News Analysis: The HCM battle begins – Will HRDs finally get technology they like using?
The human capital management software market was always going to be a turbulent place in 2012. The battle lines were to be drawn by Oracle rolling out its next generation Fusion applications, while Software-as-a-Service specialist Workday continued its attempts to steal away customers with ageing PeopleSoft systems from under Oracle’s nose. But last week, […]
More private sector collaboration will lead to brain drain, warn public sector bosses
Increased collaboration with the private sector will harm staff morale and and mean that key skills, experience and knowledge is lost, public sector bosses have warned. Although leaders are bracing themselves for significant increases in public-private sector collaboration over the next few years, the majority have big doubts over the likely success of such a […]
Pressure rises on banks for more pay transparency
Any large bank operating in the UK could be forced to disclose the pay packages of its eight highest-paid, non-board level executives in a bid to tackle “unacceptable” bonus levels in the City. The Coalition Government launched a consultation yesterday on the proposed new rules, which would come into force in 2012 in order to […]
Blog: The golden thread – aligning HR and business strategy
I once worked with an organisation that had introduced a Value Chain methodology. So far so good. But they had made the critical error of trying to pigeonhole HR into one of the ‘links’ in the chain, instead of realising that HR is a support function that, by definition, underpins everything that the company does. […]
News Analysis: ‘Glimmers of hope’ for jobs market as incomes set to drop
While there are “glimmers of hope” that the jobs market may revive somewhat over the next year, real household incomes are in contrast expected to fall by 7.4% over the next 36 months. The Recruitment & Employment Confederation’s JobsOutlook report for November, which is based on a survey of 600 employers, revealed that, although employers […]
HRD Insight: Dan Grant on Dell’s ‘Connected Workplace’ scheme
As job roles become increasingly global and Generation Y progressively enters the workforce, Dell’s aim in introducing its ‘Connected Workplace’ initiative was to continue being able to attract and retain staff. The initiative, which was initially piloted in the UK from November 2009 into early 2010, was rolled out across Europe, the Middle East and […]
Talent Spot: Ann Pickering, HR director at O2
Ann Pickering, HR director at mobile phone operator, O2, is very clear about her role. “I am a business person first and an HR person second,” she says. It’s a message that she makes sure her almost 100-strong UK HR team understands. Commercial acumen is a vital ingredient to being a top-level HR professional, she […]
Staff engagement: Systems versus the human factor
It is only natural that HR professionals are interested in better ways of managing the workforce. As a result, scarcely a week goes by without an advertisement or article on the topic of retention, engagement, motivation and/or talent management appearing somewhere. Systems are recommended to HR departments to help them understand, measure and generate […]
Blog: Top tips for presenting with panache
Many of us are called upon to present in the modern workplace, whether it’s a formal presentation to hundreds, a business briefing to your department or simply at a small meeting around a table. Presenting and presentations can take many forms. Being a good presenter in front of your staff builds your status and garners […]
Creating a sunny workplace ‘climate’
It is widely accepted that effective leaders are critical to organisational success. But in times of economic uncertainty, when confidence is low and even short-term predictions are impossible, a good leader comes into their own. Right now, all across Europe, organisations are depending on their managers to ensure that they continue to perform in the […]
Talent Spot: Damian Hughes, HR author, speaker and consultant
HR practitioners know the value of having a varied CV. But in the case of Damian Hughes, now running his own consultancy Liquid Thinker, varied doesn’t appear to do justice to the eclectic mix of careers and experiences that he’s amassed – and all before turning 40. Hughes has been a footballer and Manchester United […]
Blog: Why you should stop motivating staff
Recognise This! – Factors that serve to demotivate employees are stronger than those that motivate them. For decades, “good” managers have concerned themselves with how to motivate employees – how to encourage their employees to give their best. New research from Jim Collins, co-author of Good to Great and Great by Choice, offers a […]
Blog: A new role for HR?
Every year we bring together key thinkers in the HR Profession for the Ochre House HR Directors Annual Symposium and this year, they certainly didn’t fail to impress. The subject for the day was Redefining Business Value Through a Talent Centric Approach and it wasn’t long before the room was buzzing with conversation. One […]
Communication: the secret to recruitment success
Does your hiring process actually lose you candidates? How do you manage something that is effectively intangible and immeasurable? From an executive recruitment consultant’s perspective, how organisations deal with those quiet times while waiting for an internal decision or response about a prospective hire can be just as important to the relationship as how the […]
CEO Video Insight: NetApp UK’s Dave Allen on staff engagement
At the end of October, data storage firm NetApp was named number three in Fortune magazine’s list of top 25 multinational companies to work at. The firm, which employs 500 people in the UK and Ireland, is headed by managing director Dave Allen. He speaks to us here about how the organisation has tried to […]
Attrition rates for contact centre staff leap
Attrition rates for contact centre agents are on the up again after three years of decline, but are forecast to keep on rising into the foreseeable future. According to contact centre industry analysts, ContactBabel, the mean annual turnover rate for UK call centre staff increased to 21% in 2011 from a six-year low of 16% […]
CIPD Conference: Developing business savvy
Because HR’s fundamental role is to support sustainable organisational performance, being able to demonstrate business, contextual and organisational savvy is vital – and becoming more so as companies become increasingly complex. This is the key finding of a panel discussion entitled ‘Giving HR the Business Edge: how HR can drive impact and influence’, which took […]
CIPD Conference: ‘No one-size-fits-all for leadership practices’
Despite the abundance of formulas to identify what makes a good leader, the problem is that each one has different competencies and, therefore, leads in quite different ways. This means, said Marcus Buckingham in his keynote speech at the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development’s annual conference in Manchester this week, that trying to transfer […]
CIPD Conference: People management key to Tesco’s success, says Leahy
Tesco’s success has been based on good people management and the simple act of giving workers what they want, believes Sir Terry Leahy, former chief executive of the supermarket chain. In his keynote speech at the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development in Manchester this week, he said that employees fundamentally desired four key things: […]
Talent Spot: David Smith, HR director at LV=
When David Smith, HR and communications director at LV=, first joined the UK’s largest friendly society he was faced with the ultimate challenge: a blank sheet of paper. At that point, in 2008, the company had outsourced its entire HR function. Smith’s first job was to bring HR back in-house. It was a time of […]