Do your managers want to manage?
Do your managers love managing people or have they been promoted for their technical skills despite lacking people skills? With many businesses today tightening the purse strings on L&D, it’s important that you invest in the right people for the job. When was the last time you asked your managers if they want to manage? Have […]
How to earn employee trust in your business
In the opening keynote of CIPD’s Annual Conference and Exhibition 2018, award-winning author, speaker and lecturer Rachel Botsman explored the value of trust in today’s society. Opening up the 2018 CIPD conference, Rachel Botsman, author of ‘Who Can You Trust’ and ‘What’s Mine is Yours’, explored how little we really know about trust, how bad […]
Are you a horrible boss? How to tell if your team is engaged
You may think you’re a good manager, but have you sat down with each member of your team and directly asked? The answers you recieve may difficult to swallow, but they will also be key to improving your team’s engagement and productivity. No one sets out to become a bad boss. However, it is almost inevitable […]
Come on, just get on and do it! Breaking apart a broken organisational structure
Blaire Palmer is CEO of That People Thing, a consultancy dedicated to inspiring leaders in fast-paced, ambitious businesses to drive change in their organisations in partnership with their people. Blaire has been described as a “secret weapon”, a “business muse” and “that lady who does the leadership and team stuff”. She is a regular guest expert […]
Do transformational leaders make you sick?
There’s so much rich insight coming out of the academic sector that HR professionals need to know. At Academics’ Corner we feature the best HR researchers that tell you what they’ve found and what you need to do differently on the back of the research. Transformational leaders communicate a clear positive vision for their teams […]
Leadership: six reasons why HR should be considered in top level management
For too long HR professionals have been denied a seat the top table – but it’s time that people skills took centre stage in the boardroom again. Let’s face it, and if we were to be strict about it, there is only one reason why HR should be considered in top level management and it’s […]
The secret about disciplinary investigations that HR professionals won’t tell you
No names, no job titles, no companies. HR After Dark features totally anonymised opinion pieces from HR professionals, consultants and industry commentators. No holds barred, no censorship, nothing but raw opinions on issues that matter to HR. OK so here it is. Are you listening? Are you prepared to (maybe) be a little bit shocked […]
People management: how to create a psychologically safe environment at work
How psychologically safe is your workplace? If you want to attract and retain valuable team members, it’s time to get to grips with this. Psychological safety, in a work capacity, is all about creating environments in which employees feel accepted and respected. There are ways to identify if your workplace is psychologically safe or unsafe. […]
Five ways for women to take the reins on their leadership development
In addition to the demanding tasks and huge responsibility placed on all leaders, women leaders have additional challenges to contend with. Here are five ways to approach these obstacles and develop further in your leadership role. My niece has just co-written a brand new BBC book Doctor Who: The Women Who Lived, Amazing Tales for […]
Why showing up as the best version of yourself will help your career
Feeling the pressure to fit in? Here are eight steps to help you show up as the best version of yourself. “I just didn’t fit in. I felt awkward, uncomfortable and different, somehow marginalised in the meeting. I really want to talk about it.” These were the initial words that a client shared with me at her […]
Leadership tips: why managers must put ‘care’ at the heart of their people strategy
Economic volatility, rapid technological change and political uncertainty have created a challenging environment for business in recent years, which is why the issue of care is more important than ever before when it comes to managing employees. Care in business? Why in a business context, would we need to mention care? At first glance this […]
Is there gender bias in your leadership, talent and promotion criteria?
Research shows that women need to work harder, smarter and for longer than men to get appointed into leadership roles. In order to break away from this deeply ingrained bias towards male leaders, businesses need to reassess their process and criteria for promoting talent. According to Cranfield University 29 per cent of FTSE 100 directors (executive and […]
Gender pay gap reporting – now what?
It’s been six months since the Gender Pay Gap reporting deadline – and we’re all familar with the findings. But beyond the reporting, what steps should businesses be taking to get more women into higher paid roles? On the 4th April 2018, over 10,000 companies provided mandatory data on their gender* pay gap based on six key calculations. […]
How unconscious bias means that we get in our own way
Are women’s own unconscious biases stopping them from pursuing what they truly want in their lives? Businesses are certainly beginning to understand how unconscious bias means that some groups of people may have to ‘jump higher’ for certain roles within their companies. What is talked about less is another, more internalised, form of bias. The […]
Why leaders need to put on their oxygen mask and take care of themselves
If leaders don’t look after their own wellbeing first and foremost, they won’t have the capacity to care for their people and organisation properly. It might seem counter-intuitive, in a world where ‘servant-leadership’ is widely recognised as a concept, to write an article about why leaders need to look after themselves. This article came about […]
Tame your inner-critic: how self-criticism limits employee productivity
Do you have an inner critic? Here’s how your negative, self-doubting thoughts can play out in the workplace and impact productivity. Over the past ten years of working with employees at different points in their career (leaders and managers included), it has struck me that we all experience, to some degree at some point in […]
Why a ‘snowplough’ leadership team will deliver results
What has snowploughing got to do with successful leadership? Vishal Chhatralia, Vice President of Digital Marketing at RS Components, offers his thoughts. ‘Snowplough’. Not usually a word used to refer to a workplace leadership team, but in this instance it works. Right now you’re probably wondering: what does that mean? And also, how can I […]
Book review – The Business of Excellence: Building High-performance Teams and Organisations
HRZone has a range of books available for review. If you would like to receive one of our business books, free of charge, please contact the editor on editor at hrzone dot com and we can send you a list of what’s available. In return, we ask for a 400-700 word review of the book, its […]
HR books for review: what has HRZone got available?
HRZone has a range of books available for review. If you would like to receive one of our business books, free of charge, please contact the editor on editor at hrzone dot com and let us know what you’re interested in. In return, we ask for a 400-700 word review of the book, its content […]
Small company super-glue: how to grow up without growing apart
A micro business doesn’t need to talk about culture to have it perfectly formed. When you are a bunch of folks starting-up, you’ll have found a very natural super-glue. As a business owner scaling up, sticking together is altogether harder. Here is how to navigate from micro-business into fully-fledged SME without losing the magic of […]