The agile employer: helping employees fit the job
Employers regularly complain they can’t find the right people for the roles they have: however, there is rarely a ‘perfect’ candidate. So what’s the solution to make a person ‘fit’? The most recent unemployment figures from the Office for National Statistics is a stark reality of recession. The number of unemployed people has increased by […]
Employees would choose training over free time
The majority of personnel would be willing to give up their free time to undertake training in a bid to boost their salaries and help them fulfil their potential, according to new research. A study undertaken among 2,200 employees in the UK, France, Spain and Germany by learning and development provider Cegos found that 76% […]
Budget must invest to tackle skills gap
An employer’s body has called on the coalition government to invest in skills training ahead of next week’s emergency Budget to help the manufacturing industry tackle skills gaps and fill 3,500 job vacancies. Proskills, the Sector Skills Council for the Process and Manufacturing sector, said that, while it was not expecting blanket subsidies, it believed […]
World Cup fever: Keep calm and carry on, says CMI
A management body has moved to calm employer fears that the World Cup could cost them £1 billion in lost productivity, but staff themselves are showing mixed responses as to whether they intend to put football or their jobs first. According to research undertaken by the Chartered Management Institute, some 54% of UK bosses are […]
Wales gets WISE with sustainable training
Wales has had a good week in terms of training opportunities following the opening of an institute to deliver learning in new environmental technologies and the provision of funding to teach traditional conservation skills. Jane Davidson, Welsh Assembly Minister for the Environment, opened the Wales Institute for Sustainable Education (WISE) yesterday, which will specialise in […]
Recession successes invested in training
Even though there is a direct link between investment in learning and development and financial performance, nearly half of all UK employers made cost-cutting rather than innovation in this area a priority during the recession. According to a survey, among 200 learning and development (L&D) professionals in organisations with more than 1,000 staff, undertaken by […]
Training talk but no action leaves business at risk
While employers recognise the importance of training to help them achieve strategic investment, the number taking action fell last year in a move that could put economic recovery at risk, warns a specialist. According to business lobby group the CBI, nearly two thirds of the 694 organisations questioned for its ‘Ready to grow: business priorities […]
Train to reduce turnover
While finding ways to ensure an effective work-life balance is the most important factor in keeping hold of older IT workers, training is the key to younger employees’ hearts. These are the finding of new research commissioned by IT and management training provider Global Knowledge and high tech web site, TechRepublic. The study found that […]
Lack of clinician training a danger to NHS
The new government must protect the future of the NHS by acting to prevent the further erosion of clinicians’ training budgets, a junior doctors’ leader has warned. As a result, Dr Shree Datta, chair of the British Medical Association’s (BMA) Junior Doctors Committee, said that the government needs to “plan properly” in order to ensure […]
Sainsbury’s suppliers to offer skills training to unemployed
Sainsbury’s has struck a deal with 60 of its suppliers to train 100 unemployed people in trades that are currently suffering from underinvestment and skills shortages. The Sainsbury’s Supplier Trainee Partnerships scheme will provide successful applicants with a 12-month paid contract to work for one of the supermarket chain’s key suppliers in construction, engineering, facilities […]
How do you teach a new line manager to manage?
Imagine you are two or three years into your career: knowledgeable, confident and well regarded within the organisation. What’s next? Maybe a promotion with a team, more responsibility and a pay rise? Though alongside these come new pressures, a new way of working and the need to use a different type of skills. How […]
No training = no motivation
Employees are willing to leave a job if decent training is not provided, according to research from the Home Learning College. A survey conducted among 3,000 British workers showed that 19% have left a job due to a lack of relevant training. At the same time, almost half (49%) said relevant training would help […]
Organisational development – a schizophrenic profession?
Organisational Development (OD) is not so much a discipline as the application of accumulated experience of dealing with differing theories, practices and models. Chris Nutt tackles the tangled web. This often involves considering two or more apparently contradictory theories at the same time. When those theories involve different value sets and stress opposite attitudinal features, […]
Are you sitting comfortably?
Most employees asked these days would probably answer yes: companies invest hundreds of thousands of pounds in high quality adjustable chairs with ergonomic desks all complying to the latest legislation, so why are muscular skeletal problems still the biggest cause of sickness absence in the UK today and on the rise? The modern day workstation […]
‘Time to Train’ is now in force
Employees working in organisations with 250 or more staff are, from 6 April, eligible to request time off under the Time to Train scheme, which will be extended to all employees from April 2011. Legal changes have come into effect from 6 April 2010, which give employees the right to request time for study […]
Win an athlete at work™ development programme!
What you can win: The athlete at work™ K2’s athlete at work™ programme takes what elite athletes know about performance and applies it to the business world. There’s no mumbo-jumbo; the athlete at work™ simply makes the secrets of world-class performance available to key performers in the corporate arena. With the right skills, tools and […]
Identify the right skills and the skill gaps
Third in our series about workforce planning, discover how to identify skills and skill gaps in your organisation with a handy 'can do' chart. George Blair takes you through it… The story so far… We saw how to improve customer care, by matching staff more closely to customers in age, gender and ethnicity, in the […]
Manufacturing must retrain to stay competitive
The manufacturing and process industry has called on the government to invest directly in retraining its workforce to cope with new technology in order to help pull the sector out of recession and ensure that it remains competitive in world markets. Proskills, the Sector Skills Council for the industry, has got together with the […]
Train and gain or snooze and lose
Dwindling levels of investment in training must rise this year if UK employers are to remain competitive on a global basis as the economy starts to emerge from recession, an expert has warned. According to the National Employer Skills Survey (NESS) for England undertaken among 79,152 organisations and commissioned by the UK Commission for Employment […]
Legal briefing: Right to train
On 6 April 2010 the new Employee Study and Training Regulations come into force. The regulations implement a new right for employees to request time off from work for training or to study. These regulations, like the regulations applicable to the right to request flexible working, set out how employers should respond to such requests. […]
