Talent Spot: Community blogger, Ron Thomas
Ron Thomas, a principal at New York-based HR consultancy StrategyFocusedHR and favourite HRzone blogger, always knew that business was his calling, even if he didn’t know in exactly which branch he’d end up. “I knew I was going to major in business in college,” he says. “I was always intrigued by people who came to […]
Blog: Appraisals – The menace of ‘soft marker’ managers
There are plenty of aims of appraisal or performance review programmes, but the key one is usually for managers to assess the performance of their staff, often giving them performance assessment ratings. Sounds like a straightforward enough concept – yet like so many HR initiatives, it is so often a good idea badly executed! […]
Blog: ‘The start-up of you’ – Becoming a career entrepreneur
The co-founder and chairman of LinkedIn Reid Hoffman with co-author Ben Casnocha have recently produced a thought-provoking new book on how to apply the strategies of successful entrepreneurship to career development. In other words, how to approach your career as “the start up of you”. Although The Start-up of You (2012) is written for all ages, […]
Bridging the leadership communication gap
Trust and Leadership are rare bed fellows – as illustrated by the results of a recent CIPD Employee Outlook survey. In case you missed it, the level of workers’ trust in their senior managers remains worryingly low, while relationships with immediate line managers are found to be consistently more positive across the board. This […]
Blog: Building a magnetic culture
Recognise This! – Great books on organisation culture are few and far between. ‘Building a Magnetic Culture‘ is a must read. Readers of my blog know that organisation culture is passion of mine – especially how to build a culture of recognition and then proactively manage it. I’ve heard many discount the ability to […]
Talent Spot: Nikki Hall, chief HR officer at SHL Group
An HR professional at an HR supplier is a pretty useful person to have around when a customer perspective is required on strategy and products. But they are likely to prove even more valuable if sitting both at the top table and at the heart of the business is par for the course. So […]
Blog: How to make the most of an international labour pool
The world is a much smaller place with communication being virtually instant and video conferencing becoming more common than long distance business travel due to its efficiency and cost benefits. So it makes sense that local candidates for jobs that have limited-to-no need for them to be physically present might not always be the best […]
Is interim HR management for you?
Leaving behind the stable world of PAYE won’t appeal to everyone in the current economic climate. But even with predictions of a second recession ahead, many HR professionals still crave a new career challenge and some are even brave enough to make big changes. One career option that commonly appeals to senior HR practitioners […]
Blog: Diversity is good for business
I have watched with amusement these past few weeks the reaction in the sports world to the phenomenon called Jeremy Lin. Not being much of a sports fan (especially basketball), I had to delve a little deeper than the normal fan. Chinese-American and Harvard-educated does not normally equal star in the NBA — or at […]
Leadership development is top L&D priority in bid to “sort wheat from chaff”
Leadership development for senior managers has for the first time this year become the top priority for learning and development activity as employers attempt to "sort the wheat from the chaff". According to the Corporate Learning Priorities Survey 2012 carried out by Henley Business School’s corporate development team, some 47% of respondents made it their […]
Talent Spot: Kate Russell, the HR Headmistress
Although officially Kate Russell is managing director of her own consultancy, Russell HR Consulting, she’s better known as the HR Headmistress – a nickname coined by friends to describe her no-nonsense manner that has refused to budge. “It’s my own fault,” laughs Russell. “I’m short and very middle class in my accent, but with rather […]
The HR Headmistress: How to deliver compliance training with aplomb
Compliance training is like visiting a difficult family member. You may not really like spending time with them, but your mother insists. Topics such as health and safety, data protection, food hygiene and employment law evoke a similar rather less-than-thrilled response in a ‘we do it because we have to, but don’t expect us to […]
Blog: How to network effectively
Networking – why do it? Are you doing it? Are you any good at it? Did you know that you can greatly enhance the performance of your team and your company through networking? One of the things about networking is that there can be a lot of mystique attached to it. There is the […]
Talent Spot: David Kast, head of HR at Hogg Robinson Group
When David Kast first started working in a branch of travel agency Hogg Robinson Group in the early 1970s, he had no inkling that he would still be working for the same firm 39 years later – or that his career would have veered off into HR and training. Kast had left school unsure of […]
HRD Insight: Enterprise-Rent-A-Car’s Donna Miller on graduate recruitment
Enterprise-Rent-A-Car puts a huge focus on graduate recruitment schemes, with the aim of encouraging fresh thinking and bringing new ideas into the company. The firm, which was set up in 1957, has a culture of promoting from within. It recognises that providing employees with clear opportunities for advancement motivates them and encourages them to […]
Blog: Why learning should never end
I will be glad when this is over. I will never have to study again". That was a statement from my daughter during finals week in her senior year of college at Penn State. She sounded worn out. As I listened on the other end of the phone, I looked at my watch and […]
Talent Spot: Adrian Furnham, professor of psychology at University College London
For Adrian Furnham, professor of psychology at University College London, work is much more than a necessary evil to pay the bills. “Noel Coward said ‘work is more fun than fun’ and he’s right,” he says. A self-professed “well-adjusted workaholic”, Furnham is ready to start grafting by 5am. Alongside his role at the university, […]
Management book of the year unveiled
‘The Cult of the Leader’ written by Christopher Bones won the Chartered Management Institute’s ‘Book of the Year’ at an awards ceremony hosted at the British Library in London last night. The work was unanimously assigned the top slot by five judges, including Professor Cary Cooper, Sir Anthony Cleaver and former chief executive of the […]
National Apprenticeship Week: Training the Baker Tilly way
We first introduced our five-year apprenticeship scheme about six years ago as a way to get a variety of talent through the door. Since then, we have had between 70 and 100 school leavers with good A-level grades studying with us to gain an Association of Accounting Technicians qualification, 17 of which were taken on […]
International Coaching Week: Profile of average coach revealed
Just over two thirds of coaches in the UK are female, more than 45 years old and educated to second degree-level, a study has revealed. The majority have also been coaching for more than five years, with two thirds at it for more than 10, with the topic of ‘leadership’ being the biggest money-spinner. Moreover, […]
