Lessons from Olympians: Seb Coe, the ultimate expert-turned-leader
The concept of an expert becoming a leader is scarcely unexplored territory. But the focus is usually on the skills that the erstwhile expert needs to acquire and demonstrate as they move from one role – and mind-set – to another. There are other attributes that are just as critical to the success, not […]
Case Study: LV= focuses on staff enagement to negotiate change
LV= (London Victoria) has nearly tripled its workforce from 2,000 employees in 2007 to 5,600 in 2012 and now insures one in 10 cars on the road. But its HR director, David Smith, recognises that such fast growth can foster uncertainty and anxiety as well as generate cultural change that is not always positive. […]
News: UK employers do little to tackle poor internal management skills
Even though the vast majority of UK businesses believe that their performance is at risk of being held back by a shortage of skilled managers, all too few are doing anything much about it. According to a survey conducted among 750 managers with responsibility for talent management by the Institute of Leadership & Management, the […]
Diary of a misfit: For hire – One creative/HR director hybrid
I am a misfit, a freak of nature, the result of a three-year HR experiment gone badly wrong. Either that or I am the future, a ground-breaking trailblazer to lead HR into a new era. I’m not sure which – and this is why I need your help. You see, after more […]
News: Surrey contract bidders asked to offer NEET apprenticeships
Contractors bidding to work for Surrey County Council are being asked to hire apprentices in an effort to combat the high number of young people currently not in education, employment or training. The move comes only weeks after the local authority pledged to create a £3,000 pot to fund apprenticeship places at small-to-medium enterprises for […]
News: Clear link between HR effectiveness and financial growth – study
Organisations with an effective HR function generate revenues that are up to 3.5 times higher and profits that are about 2.1 times greater than rivals, according to research. These are the key findings of a survey among more than 4,200 HR and non-HR managers based in over 100 countries across the world conducted by The […]
Blog: Four considerations when learning to manage upwards
“I need to talk to you about an employee that I am having trouble with.” Like a lot of you, I get calls all the time with people that want to bounce things off of me. I also volunteer my HR services to non-profits. This statement came from a founding member of the non-profit […]
Talent Spot: Community blogger, Dianne Bown-Wilson
People are living longer, the overall population is aging and people are going to be working for longer. Everyone knows these facts and yet employers and workers alike are struggling to deal with them. But Dianne Bown-Wilson set up a consultancy, in my prime, to address these very issues, providing advice, strategic guidance and […]
Blog: The 10 most effective ways to lose your team’s respect
Sometimes the best way to eliminate bad habits in leadership is to see them parodied. So in that spirit, here are the ten quickest ways to ensure your team are demotivated and your leadership is always in question: 1. Always over react, rather than not react So something has gone wrong and you’re not […]
How to administer pay cuts in times of austerity
Last week, Reuters reported that the Spanish royal family, surrounded by high unemployment and scenes of public workers striking, had offered to take a pay cut. The move is intended to reduce the €8.3 million annual cost to Spanish taxpayers of keeping them by some €100,000. Leading the way is the Spanish King, Juan […]
Christina’s Counsel: Managing attitude problems remotely
The challenge An HR client recently asked me for advice about how to tackle a situation that may become more commonplace as managing staff remotely increasingly becomes the norm. A manager raised concerns about a team member who worked some 75 miles away in a satellite office. Until recently, the office had been manned […]
Blog: The power of story-telling
“Once upon a time …” You say those words to any child and they visually go into a trance. These were the words that were always used to tell a story. When my children were small, my wife would give them their bath and I was the story teller. I would come into the […]
Talent Spot: Philippe Ferrie, head of HR at Vallourec
When a global company has a decentralised culture, it can be hard to persuade people to accept standardisation that is handed down from head office, even if it makes their work lives easier. This was the situation that Philippe Ferrie, worldwide employee relations coordinator at Vallourec, found himself in when the company chose to implement […]
Talking Point: Is it better to outsource training or offer it in-house?
Although employee performance may have improved over the last two years, individuals are still not working to their full potential, a recent poll of HR directors revealed. With the economic climate as it is, however, it is clear that employers must ensure that they get the most out of the talent they already have. […]
How to tackle your first 100 days as HR director – Part 1
We live in a rapidly changing world in which the political and economic outlook for the next 12 months is very unclear. In this unstable commercial environment, uncertainty about the future feeds a growing sense of urgency in the here and now. As a result, judgments are made much more quickly. This means that […]
News: Shop floor workers make better leaders than general managers
Bosses who have experience of working on the shop floor make better leaders than career general managers, research has found. A study conducted by London’s Cass Business School and the University of Sheffield, in which academics analysed every Formula One race – almost 18,000 – that had been staged over the last 60 years, […]
News: Police forces consider canning G4S shared services deal
Three UK police forces are reportedly evaluating whether to drop joint plans to outsource 1,100 back office jobs to G4S following its Olympic security staffing debacle. According to the Guardian, the chief constables of Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire and Cambridgeshire police met yesterday and agreed to rethink the move. It was stated only last month that […]
News: Olympics troops sleep on chairs, while civilians get luxury cruise liner
While thousands of civilian workers will be housed in luxury cruise liners during the Olympics, military personnel drafted in following the G4S staffing debacle are sleeping on chairs and camp beds in makeshift accommodation. Photographs of Royal Navy troops from HMS Northumberland, which were published on Twitter by ‘CombatCameraman’ and have since gone viral, show […]
Talent Spot: Eivind Slaaen, Hilti’s head of people and culture development
For Eivind Slaaen, head of people and culture development at Hilti, creating the right company environment is imperative. But the irony is that, although developing culture is at heart of what his department does, such activity is considered a line management issue rather than an HR one. “I have HR colleagues who struggle with […]
Book Review: Management in 10 words by Terry Leahy
This book by the recently retired chief executive of Tesco is worth reviewing simply because he is among the most successful leaders of his generation. As Terry Leahy tells us early on, Tesco was struggling to compete with more successful retailers such as Marks & Spencer and Sainsbury’s when he joined the company’s board. […]
