Blog: Workforce planning – The answer to train operators’ prayers?
There have been ongoing announcements lately from London Midland trains about substantial cancellations of its train services on the Northampton to Birmingham line. This is due to a lack of qualified drivers caused by several factors. It takes on average twelve months to train a driver but driver retention is poor due to crippling […]
A buyer’s guide to talent management software
Over the last 18 months, the talent management software sector has changed beyond all recognition, which has led to a lot of general confusion. Underpinning these changes has been the growing importance of talent management as a discipline as well as a shift away from on-premise systems towards cloud or Software-as-a-Service options. The impact […]
Blog: Employee Engagement Taskforce to unveil resources-based website
Recognize This! – Providing more than ideas and recommendations is necessary to help organisations embrace real strategies to engage employees. What does it take to move “employee engagement” from buzzword or annual survey exercise to actual workforce change? Obviously, it requires investment and commitment at an organisation level. But what could happen if that […]
Talent Spot: Liz Reynolds, HR director at Trustmarque Solutions
The wonderful if daunting thing about dealing with people for a living is their unpredictability, which can pose problems for even the most seasoned of HR professionals. Liz Reynolds, HR director at technology reseller, Trustmarque Solutions, learned this lesson early on in her career. Looking through an office window, she glimpsed a very senior […]
Talking Point: Isn’t it time HR focused on solutions rather than problems?
HR professionals often find themselves carrying out administrative and operational tasks that are the responsibility of line managers. They also end up being dragged into other people’s problems, which is both time-wasting and exhausting. How many times have you found yourself doing something that was somebody else’s responsibility, getting bogged down in negativity and […]
Blog: Wasabi – A lesson in effective staff communications
For global companies spanning international locations, or large organisations spread across multiple sites one of the hardest, yet most important areas to keep on top of is the stream of corporate internal communication – making sure your company delivers and receives consistent messages throughout the entire business, no matter how many locations you have. Managing […]
HRD Insight: Allianz’s Philip Gennoy on aligning HR and business goals
For Allianz Insurance’s HR director, Philip Gennoy, the key to ensuring that HR strategy and business goals knit tightly together is to keep a close eye on both the day-to-day nitty-gritty as well as the bigger, more long-term picture. The idea is that by breaking strategy down into bite-sized tactical pieces, it becomes possible to […]
How to ensure social media doesn’t stop you from being hired
The recruitment process is continually evolving as technology advances, and it’s increasingly common for hiring managers to employ a numbers of ways to find out about their candidate, which might include online searches. So, even if a candidate’s knowledge and skills are a perfect match for the role, employers may be put off by social […]
News: HR needs to break out of its comfort zone, warns report
Too many HR professionals are struggling to meet the needs of a constantly changing global business environment and feel themselves paralysed in the face of seemingly monumental challenges, research has warned. The study mirrors the findings of a report published earlier this week by management consultancy, KPMG, which revealed that the majority of senior executives […]
Blog: Eight tips for handling a ‘difficult conversation’
No-one likes having ‘difficult’ conversations – but as a manager it is inevitable that at some point an issue will arise that has to be addressed. It may be that an employee’s performance is under par, a project has gone horribly wrong or a crucial meeting has been mishandled. It’s tempting to sweep poor […]
Blog: The World of HR – Today’s frustrations, tomorrow’s dreams Part 2
Last week we told you about a time travel challenge we posed some of our clients. We asked them in 20 years’ time, when you look back at HR, what would you tell people it was famous for? We asked them to complete the sentence: “A long time ago, in a company far, far […]
In a Nutshell: Seven songs to ensure career success
Peter Cook is a management consultant who uses his three passions of business, music and science to engage his audiences at corporate events and conferences. By drawing parallels between the music and the corporate worlds, his aim is to communicate key lessons to business leaders in a way that is more accessible than bombarding them […]
The HR Headmistress: How to weed out litigious job candidates
The world is full of bounty hunters. Their game is to exploit any holes left by careless employers that could give them a chance to sue for big bucks. Most of the risks involve candidates alleging some form of discrimination on the grounds of a protected characteristic. Anti-discrimination legislation was created to help […]
Talking Point: Do you know what stress looks like?
Health and Safety Executive figures show that 10 million working days are lost in the UK each year to stress. Each case of stress-related ill health leads to an average of 30 days off work, resulting in an annual cost to British business estimated to be in excess of £5 billion. And the problem […]
Five considerations for carving out a successful HR career
Our research identified five important questions for HR professionals: What is your company looking for? What are the table stakes? What stage is your career at, so what do you need to focus on today? What do you need to develop for tomorrow? How do you build depth and breadth? 1. What is your […]
Ask the Expert: What to do about a serious staff/manager rift?
The question Within the business, we have an employee and a line manager whose working relationship has completely broken down. The line manager has been with us for 20 years and has an unblemished record. The employee has been in post for three months, but has had no previous employment issues and her references […]
Blog: Five ways to move on from a mistake
How did you react the last time you made a mistake at work? Did you hold your hands up and do your best to put the problem right – or did you berate yourself for being a failure but decide there was nothing you could do to rescue the situation? According to an article […]
Blog: Five tips for plucking up the courage to pick up the phone
I was talking with a new client last week, and she explained to me that she wasn’t one of those people who found it easy just to pick up the phone and talk to people – particularly people she had not spoken to in a while. I know that one of the best ways to […]
Talent Spot: Community blogger, Peter Cook
“If I had to reduce my life to three words, they would be science, music and business,” says Peter Cook, management consultant, speaker, author, blogger, music lover and former scientist. Cook is actually managing director of two management consultancies, which he jokingly refers to as his day job and his night job. The day job […]
Talking Point: Why is HR still looking for training silver bullets?
The happy sheet – or, to give it its proper title, the ‘post-course evaluation form’ – has been part of the trainer’s toolbox for years. The problem is that they tend to offer little or no value in the long-run – not because of the feedback itself, but because of the lack of bearing that […]
