Talking Point: Will shared parental leave work?

"Shared Parenting Matters." And the author of this statement? Not a parenting charity, but the government in a consultation paper.   And indeed, the concept took a step closer to reality last month after the government unveiled its proposals on the practical implementation of shared parenting leave.   But the plans, which are designed to […]

Talent Spot: Community blogger, John Sylvester

Not everyone always understands John Sylvester. The problem is that, for most people, being a motivation and employee incentives specialist requires a bit of an explanation as to what it means.   For instance, after struggling to fathom precisely what their dad did for a living, his two sons eventually hit upon the idea of […]

Blog: Punk Rock HR – Counting down the top 10 Christmas HR tips

In this mini series, I’m going to count down 10 HR tips as seen through the eyes and ears of Punk Rock. A kind of "HR Top of the Pops" but without the DJ.   No need to pogo whilst reading these unless you must. Punk HR refers to brevity, simplicity and purity of thought […]

AAT’s Lucy Gregory on the power of followership

As long as there have been leaders, there have been followers, and leaders cannot accomplish what they do without followers. Kelley, 1992. Most, if not all, HR professionals understand and implement leadership management techniques within their organisation.   But in 1992, RE Kelley put a new slant on the situation with his book, ‘The Power […]

Making the right choices to ensure career success

In order to consistently perform to the peak of your ability and have the best chance of delivering the results that you crave, it’s really important that you understand where to focus the power of choice. Having worked with Olympians over the past 15 years, we’ve learnt some very important lessons regarding the choices that […]

Talent Spot: Angela Williams, HR director at British Gas

Centrica’s British Gas is celebrating its 200th birthday this year – no mean feat in today’s cut-throat business environment – but its long history means that people have preconceptions about the company. “A lot of people see British Gas as old-fashioned and slow-moving and this is so far from the truth,” says Angela Williams, the […]

News: Richard Review proposals on apprenticeships widely welcomed

Recommendations that employers should be in the driving seat in relation to apprenticeship design and funding have been widely welcomed. Another proposal put forward by the Richard Review, which was put together for the government by entrepreneur and former Dragon’s Den star, Doug Richard, was that apprenticeships should last for at least a year and […]

So you want to be…an interim HR manager?

Professional women are increasingly opting to work as interim managers these days.  In fact, the latest research from the Interim Management Association revealed that females were now undertaking 31% of all available assignments, up from only 24% in 2008.   So while the industry may still be a male-dominated one, it is clear that growing […]

Have you got what it takes to be an HR director?

Securing an HR director job is tough.  If you apply for an HRD role, you’ll be faced with strong competition from both inside and outside the organisation. There are some common factors that employers look for when hiring. Ideally, you’ll be someone who is currently a senior HR business partner or a head of HR, […]

Blog: How to get employee recognition programmes right

Recognize This! – Culture management continues to rise in importance to HR leaders as the ability to measure and analyze culture also improves through strategic employee recognition. A couple of weeks ago, in a broader post on how to get more value out of your core values, I alluded to the SHRM/Globoforce Fall 2012 Report. […]

Book Review: Effective time management in easy steps

The author’s credentials for sharing his insights into effective time management are good. John Carroll was a project management consultant who looked after initiatives for a wide range of clients in sectors ranging from government, finance and manufacturing to pharmaceutical, software development and the emergency services.   He also has experience of training other project […]

Quiz: How people-centred is your organisation?

Adopting a people-oriented approach to your organisational culture can help to transform it by making it more efficient and, ultimately, more successful. Helen Sanderson, who has co-authored a book entitled “Creating person-centred organisations” with Stephen Stirk, believes that going down this route gives staff more control over their lives as it means that they are […]

Blog: The HR Headmistress – Adrian Smith and the social media issue

The number of problems that arise from the use of social media has, in recent years, increased dramatically. Facebook now has over 1 billion users, more than 500 million people are said to be tweeting and over 100 million professionals are connecting with each other on LinkedIn.   Every day more and more users of […]

Blog: Five ways to ‘master the moment’

In an instant, you can change your mind. You change the impression you had of someone, or you decide something is not a good idea after all. Politics is full of these moments. General David Patraeus had to resign after being caught in an extra-marital affair. In a moment, questions arose about his military judgment. If […]

Talent Spot: Carol Carson, HR director at Autoglass

After nearly three decades of working in the health and beauty sector, Carol Carson took the plunge two years ago and moved to Autoglass as its HR director.   Windscreen repair/replacement and cosmetics may sound like industries that are chalk and cheese, but Carson has found a surprising amount of commonality between the two. “On […]

Talking Point: Do you know how to turn ‘big data’ into big insights?

Employers can now record pretty much everything that we do at work. These days, they can even find out about what we get up to when we’re not at work too.   This is because HR has ‘big data’ – otherwise known as large, complex data sets that require very fast databases to process them. […]

News: 2013/14 to see surge in executive pay battles, warns report

Shareholder opposition to executive pay proposals is expected to hit a peak during 2013 and 2014 as a growing number of long-term incentive plans come up for renewal. According to a report by KPMG, the so-called 2012 “shareholder spring” was, in fact “something of an illusion”, even though 10 “serious” revolts over the renumeration packages […]

How to work effectively with the CEO

HR directors are in a unique position to provide credible, strategic advice to the chief executive and have a direct influence over the effectiveness of decision-making and direction-setting. As the organisation’s ‘people experts’, HR directors bring a perspective and expertise that are critical to ensure executive teams do justice to the direction that is set […]

Living Leader Learnings: How can I stay true to myself at work?

The challenge A sales executive at a telecommunications company says:   "I’m doing well in my job, achieving and exceeding my targets regularly, which should leave me feeling good. But lately, I’m becoming more and more troubled by the fact that I seem to be two different people – one at home and one at […]

Blog: Work-life balance is a bottom line issue

"You are a great model of work-life balance, Ron. Thanks for showing me.” Last week I linked to an article titled Why the Work-Life Balance is Now More Important Than Ever.   It was a UK-based article on work-life balance and it cited five countries and how each of them approaches it. The comment was based on […]