Government plans to drop maternity for SMEs and weaken bribery act revealed
The UK government plans to exempt foreign companies listed on the London stock exchange from Bribery Act prosecution and remove maternity and paternity protections for small businesses with fewer than 10 employees. These proposals risk breaching OECD commitments and EU law, potentially creating international conflicts over regulatory standards.
Asda launches leadership programme
Asda is launching a company-wide leadership programme training 10,000 UK managers through specially-designed activities aimed at embedding the retailer’s vision and values. The initiative comes as research reveals one in four managers have knowingly breached professional conduct guidelines at work.
Redeploying employees – how to develop a successful strategy
Learn how organisations can redeploy employees effectively during restructuring to minimise redundancy costs. Discover structural mapping techniques, skills assessment tools, and strategies for matching employees to new roles within the company.
Help your boss manage – by managing them
Managing upwards—proactively supporting your boss—improves workplace effectiveness. Research shows employees should help managers listen better, acknowledge mistakes, and solve problems collaboratively rather than dismissively, using constructive feedback techniques to build trust.
Addressing skills gaps in project management
Project managers often lack critical skills beyond their formal qualifications, leading to project failures. HR and L&D professionals can address these gaps by defining role requirements, assessing current skills, implementing targeted training, and reassessing competency levels to ensure project success.
Good relations with MD helps retain talent
Strong relationships between managing directors and staff help reduce employee turnover in Scottish and Northern English SMEs, with staff churn rates lowest where managers view workers as friends rather than colleagues, according to new research.
Recession agression – HR managers are getting tougher to demonstrate greater ROI
As the UK emerges from recession, HR managers face increased pressure to demonstrate measurable return on investment and align people strategies with business objectives. Senior HR professionals must balance traditional workforce empowerment with results-driven accountability, managing costs while retaining talented staff.
David Fairhurst’s decade in HR: How HR earned its place at the top table
Over the past decade, HR has transformed from a supporting function to a strategic leadership role within major corporations. As business accelerated and information became more accessible, HR professionals established themselves as essential to organizational strategy by instilling company values, empowering managers, and developing structured employee learning programs.
Mediation: an essential skill for today’s leaders
Mediation training equips HR professionals and leaders with essential conflict resolution skills, enabling them to address workplace disputes effectively and proactively. This approach prevents conflicts from escalating into formal grievances, protecting productivity and employee relationships during uncertain times.
Happy workers have a sense of shared purpose
A shared sense of purpose between employers and workers significantly boosts employee engagement, job satisfaction, and organizational performance. According to a CIPD survey, 84% of workers in organizations with shared purpose felt engaged compared to 32% without it, while lack of purpose clarity led to demotivation and reduced productivity.
More than half don’t measure training impact
Over half of organizations fail to measure their training programs’ business impact due to lack of resources and qualified personnel. The study of 412 L&D decision-makers revealed confusion about what to assess and insufficient understanding of measurement methodologies as key barriers.
Survey: Shared services – more with less?
Shared services are increasingly seen as a cost-cutting solution for public sector organisations facing austerity pressures. Despite historical challenges around cultural differences and data ownership, councils and public bodies are collaborating to achieve savings, with examples like London’s “super-council” merger targeting £100 million in annual savings.
Two-thirds poor at leadership development
Over two-thirds of global employers admit poor leadership development practices, despite recognizing its importance for managing growth and international expansion. A new IBM survey of 700 HR executives reveals that successful companies are 57% more likely to use collaboration tools and analytics to support global teams and develop future leaders.
SMEs the place to be, say interim managers
Interim managers increasingly prefer working for small-to-medium-sized businesses over large corporations, even accepting 50% lower pay, according to new research. They cite benefits like less bureaucracy, faster decision-making, and greater job satisfaction, while becoming more open to performance-related compensation.
UK managers lack leadership skills
A UK study reveals that British managers rank 17th globally for leadership effectiveness, scoring only 47% compared to India’s 72%. The research identifies communication, fairness, and employee engagement as critical traits of effective leaders, with management quality significantly impacting staff engagement levels.
Uncertainty despite private sector coming up with jobs
Private sector job creation is offsetting public sector cuts, with employers showing a net positive hiring outlook of +11. However, uncertainty about 2011 prospects has made employers cautious, with public sector expected to shed 14% of workforce on average.
Charities must improve leadership talent to tackle global challenges effectively
International charities need stronger leadership development and talent management to address global challenges like climate change and humanitarian crises effectively. Research shows NGOs must improve inter-agency cooperation, organizational innovation, and responsiveness while developing managers capable of working across borders with international partners.
Leadership styles – What can HR learn from The Apprentice?
The Apprentice TV show demonstrates critical HR lessons about ineffective leadership, including aggressive management styles, micromanaging, refusing feedback, and failure to engage teams in decision-making. HR professionals can learn what not to do by analyzing contestants’ poor leadership approaches and understand how successful leaders embrace feedback and build trust.
Leadership matters: A general manager problem
A general manager’s dramatic personality change has left senior managers questioning her leadership style, with one recent incident involving the public dismissal of an HR manager’s concerns raising concerns about potential bullying. Judith Germain advises on navigating this challenging workplace situation through informal and formal resolution routes.
Companies continue with ex-pat execs despite downsides
Companies plan to significantly increase expatriate assignments to emerging markets like China and India over the next five years, despite challenges in finding suitable candidates and managing remote operations effectively.
