News: Olympus whistleblower hearing gets under way
Former Olympus chief executive Michael Woodford is expected to seek up to $60 million in compensation this week from his former employer, after he blew the cover on a $1.7bn accounting scandal. The five-day hearing gets underway today at an employment tribunal in east London and will shed light on why Woodford was sacked after […]
Ask the Expert: What is the holiday situation for sick workers going through redundancy?
The question An employee of ours has been on long-term sick leave since May 2011 until the current time. We have just confirmed her redundancy. But she has now asked a holiday-related question about which I would like clarification. She did not take any holidays last year (the holiday year is from January […]
News: Unions call for urgent talks with HP to save UK jobs
Unions have called for urgent talks with high tech supplier HP in a bid to try and safeguard up to 1,600 jobs under threat at its UK operations. HP has confirmed plans to cut 8%, or the equivalent of 27,000 jobs, across the globe by the end of 2014. But Unite, which has about […]
News: Workplace disenchantment hits “crisis” levels
With disenchantment in the workplace hitting “crisis” levels, it is incumbent on HR professionals to find new ways to engage staff and compensate for below-inflation wage increases that are continuing to squeeze household incomes. According to the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development’s Labour Market Outlook survey of more than 1,000 employers, some 51% were […]
News: Govt regional pay plans risk breach with Whitehall
Leaked government plans to introduce regional pay rates for civil servants are threatening to push already strained relations between the two to breaking point. The move comes only weeks after the Prime Minister’s director of strategy, Steve Hilton, who left Downing Street last week, advised him to "road test" swingeing cuts to Whitehall in a […]
Blog: Does social learning really work?
Have you ever been reluctant to seek assistance from someone inside your organisation, perhaps afraid of losing face because you need help? High performers communicate with their colleagues In a series of experiments, MIT Professor Tom Allen1 found that people are more likely to look outside their own organisation for ideas, while at the […]
News: Union requests clarification on whether HP to cut 30,000 jobs
The Public and Commercial Services Union has written to IT supplier HP "demanding immediate discussions" in light of press reports it plans to shed as many as 30,000 positions globally. The union said it wants to determine "what impact this will have on our members who work for HP in the UK". These "latest cuts" […]
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 […]
News: Unions ballot bus drivers for strike over Olympics bonus
Unions are balloting bus drivers on whether to take strike action over demands for a £500 bonus payment for working during the Olympics because of an expected hike in passenger numbers. Unite has sent out ballot papers to its 20,000 members, after off-duty drivers protested yesterday outside Transport for London’s head office. The union […]
News: 120 public servants sacked after snooping for personal data
At least 120 public servants have reportedly been fired over the last couple of years for illegally accessing personal data held in a confidential Department for Work and Pensions‘ database while at work. This is the claim made by an IT news site that says the staff were sacked for “abusing their access rights to […]
News: Employment situation ‘at worst for two decades’, warns CIPD
A small drop in joblessness driven by a rise in underemployed part-time workers combined with stagnant pay growth, means that the underlying employment situation is ‘worse than at any point in at least the past two decades”. According to figures from the Office for National Statistics, UK unemployment fell by 45,000 to 2.63 million in […]
News: CIPD’s new CEO appointed to further its global ambitions
The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development has appointed Peter Cheese as its new chief executive in a bid to further its global ambitions. Cheese, who is currently chairman of the Institute of Leadership and Management, will take up the new position on Monday, 2 July. He is taking over from Sue Upton, who […]
Blog: Dealing with the leadership ‘reality gap’
When someone gets ideas above their station and too big for their boots, it generally pays dividends to bring them back down to earth in the most diplomatic way possible. It’s not always easy, but when it’s a close friend or family member you can afford to be frank. At work it tends to […]
Blog: What impact does office politics have on people’s work lives?
Ask most people in businesses today if they think that manipulation and office politics affect their working lives and they’ll say yes. But ask them to quantify the impact on the business and that’s a much more difficult question to answer. In 2011, Revelation Consulting Ltd set out to answer that question, and we […]
Talent Spot: Fiona Lawlor, HR director at Jack Morton Worldwide
During Fiona Lawlor’s time at Jack Morton Worldwide, she has seen the HR function develop from being a lowly back-room admin operation to become a strategic partner of the business. Today, Lawlor is HR director and a senior vice president of the brand experience agency, but when she joined 18 years ago, it had no […]
News: Female Network Rail staff to fight for equal pay
Network Rail bosses were accused today of treating women like “second class citizens” after research revealed that they were being paid on average £4,500 per year less than their male colleagues. The findings of the survey of more than 2,000 workers will result in some 34 female middle managers launching an initial claim for […]
Blog: CVs – To fib or not to fib….
CVs – to fib or not to fib? That may be the question, but to my mind it would only be worth £100 on Who Wants To Be a Millionaire, since it’s a bit of a no-brainer really. Yet it still seems to be asked a lot, usually alongside the bold assertion “Well, everyone […]
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 […]
News: Petrol tanker strike averted as drivers accept deal
The threat of a national fuel strike has been averted after tanker drivers narrowly voted to accept a deal aimed at ending a long-running dispute over pay and conditions. Unite said that 51% of its 2,000 members, who worked for a total of seven distribution companies, backed the deal despite a recommendation to reject it. […]
News: ‘Cameron to decimate Whitehall’ claim
The Prime Minister’s director of strategy has advised him to "road test" swingeing cuts to Whitehall in a belief that the the civil service could function effectively with 90% less staff. According to The Telegraph today, Steve Hilton, who is leaving to take up a US university post this month, has already sent officials to […]