In a Nutshell: Five tips when rolling out HR software
In January, Jack Morton Worldwide completed a global roll-out of a new performance management system from SAP’s Software-as-a-Service acquisition, SuccessFactors. The system replaced bespoke applications so the brand experience agency was determined to reapply the lessons learned from its first implementation in order to ensure that its second one went as smoothly as possible. HR […]
Blog: Charity partnerships – Benefitting from philanthropy
Corporate Social Responsibility isn’t a new thing. But certainly it has a new face these days (usually a pink, puffy, sweaty one from running sponsored marathons). Now that we’re all credit-crunched, coughing up charity cash donations is happening less – but actually that is no bad thing. Why? Well, for many reasons, not least […]
Blog: 10 recommendations for boosting employee engagement
How do you improve the engagement culture within your organisation? Employee engagement is big business these days. A recent internet search I carried out highlighted 5,370,000 results on Google and 2,005 books on Amazon. (By the time you read this, those numbers will probably have increased!) There are also a multitude of surveys that […]
Blog: Social media – Opportunity or danger?
And so it was that recently I took part in the People Managements webinar entitled Social Media: Opportunity or Danger? expertly facilitated by PM‘s Editor in chief Rob McLaughlan and Digital Marketing Manager Zoe Bearne. I was one of three ‘speakers’, the other two being Al Shah, Social Media Demand Manager for GlaxoSmithKline and Lucy Turner, […]
Blog: 10 learning tips for National Learning at Work Day
Today, Thursday 17 May is National Learning at Work day, with events promoting learning at work happening across the UK. To support the day, we’ve created these Top Ten Tips for Learning to help and encourage business to make learning fun and relevant in order to motivate and engage employees: 1. Make learning social – […]
Blog: How to promote workplace safety
Engaging employees in workplace safety can be a formidable challenge. Many employees view training sessions as a distraction, and they won’t pay attention if they find the materials boring or largely repetitive. At the same time, creating a safe work environment can mean the difference between a productive and profitable business and one that […]
CEO Insight: Briggs Equipment’s Richard Close on how to work effectively with unions
Disputes between trade unions and employers have flooded the news in recent weeks, not least due to the threat of a tanker driver strike that would have had a severe impact across the country. Strike action is often seen as a last resort by employees when negotiating with their employers, but it is nonetheless likely […]
Green Office Week: How to promote workplace change
This week sees the start of the fourth ‘Green Office Week’, which is intended to encourage workers across the country to implement simple, practical, step-by-step changes in order to help make their workplaces more environmentally-friendly. Our aim in launching the event was to champion a ‘bottom-up’ approach to encouraging behavioural change by using it as […]
Why local government’s approach to temporary labour may be in trouble
Local government’s attempt to reduce spend on temporary labour is being hit by the Agency Worker Regulations. Our analysis shows that the use of temporary workers across 79 of our longest-term local authorities and public body customers – which collectively spend over £300 million a year on short-term help – has dropped by 15% over […]
News: Up to 33,000 City jobs axed already this year
Economic experts are estimating that up to 33,000 more City jobs have already been lost this year than was expected six months ago, while also predicting that UK unemployment will continue to rise until 2016. The Centre for Economics and Business Research has revised its estimate of the average number of extant City posts sharply […]
In a Nutshell: Five steps for managing workplace conflict
Workplace conflict can be caused by anything from differences in individuals’ personalities and style to disagreements over the direction of given ideas and activities. It can even be the result of an office romance. But unresolved conflict can lead to a loss of productivity, increased employee stress levels, less effective collaboration and team-problem solving as […]
Blog: What HR can learn from alien abductions
As an Investors In People assessor, I frequently ask staff what would happen if they were abducted by aliens tomorrow. Not because I’m interested in probes and things (although I’m sure that would be quite fascinating.) What I’m interested in is whether staff would be conspicuous by their absence. Would critical work not get […]
How to manage a mixed age workforce
Two years ago, the number of people who were over 65 outstripped those who were under 16 for the first time. Moreover, the abolition of the Default Retirement Age now means that older workers are likely to stay in the workplace for longer – either through choice or economic necessity. Meanwhile, Generation Y-ers […]
Blog: How to hold on to good employees – Part 3
You now know the reasons why employees leave your company, and last week I described two of the five top strategies that will help you keep them: creating and maintaining an attractive and nourishing working environment, and developing effective employee relationship strategies. To complete the picture, here are strategies 3, 4 and 5: 3. Employee […]
HRD Video Vox Pops: How to engage an increasingly diverse workforce
At the CIPD's HRD learning and development conference in London Olympia last week, we asked a number of experts what their top tip for engaging an increasingly diverse workforce was. And here's what they told us:
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 […]
News: Temp hiring on the up as employers continue to shed permanent jobs
Despite the UK moving into double-dip recession, a report suggests that there has been a healthy upswing in temporary hiring among organisations in the financial services, commerce and industry and public sectors. The 33% jump in the first quarter of this year compared with the latter quarter of 2011 was caused by businesses shedding permanent staff […]
Blog: Four tips for handling a difficult boss
It’s a fact that the main reason why most people are unhappy with their job is poor management. At one point or another, chances are you will have to deal with a difficult, grumpy or (hopefully) unwittingly disparaging boss. You know the type: they get angry for no apparent reason, they completely ignore your questions […]
Blog: How to hold on to good employees – Part 2
In my last HRZone blog entry I set out the five main reasons why employees leave their companies. Today I’m going to describe some corresponding employee retention strategies: 1. Create and maintain a working environment that attracts, retains and nourishes good people The issues you need to attend to include developing a corporate […]
The value of flexible benefits
Recent figures have shown a considerable rise in the take-up of flexible benefits packages lately. In part, this situation can be attributed to factors such as the difficult economic climate and changing employee demographics. Add to these issues the HR community’s growing interest in the subject and it is likely that we will see flexible […]
