News: Call centre workers in East Anglia most likely to throw a sickie…
Although a third of UK workers admit to having pulled a sickie, a worrying 55% soldier on when ill due to anxiety over what their boss or colleagues will think. According to a survey conducted among 2,000 employees by insurance comparison website Confused.com, some 35% admitted lying to their manager over why they had missed […]
News: Govt rush to offload public sector jobs leads to hike in tribunal claims
The coalition government’s rush to offload public sector jobs onto the private sector led to a 37% hike in TUPE-related employment tribunal claims last year, according to lawyers. Cases relating to the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006 have been the only form of employment dispute to increase significantly over the last two […]
News: TUC boss to receive six figure “golden goodbye”
Brendan Barber, current general secretary of the TUC, is expected to receive a six figure “golden goodbye” when he retires at the end of the year. According to the Daily Mail, he will be given the equivalent of a year’s salary, which amounts to more than £100,526 – around four times the average full-time UK […]
News: “Not realistic” to deploy troops as strike-breakers, say defence sources
Defence sources have dismissed reports that soldiers will be brought in to act as strike-breakers following a TUC vote to explore the practicalities of organising a general strike in protest at government spending cuts. In the past, members of the military have been brought in to provide cover when industrial action has taken place, the […]
News: HR ‘must find fresh ways of developing tomorrow’s leaders’
HR must avoid traditional “sheep-dip” management training approaches and instead find fresh ways to develop the new kind of leader required to thrive in today’s knowledge-based economy. According to a report published by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, these leaders are necessary to build a positive workplace culture that is able to get […]
News: “Real likelihood” of coordinated strikes by year end, warns Unite
The leader of the UK’s biggest union has warned that there is a “real likelihood” of a fresh wave of coordinated public sector strike action before the end of the year. Speaking on the eve of the annual TUC Congress, which opens in Brighton on Sunday, Len McCluskey, Unite’s general secretary, said that the pensions […]
News: Unemployment fears used to dampen pay, claims incoming TUC boss
Unemployment appears as if it is being used as a “deliberate measure to keep pay down, and to keep people scared”, according to the TUC’s leader-in-waiting, Frances O’Grady. In an interview with the Guardian, she said that there was “a fair bit of evidence” that the country’s lengthening dole queues could be part of a […]
News: Pensions gap widens between top directors and everyone else
The pensions’ gap between top company directors and everyone else appears to be widening, according to research. The TUC’s PensionsWatch survey, which analyses the pension arrangements of 351 FTSE 100 directors, revealed that their average occupational pension was a huge 24.4 times larger than the average UK workers’ of £9,929. Of the 144 senior […]
Legal Insight: The HR implications of pensions auto-enrolment
From 1 October this year, pension auto-enrolment will start to affect the UK’s largest businesses. While a lot of these employers will already have got to grips with fundamental issues such as identifying their staging date and considering which pension scheme to use to satisfy the new legislation, there are a number of HR implications […]
News: European religious discrimination cases could shake up UK employment law
Employers may be obliged to “accommodate expression of religion” by their workers if four Christians win a key test case on religious discrimination heard at the European Court of Human Rights today. Two of the Christians – British Airways check-in clerk Nadia Eweida and NHS hospital nurse Shirley Chaplin – who were refused the legal […]
Talking Point: Could HR and internal comms make happy bedfellows?
The business world is in for a turbulent time of it over the next decade, according to Rohit Talwar, futurist, award-winning speaker and chief executive of Fast Future Research. Without doubt, the world as we know it will change as a result of continued economic uncertainty, political instability, the redistribution of wealth from west to […]
News: State pension age rises to create “limbo zone” for older workers
Increases in the state pension age will lead to the creation of a new “limbo zone” in which many workers are too young to draw their pension but too old and infirm to work. The TUC issued the warning on releasing an analysis of official labour market data, which revealed that a mere 54% of […]
Do you do a Basil Fawlty when talking to foreign partners?
The lack of importance placed on developing language and business communication skills by UK employers is startling. In order to mark our centenary this year (we’re having a party to celebrate this weekend at The Orangery at Kensington Palace), we commissioned some market research among UK HR directors and discovered something that we had […]
News: UK workplace relationships hit new lows
Workplace relationships in the UK appear to have plumbed new depths, with large numbers of employees complaining about everything from abuse of power to nepotism and bullying. According to a survey conducted among 1,607 people by Canada Life Group Insurance, a huge 42% said that they had witnessed senior staff members abusing their power. […]
News: Holiday season stress levels rocket for colleagues stuck at work
While some may be off relaxing in sunnier climes, it appears that the rest of us are having to pick up the slack – and are likely to need a holiday of our own when they get back to de-stress. According to a survey among 200 UK-based HR directors conducted by recruitment agency OfficeTeam, a […]
News: Strikes to become “increasingly routine” over year ahead
Although industrial action at the end of last year represented an “acute high water mark”, strikes are becoming “increasingly routine”, which means that employers must implement robust contingency plans, a legal expert has warned. According to figures from the Office for National Statistics, almost 1.4 million days were lost to labour disputes last year, four […]
Blog: Me and my Blackberry are on holiday….
One of the things we often hear from our HR alumni and network is that, however much they’d love to change the way they and their teams or functions ‘do’ HR, they simply don’t have time. The daily dilemma: you may have found a new way to help their clients solve their business problems, but […]
News: EU – Employers must assess staff well-being during redundancy
Employers may have to assess the psychological health of their staff if considering whether to make any of them redundant in future, according to draft European Union proposals. The proposed new directive, which the European Parliament is scheduled to vote on in November, would also mean that bosses had to evaluate the impact of job […]
News: Employers face “make-or-break” in next 12 months
If the economy fails to pick up over the next year, employers will face a “make or break moment” as many are forced to axe skilled labour, sending unemployment levels soaring. According to the Labour Market Outlook survey of more than 1,000 employers conducted by YouGov on behalf of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and […]
Blog: Should we name and shame bad managers?
Recognise This! – We publicly praise the stars. Should we publicly highlight the truly poor performers as well? Regular readers know I’m a very strong proponent of frequent and public (when appropriate and preferred) recognition of star performers as well as employees who live the values day in and day out, making it possible for […]