Blog: Using the London Olympics as a motivational tool
With less than a year to go before London hosts the largest sporting event in the world, businesses in the UK are now starting to consider ways in which to increase staff motivation during the 2012 Olympics. The recent release of an article from the Telegraph titled ‘Sickies to soar during Games’ not only reiterated […]
Legal Insight: Does your organisation pass the stress test?
Stress has become the most common cause of long-term absence from work for the first time, according to the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development’s annual absence report, which was published last month. Given this development and that 2 November was National Stress Awareness Day, it would make sense for organisations to take the opportunity […]
News Analysis: Two thirds of workers suffering high stress levels
Two thirds of all workers are suffering from high levels of stress and are having to take time off work as a result. These are the key findings of a survey among employees at 1,500 companies worldwide undertaken by employee assistance programme provider, ComPsych, to coincide with National Stress Awareness Day today. The poll […]
Blog: 10 top tips to build an engaged workforce
An engaged employee is someone who will go that extra mile for your company. Companies with high employee engagement levels grow on average 4.5 times faster than those with low levels, according to a 2010 study by Hays. Engaged employees means lower staff turnover & higher productivity. However, engagement takes work – here are […]
Mediation: Part Two – How to find the right provider
The mediation industry has no single regulatory body. The Civil Mediation Council runs a workplace mediation provider registration scheme, which provides a register of mediation suppliers. Although this is a positive step forward, as yet there is no single code of good practice for workplace mediators and the scheme relies on self-certification. As a result, […]
Blog: How to take the pay issue off the table
Recognise This! – Recognition and rewards cannot replace compensation – it’s an entirely different “currency.” Fellow blogger and Compensation Café founder Ann Bares recently ran a survey looking into what level of pay (or pay increase) would be needed to “take the issue of pay off the table.” This is a highly complex but […]
Blog: Committing to a compassionate culture within the NHS
Compliance to compassion was a phrase that has resonated with me this week, since another damning report was released on the state of the national health service’s approach to eldercare. A lady on the radio yesterday (Thursday) urged officials to shift thinking across the organisation, and actually change the way that individuals approach their day-to-day […]
Blog: It’s time for HR and recruiting to kiss and make up
Recently I read a great book called In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the whaleship Essex. It tells the true life story of a whaling ship from Nantucket in the 1820’s which was sunk by a rogue sperm whale. Herman Melville based his famed novel Moby Dick on this tragedy. The […]
Temps entitled to tips under Agency Worker Regs, warns lawyer
The hospitality industry must pay temps their fair share of customer tips or risk legal action under the new Agency Worker Regulations, a lawyer has warned. Although many of the UK’s largest leisure chains have in the past failed to share gratuities with agency staff, individuals with 12 weeks’ service will now be entitled to […]
Gloucester Council’s shared service centre to save local jobs
Gloucester City Council’s move to a shared services model for revenues, benefits and welfare rights-based services will safeguard local jobs and should even create more as other authorities sign up to the arrangement, it has claimed. The Council has outsourced the delivery of the services to outsourcing company Civica in a bid to make annual […]
Talent Spot: Jez Langhorn, McDonalds’ VP of people for Northern Europe
Although ‘persistence’ and ‘staying the course’ may not be the sexiest of qualities, they are important ingredients to business and HR success and should not be underestimated, says Jez Langhorn, McDonalds’ vice president of people for the UK and Northern Europe. And in fact, such doughty terms could also be applied to his own working […]
Blog: Agency worker regulations and how legitimately to avoid them
As an HR type, I’ve used agency temps plenty of times. The main attraction of agency workers is the flexibility for employers, particularly in the current economic climate. They form a key part of the ‘flexible workforce’ which means that employers don’t have to commit to employing anyone, just in case the business goes […]
HRD Insight: M&S’ Tanith Dodge on boosting customer service via staff engagement
Employee engagement and good customer service are integrally linked, believes Tanith Dodge, HR director of Marks & Spencer. The idea is that if staff are demotivated and unhappy, they will not be inclined to go the extra mile or care about the impact of their behaviour either on individual customers or the brand image of […]
Blog: Dumb things managers say and what to do about it
Recognise This! – Improving manager capabilities is critical to increasing employee engagement. Bnet recently published a list of “The 32 Dumbest Things That Real-Life Managers Said.” There is a lesson to be learned in all of them, but these three particularly struck home with me: 1. “Don’t worry, give it a try. You have […]
HRD Insight: McDonalds’ head of people on staff engagement
McDonalds’ decision to make its people strategy part of its business strategy has not only polished up a previously tarnished employer brand but also seen staff engagement levels leap. The rationale behind integrating rather than aligning the two policies was a simple one, however, said Jez Langhorn, vice president of people for the UK and […]
Does management by metrics work?
On the frame of my kitchen door are marks of the heights of my children, and now grandchildren, with names and dates written down over the course of years. They were all proud to stand there from time-to-time in order to check how much they had grown. We did not, of course, manage their height, […]
Blog: Engagement taskforce update – part two
Hello again – a couple of weeks ago, a bunch of us met with David MacLeod, Nita Clarke et al to continue encouraging the engagement taskforce. What follows is part two of a transcript of the conversations that I heard. If you haven’t already read it, part one is here. Here goes anyway: Part two […]
Blog: Engagement taskforce update – part one
Hi folks – a couple of weeks ago, a bunch of us met with David MacLeod, Nita Clarke et al to continue encouraging the engagement taskforce. What follows is a transcript of the conversations I heard. I’ll issue part one now and part two tomorrow. Here goes: Part one In groups we were asked […]
Customer service staff paid 34% below national average
The number of people working in the UK’s customer service sector has increased threefold in the last eight years, but pay remains 34% below the UK average. A new study by the Institute of Customer Service, published to coincide with the launch of National Customer Service Week (3 – 9 October), shows that the industry […]
Navigating the choppy waters of cultural difference
What is considered polite in one culture may be considered impolite in another. But as travel and communications become ever easier, HR directors working in multi-national companies would be well advised to acquaint themselves with at least some of these cultural differences and to understand how they can affect the way that employees conduct business. […]