UK hangover costs £620 million

Staff pulling ‘sickies’ due to almighty hangovers after the Christmas party will cost the UK economy £620 million this festive season, with many planning to get more drunk than usual after a stressful year.  According to a survey of 6,000 UK workers undertaken by hotel chain Travelodge, just under two thirds of workers will be […]

Good relations with MD helps retain talent

Personnel in small-to-medium enterprises in Scotland and the North of England are the least likely to change employers because their managing directors treat them more as friends than colleagues, according to a study.  A survey undertaken among 250 MDs and owner/managers by Illuma Research on behalf of Manpower’s talent and careers management consultancy Right Management […]

Take the pain out of training seasonal staff

The customers that pack your stores during the festive period don’t know – or care – whether a member of staff is seasonal or permanent. They just know that the employee represents your business. And that means, as well as compelling product range and product availability, customers expect prompt answers to any queries they have […]

Season of Goodwill? A very HR Christmas

The festive season is upon us, or as employment lawyers like to think of it, the litigation season. It is time to send HR’s annual email explaining that there will be no office party this year/there will be a cheaper one than usual and that no-one must smoke, drink too much, tell any jokes, or […]

Happy workers have a sense of shared purpose

Business strategy must be based on a shared sense of purpose between employers and workers in order to boost staff engagement, job satisfaction and organisational performance.  According to a survey undertaken among more than 2,000 employees by YouGov on behalf of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), 84% of those working in organisations […]

Charity and retail workers ‘not party animals’

While recruitment and marketing staff enjoy a good Christmas party more than any other group of workers, back office personnel in the retail sector are the most likely to make their excuses and not turn up at all.  According to a survey among 2,500 UK office staff across eight industries undertaken by serviced office provider […]

Santa is coming to town – the HR nightmare before Christmas

Annabel Kaye provides this tongue-in-cheek memo for employees from an employer brave enough to risk a Christmas party.    Dear employees: We are organising the annual Christmas party, and a Mr Klaus has agreed to be our entertainer. After last year’s party (by the way, congratulations on the baby, Miss Smith) we thought it would […]

Social media may aid unofficial industrial action

The ability for workers to communicate more rapidly using tools such as social media could lead to increased levels of difficult-to-manage unofficial industrial action, the conciliation service Acas has warned.  Such technology is changing the way that staff are able to organise and means that demonstrations and flash mobs can be arranged at the push […]

Sainsbury’s cares for carers

Sainsbury’s claims to be the first UK retailer to work with carers’ organisations in order to develop flexible working policies targeted at staff with caring responsibilities.  The supermarket chain has joined the Leadership Group of membership body Employers for Carers, which is chaired by BT and supported with expertise from charity Carers UK. Sainsbury’s intends […]

Dealing with strikes: Manager advice on video

This is a sneak peek at a new learning resource from Video Arts, highlighting issues relating to behaviour, communication, support, consultation and disciplinary action.   "Any manager who is caught in the middle of a strike will find the experience incredibly challenging," said Martin Addison, managing director of Video Arts. "It's vital that you know […]

Christmas temp labour shortage

Although growing numbers of employers are looking to take on temps in favour of permanent staff over the next 12 months, high levels of demand for temporary labour are creating shortages in the run-up to Christmas despite rising unemployment levels.  According to a survey among 600 employers undertaken by the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC), […]

Ask the expert: Restrictions on taking annual leave?

This time the experts, Esther Smith and Martin Brewer give their advice on what restrictions can be placed on employees taking annual leave.   The question: Annual leave restrictions? Is it possible for us to specify in our contracts that the employee can only take as much holiday as they have accrued? I know that […]

Redundancy consultation may be scrapped

UK workers may lose the right to be consulted over redundancies following an appeal by the US Government to clarify EU law. The EU Court of Appeal has asked the European Court of Justice to rule whether employers need to consult with staff before or after deciding to make them redundant, following an appeal by the […]

CIPD Conference 2010: Chris Grayling seeks HR support for government scheme

Government minister Chris Grayling asked the HR community to ‘give the long-term unemployed a chance’ by working with the government on their back to work scheme when he addressed them at the CIPD conference.   The MP issued the plea to the assembled human resource practitioners at the CIPD annual conference’s closing session for business […]

HR ineffective at conflict resolution

Although workplace conflict is on the up as a result of the stress caused by increasing workloads, less than one in five employees would turn to the HR function to bring about a resolution.   According to a study among 1,000 UK workers commissioned by the Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution (CEDR), some 87% of […]

Podcast: Working with unions

Whether you have never dealt with unions before, have forged a good working relationship or actively love to hate them, for many HR practitioners, dealing with unions is likely to become part of your job. In this podcast Croner discuss what HR professionals need to be aware of given possible union activity in the coming […]

CIPD: 1.6 million jobs will go in UK

The private sector will lose more jobs than the public sector following the coalition government’s spending cuts and VAT rise and will struggle to create a targeted 300,000 posts per year by 2015-16.  The warning from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) came as researchers revealed that graduate unemployment had hit the highest […]

Ask the expert: Providing a reference – what’s our duty to the employer?

The experts, Adam Partington and Esther Smith advise on whether a reference given should be updated to take account of a recent disciplinary hearing.   The question: providing a reference – what’s our duty to the employer?  About a week ago, we supplied a reference to a prospective employer of one of our employees. Our […]

The employer’s guide to: Redundancy

With the announcement of the public sector spending review the British public are braced for an age of austerity. This will almost certainly lead to extensive redundancy rounds, affecting both the public and also the private sector. This article looks at how an employer should go about getting a redundancy process right and minimising the […]

Public sector job cuts likely to hit three quarters of a million

Public sector job cuts are likely to hit three quarters of a million rather than the implied 490,000 over the next few years as the coalition government looks to completely restructure service provision in the UK, an HR body has warned. The chancellor in his Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR) announcement said that planned real cuts in […]