News: HRDs excluded from public company boardrooms due to “prejudice”

Prejudice against the HR function has led to HR directors being seriously under-represented on the boards of the UK’s largest public companies, with less than 1% boasting a top job. According to research undertaken by HR recruitment agency, Ortus, only five of the 595 board directors working at the country’s leading FTSE 50 firms have […]

News: Expert verdicts on the Queen’s Speech Bill by Bill

Below are the key Bills to affect HR that were presented in the Queen's Speech to Parliament today, along with the verdicts of those in the know: Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill   This Bill covers HR-related subjects such as employment disputes and director’s pay.   Reforms to the employment tribunal system are intended to […]

News: Up to 33,000 City jobs axed already this year

Economic experts are estimating that up to 33,000 more City jobs have already been lost this year than was expected six months ago, while also predicting that UK unemployment will continue to rise until 2016. The Centre for Economics and Business Research has revised its estimate of the average number of extant City posts sharply […]

News: Informal training as effective as traditional methods – study

The majority of employers that turned to informal training methods as a means of cutting learning and development costs have found that they are just as, if not more, effective than more traditional approaches. According to a study by by XpertHR, two-thirds of the organisations that it questioned have taken steps to prune training expenditure […]

News: Budget cuts see public servants improvise to get training

Public sector workers are being forced to turn to colleagues and the web to boost the skills that they require to take on new responsibilities, after budget cuts have led to workplace training provision being slashed. According to a survey among 1,100 UK public sector workers undertaken by recruitment consultancy, Badenoch & Clark, about 14.5% are […]

News: Whitehall contractor status crackdown mauled for ‘missing the point’

 Plans outlined by the chief secretary to the Treasury to crack down on 2,000 senior civil servants who are being paid as if they were contractors rather than staff have been criticised by industry experts. The coalition government started to investigate the issue, which has been branded in some quarters as tax evasion, in February […]

News: Temp hiring on the up as employers continue to shed permanent jobs

Despite the UK moving into double-dip recession, a report suggests that there has been a healthy upswing in temporary hiring among organisations in the financial services, commerce and industry and public sectors.  The 33% jump in the first quarter of this year compared with the latter quarter of 2011 was caused by businesses shedding permanent staff […]

News: UK’s long-term unemployment levels could ‘trigger social unrest’

The UK’s high levels of long-term unemployment could lead to widespread social unrest as people become progressively alienated from society, according to a study. Therefore, the research entitled ‘World of Work Report 2012’, which was undertaken by the United Nation’s International Labour Organisation, warned that the coalition government should prepare for a repeat of scenes […]

Talent Spot: Donna Miller, European HR director at Enterprise Rent-A-Car

Ask Donna Miller, European HR director at car rental firm Enterprise Rent-A-Car, what she does for a living and you may get a rather surprising answer. “I’ve always been a very sales-oriented person and when people ask me what I do, depending on whether it’s in Enterprise or outside, I’ll often say I’m in sales,” […]

News: Charities and spooks replace financial services on employer wishlist

Financial services firms have dropped off the list of top ten graduate employers for the first time as organisations that aim to have a positive impact on society such as charities knocked them off their perch. The Guardian’s UK 300 poll, in which more than 25,000 UK students voted for their most desirable employer, revealed […]

SMEs refuse staff extra day’s holiday for Diamond Jubilee weekend

Two thirds of small-and-medium-sized companies are refusing to give employees an extra day’s holiday to honour the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, research has revealed. According to the poll of 700 SMEs by business support services company Elas, 62% intend to either open as usual or force staff to take the extra day on Tuesday 5 June […]

Mental ill-health issues cost employers £30 billion per year

Mental ill-health issues cost the UK economy £30 billion each year in lost productivity, half of which results from people taking a total of 91 million days off work, according to a charity. The Centre for Mental Health indicated that the other £15 billion was accounted for by employees turning up for work when they […]

Blog: What economic impact is ‘gross national happiness’ likely to have?

Happiness is a tangible outcome! Because of my commitment to great people management and engagement, I was heartened to discover that the UN conference on happiness and wellbeing which began in New York City on 2nd April came to the conclusion that good performance on GNP (Gross National Product) didn’t automatically mean that GNH (Gross National […]

EC campaign unveiled to promote funded international work placements

The European Commission is to unveil its ‘We Mean Business’ campaign tomorrow in a bid to encourage employers to offer fully-funded international work placements to young people. The aim of the move is to boost young people’s skills and employability at a time of high youth unemployment across Europe.   To this end, the EC […]

Graduate starting salaries lowest for nearly a decade

Graduate starting salaries are predicted to drop to their lowest in real terms for almost a decade because it is currently a “buyer’s market”, researchers have revealed. According to a survey of more than 100 employers conducted by Incomes Data Services, nine out of ten that run graduate recruitment schemes plan to freeze pay over […]

Does affirmative action in recruitment work?

Affirmative action in the jobs market, while illegal in the UK, has been key to helping cut US unemployment rates among African-Americans, research has revealed. According to a paper presented at the British Sociological Association’s annual conference in Leeds today, one in 12 black Britons is currently unemployed compared with just one in 16 over […]

Employers shun temps in wake of Agency Worker Regs

Just over six months after the Agency Worker Regulations first appeared, initial findings seem to indicate that they are bringing about three key shifts in the employment market. While the legislation, which came into force on 1 October 2011, is pushing some employers towards taking staff on permanently, it is encouraging others to hire excluded […]

Chancellor ‘shocked’ by millionaires’ tax avoidance schemes

The chancellor has expressed shock after looking at the tax returns of multi-millionaires who have exploited loopholes to legally cut their bills with HM Revenue & Customs. Although the move could be considered political posturing after a couple of tough weeks for the coalition government over the ‘granny’ and ‘pasty’ tax furores, it does prepare the ground for the […]

Do UK workers get too many bank holidays?

The two Easter bank holidays just gone cost the UK economy £4.7 billion, with the figure rising to a huge £19 billion if all eight annual breaks are taken into consideration. According to the Centre for Economics and Business Research, if the country’s regular bank holidays were axed, annual GDP would rise by 1.3% as […]

Experts welcome two-year freeze on skilled migrant cap

 Experts have welcomed the coalition government’s decision to freeze the skilled migrant cap for two years, saying that the move will give employers more “certainty” and access to the specialist talent they require. Rather than reduce the current annual limit for the number of skilled non-EU workers allowed to enter the UK, the Home Office […]