budget cuts see public servants improvise to get training
Public sector workers are being forced to turn to colleagues and the web to boost the skills that they require to take on new responsibilities, after budget cuts have led to workplace training provision being slashed. According to a survey among 1,100 UK public sector workers undertaken by recruitment consultancy, Badenoch & Clark, about 14.5% are […]
Talent Spot: Community blogger, Tara Daynes
As a freelance HR professional, employment law consultant and corporate trainer, Tara Daynes needs to be confident presenting to large groups as well as on a one-to-one basis. Luckily, she learned the art of presenting early on as she went to stage school. “I was all singing and dancing”, she remembers. Media success came […]
Blog: Cultivating your personal brand
It maybe unjust to judge a book by its cover, but its still what we do – nearly all of the time. Today it is much easier to be confused about what to wear in the workplace. There seems to be much advice on the internet about what you can and cannot wear in […]
News: 75p/hr P&O staff to lose tips unless they hit performance targets
The crew of P&O Cruises’ ships, who are paid a basic wage of only 75 pence an hour, face losing tips from passengers if they fail to hit new performance targets. David Dingle, the chief executive of Carnival UK which owns the P&O brand, told the Guardian that the move was part of a package […]
News: KPMG HR blunder #3: Failing to pay staff salaries
If HM Revenue & Customs didn’t have such a knack for mishaps, KPMG’s embarrassment might be more acute after it was revealed that the Big Four firm failed to pay its staff as expected on Friday 29 April. KPMG staffers are usually paid on the 29th of each month, and if that date falls on […]
Film Review: Headhunters
The plot The recently released film ‘Headhunters’ is a fast-moving thriller adapted from a novel by Jo Nesbo, the Norwegian crime writer who is giving Swedish author, Stieg Larsson, a run for his money. Headhunters is narrated by the suave, secretive and vertically-challenged business executive, Roger Brown, whose physical shortcomings have driven him to […]
Case Study: Baker & McKenzie attempts to optimise leaders’ performance with 360 degree feedback
International law firm Baker & McKenzie has embedded 360 degree feedback processes into its people strategy in a bid to enable staff “to be the best they can be”. The company provides legal services to multinational companies and financial institutions. It employs more than 3,750 lawyers in 70 countries around the world, including more than […]
In a Nutshell: Six steps to becoming a goal-driven organisation
If you really want to ensure that your business performs, ensure that individual and corporate goals are managed effectively. Becoming a goal-driven organisation doesn’t have to be onerous. Start with these six simple steps: Establish clear goals for everyone: That means from the chief executive to the most junior person in your organisation. These goals […]
News: Employers cling to ineffective training methods – study
Too many employers are clinging on to traditional training methods despite having reservations about how effective they are, a survey has found. The poll was undertaken by Software-as-a-Service-based learning and talent management software supplier, Cornerstone OnDemand, and the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, which published the findings today to coincide with the start of […]
