News: Christian demoted for gay marriage opposition wins breach of contract case

A Christian man who was demoted at work for posting his opposition to gay church weddings on Facebook has won a breach of contract lawsuit against his employer. Adrian Smith found himself in trouble with the Trafford Housing Trust after linking an article on the BBC News website entitled ‘Gay church marriages get go ahead’ […]

Lembit Opik: How to navigate office politics

I’ll let you into a bit of a secret, off the record, as they say: office politics exists.   In fact, it’s everywhere. I once asked my friend and former boss at Procter & Gamble, Graham Cowley, what the smallest organisation to be influenced by politics was.     He replied without a moment’s hesitation: ‘A marriage.’ Was […]

US presidential election – The power of empathy

It’s official (again) that being able to show empathy is a critical quality desirable in any leader. For instance, in an exit poll during the recent US presidential election published by the Washington Post on Tuesday 6 November, ‘caring about people like me’ was shown to be the most important leadership trait among 20% of […]

News: Institute launched in bid to improve UK employee relations

A membership body has just been set up in the UK to undertake research, offer training and provide expert advice to employers in the area of employee and workplace relations. The Employee Relations Institute’s board comprises representatives from 17 employers, employer bodies and trade unions and has appointed Jan Parkinson, former director of the Local […]

Infographic: HR pros among most unhappy in their career

Credit: City & Guilds

Relationship building – The power of feedback

Everyone has issues with people at work that make them angry, dissatisfied, annoyed or distracted such as a boss that doesn’t provide clear expectations or appreciation. Work can be a nightmare when relationships are in trouble.   Equally, there are pleasant teams where people are kind, respectful and cheerfully collude with ideas that are ultimately […]

News: CIPD 2012 – Four ways to ensure positive industrial relations

Even with just a threat of industrial action, the stakes are high because people are forced to take sides, which is damaging for employee engagement and the credibility of the organisation and its managers. This was just one of the insights provided by Darren Hockaday, HR director for London Overground, at the Chartered Institute of […]

Redundancies and how to reduce the risk of insider fraud

Last week, UBS announced plans to cut 10,000 jobs. This week, companies as diverse as Ericsson, ING and steel group, Kloeckner, have also announced big job losses.   But managing large-scale redundancies clearly presents a number of challenges for HR, not least the increased likelihood of staff fraud taking place. In fact, the latest figures […]

News: National Stress Awareness Day – 1 in 3 take “stress day” since recession

A third of the population has called in sick due to stress in their working life, with money, work and relationships the biggest causes of anxiety, according to research published to coincide with National Stress Awareness Day. Nearly half of UK workers have felt more stressed since the onset of the financial crisis, finds the […]

News: Office romances cost British business millions

Office-based romances could be costing British businesses millions and inflicting untold damage to their reputations. Over a thousand individuals responded to the ‘Are Office Romances a good idea’ survey and over 200 businesses to the ‘Impact of Office Romances on UK Businesses’ survey, both commissioned by website IllicitEncounters.com last month. Three quarters of individuals said […]

Age audit tool unwrapped: How ageist is your organisation?

In the blink of an eye, the default retirement age made employees go from being seen as important contributors to society to a perceived ‘burden’. The recent end of the DRA is just one element of a broader shift towards recognising the changing role, and value, of older workers.   Enabling more people to defer […]

News: ER role shifts in line with changing nature of industrial conflict

The changing nature of industrial action means that the focus of employee relations practitioners is shifting increasingly towards preventing rather than managing conflict, according to the CIPD. In its ‘Managing Employee Relations in difficult times’ report, the HR membership body revealed that the average number of days lost each year to industrial action had plummeted […]

News: Low employer awareness hampering Work Programme, warns CIPD

The government must boost awareness and understanding of its Work Programme among employers if the scheme is to succeed in its aims of getting the long-term unemployed back into work, the CIPD has warned. But rather than expect the system to churn out work-ready individuals, employers also need to play their part by putting more […]

News: BBC to investigate harassment claims after journalist’s suicide

The BBC has appointed a third party to investigate whether complaints about sexual harassment by a journalist who later committed suicide were handled properly. The family of Russell Joslin has accused the broadcaster of failing to act on the complaints of sexual harassment from a female colleague made by the reporter for BBC Coventry and […]

News: UBS bankers head to pub after being turned away at door

In what would appear a classic example of how not to do it, UBS bankers only discovered that they could be out of a job after having their passes refused on entry to the office yesterday. According to the Daily Telegraph, scores of London traders were denied access to the Swiss bank’s City headquarters and […]

Five tips for becoming a successful interim

So you’ve decided to take the plunge and work as an interim. When starting out, the three main elements to consider are: Whether to be self-employed (sole trader) or to form a limited company (personal services company). You are likely to find that most agencies expect you to be the latter and in fact this […]

Blog: The dangers of pulling rank – ‘Do you know who I am?’

There have been a couple of well-publicised incidents recently in which well known figures have allegedly pulled rank – whether it be Andrew Mitchell and his altercation with a policeman or George Osborne using a first class seat with a standard class ticket asking the ticket inspector ‘do you know who I am?’ (according to […]

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: What are the benefits of hiring a recovering alcoholic or drug user?

DrugScope’s London Drug and Alcohol Network, a membership body for drug and alcohol services in the capital, is entering the second phase of a Trust for London-funded project to improve access to employment for people recovering from substance misuse problems.  In our last blog, we discussed the barriers that can hold people back. So are […]

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 […]