HP axes second leader in a year
Hewlett-Packard was subject to more top-level upheaval today after announcing that the former head of eBay was to replace incumbent Leo Apotheker as president and chief executive, less than a year after he took the job. The high tech giant has appointed Meg Whitman, who has been a member of its board since January, as […]
Talent Spot: Nicholas Connell, head of HR at The Antique Wine Company
“Understand your colleagues and their individual motivations. Take the time to get to know them and how they react and that will help you in motivating them too,” advises Nicholas Connell, commercial manager at the Antique Wine Company. Connell, who qualified and began working as a commercial property lawyer five years ago, took on his […]
Microsoft paid £1 million to silence female exec passed over for top UK job
Microsoft paid more than £1 million to silence a female executive who allegedly was unfairly passed over for the top job at its UK arm. According to the Telegraph, Natalie Ayres – a married mother who had worked at the high tech firm for 15 years – missed out on getting the managing director’s post […]
HRD Insight: Paul Duncan on managing change at Swissport
When I joined Swissport International as interim HR director in December 2008, the UK arm of the €1.3bn airport ground services business was in the initial stages of a turnaround. This activity was being led by chief executive Mark Faulkner, who had arrived two months earlier from another company in the Ferrovial group, which was […]
Richard Branson’s ex-PA on the art of delegation
Mastering the art of effective delegation is essential to success, believes Penni Pike, who was executive assistant to high-profile Virgin boss, Sir Richard Branson, for 31 years. Making the decision to delegate so that you can get on with the important parts of your job is a great first step, but just exactly how do […]
Blog: Lessons from Yahoo – where was HR?
“I am very sad to tell you that I’ve just been fired over the phone by Yahoo’s Chairman of the Board,” Carol Bartz wrote to her company’s workforce. “These people f***** me over.” “Why don’t you have the balls to tell me yourself?” “The board was so spooked by being cast as the worst board […]
Talent Spot: Michael Stirrup, head of HR at Waterstons
Stepping into an HR director’s shoes for the first time is a steep learning curve for anyone, but for Michael Stirrup, it has been more precipitous than most. For this is his first HR position and it supplements his usual day job of finance director. Over the five years that Stirrup has been employed […]
Microsoft loses second top US manager amid fresh UK revelations
Microsoft has lost its second high profile US director in as many weeks amid fresh revelations of inappropriate executive behaviour during its UK High Court battle over sexual harassment claims. According to the Daily Telegraph, Linda Zecher, a board member and vice president of the software giant’s worldwide public sector business, shocked colleagues when she […]
Blog: Should HR take responsibility for the phone hacking scandal?
The British tabloid News of the World generated headlines recently after its reporters were found to have routinely hacked into the cell phones of celebrities and murder victims. News Corporation, which owned the newspaper, shut it down after other news organizations found a pattern of wrong-doing among journalists and an out-of-control, anything-goes corporate culture. But […]
Talent Spot: Guy Pink, HR director of Addaction
Knowing your company helps saves lives is a pretty good motivator for getting up and going to work each day. Guy Pink, HR director of drug and alcohol treatment charity, Addaction, may not be on the front line providing counselling or advice, but he plays a vital supporting role, ensuring that the charity creates […]
Blog: HR must not let uninspiring company cultures set in
Some news that shocked me last week was that which described how over 300,000 children live in homes where no-one had any experience of work. It seems strange to think that so many children could be living in an environment where work is so alien. When this type of culture becomes established it can be […]
Female unemployment to jump again from 23-year high
Even as it became clear that Lord Davies’ boardroom gender targets were being ignored by most UK companies, the TUC warned that female unemployment rates were set to jump further from current 23-year highs. An analysis of official statistics undertaken by the union umbrella organisation revealed that, because the number of women employed in the […]
Holcim cements behaviour metrics into leadership development scheme
Evidence suggests that HR-sponsored leadership development programmes that are deemed to be high quality are 20 times more likely to measure performance than those rated as ineffective. Despite this, however, only 5% of organisations are able to provide meaningful metrics that effectively demonstrate a correlation between HR and business performance. But if HR is […]
New boss hacks back on Everything Everywhere management team
The new boss of mobile phone company Everything Everywhere marked his first day in the job by wiping out half of his management team including two senior HR executives. Olaf Swantee, chief executive of the company, which was created out of the merger of Orange and T-Mobile last year, announced yesterday that he had hacked […]
Leadership development programmes not up to snuff in too many organisations
Just under a quarter of HR professionals believe that their leadership development programmes are ‘highly effective’, while about one in five admit that they are useless. But according to research from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development and talent management consultancy, DDI, about a third of UK leaders rate the quality of leadership in […]
Female bosses to wait a century for equal pay, says CMI
Female bosses in the UK will need to wait nearly a century to be paid the same as their male counterparts, although women are already earning more than men in the most junior management positions. These are the key findings of a poll undertaken among 34,158 executives by XpertHR on behalf of the Chartered Management […]
Tate trustees take action to stop bullying
Complaints of bullying by managers has led the Tate galleries to issue a directive pointing out that staff have a right to work in a safe place “free from harassment or discrimination of any kind”. According to the Independent, the problem was considered so serious that the organisation’s trustees, who are appointed by the Prime […]
Blog: Apple loses Jobs – so what does it mean for the people?
When one of the world’s most celebrated business leaders announces plans to make a move, the focus is all too often on shares and customer impact, but little is mentioned about the impact it will have on the people within the organisation. When Steve Jobs announced he is standing down as chief executive at Apple, […]
Blog: Workplace relationships – just like in personal life, you want a good match
“You were too aggressive and I do not like aggressive.” My wife and I laughed so hard that I almost had to pull over on the side of the road with laughter. On Friday, my wife Janetta and I celebrated 39 years of marriage. The line above was referring to when we first met […]
Horrible bosses: how to spot them and handle them
The difference between an authentic leader and a horrible boss would appear obvious. But it’s not correct to say it all boils down to behaviour because some of the most authentic leaders I know are capable of behaving ‘poorly’ at times, says Gareth Chick, a director at Spring Partnerships. The fundamental difference for me is […]