Talent Spot: Lynne Graham, HR director at WSH
For Lynne Graham, HR director of high-end catering services firm, Westbury Street Holdings, employee engagement is more than a buzzword – it has seeped into the fabric of the company. “I have a very strong belief in engagement,” she says. “A lot of companies see engagement as an internal PR exercise – reward and recognition […]
Blog: Nine questions to ask yourself for a healthy 2013
New Year Wellness Resolutions: Don't reinvent the wheel. Many people we work with claim they'd like more energy and a better balance in their life. But are their actions and approaches consistent with these desires? Take for example how much time they devote to planning success in different areas of life. Do they give enough […]
Blog: Four tips to help stressed out HR pros relax
Stress is common in the workplace and it negatively impacts the performance of employees. HR managers of small businesses often wear many hats and are placed in the position of recruiter, benefits administrator, payroll processor and more. Stress in the workplace makes a big impact. In fact, stress was the most common cause of […]
What can HR learn from the sales team?
Every business professional could improve their performance by adopting tried-and-tested selling techniques. But it is particularly true of those working in HR, a profession that requires top quality people and communication skills and the ability to win boardroom buy-in on often alien concepts ranging from workplace wellbeing strategies to the latest employee benefits. But […]
Blog: How to avoid a Christmas bust-up
It’s official now, the Christmas season has started. The city is decorated, sparkling and illuminated. It is chilly, people have started sipping mulled wine, and pulling and wearing paper hats at Christmas parties. One of my colleagues is even planning her Christmas-tree decoration using a new app on her iPad. So, what’s the spirit […]
Blog: The rising challenge of presenteeism
The recent Chartered Management Institute/Simplyhealth report, “The Quality of Working Life 2012” surveyed over 1,000 managers in 2007 and 2012 and showed the impact of the recession on UK workplaces. In 2012, managers are now working longer hours due to larger workloads; increasingly they are suffering from ill health including stress and depression; and they […]
That was the HR year that was
If it were possible to sum up a year in a single word, that word in 2012 might be ‘austerity’ – a word that means many things to many people, but which basically amounts to hard times for great swathes of the population. In economic terms, austerity refers to a policy of lowering expenditure by […]
Ask the Expert: Can an employee claim for relocation 5 years on?
The question We have an employee who was relocated in 2007 to a different work venue. He was entitled to claim a reorganisation allowance for a period of three years after the move and failed to claim at the time, but has now asked whether it can be paid in retrospect. Our policy […]
Blog: New Year’s resolution #1: Become a charity trustee
In his Autumn Statement this week, Chancellor George Osborne announced that the UK economy is set to shrink by a worse than expected 0.1% this year. So with an uncertain business climate ahead, businesses will need to work more smartly than ever to ensure that their employees are productive and engaged during 2013. One […]
Seasonal workers – How to ensure many happy returns
Many organisations look forward to the festive season as a time of generating major revenues – and, despite the difficult economic climate, it appears that business was brisker for many in November than had been expected. To ensure that things run smoothly during this busy time, however, most rely on temporary labour to help them […]
2012 – The year in full
HRZone editor, Cath Everett, picks out the key events from what has, once again, been a challenging year for the HR community: January The PM’s views on popular capitalism: Employee-ownership, Living Wages etc Increasingly fragile UK jobs market was set to get worse More strikes and legal action threatened over public […]
Blog: Workers to burn out unless something gives soon…
HR professionals will have seen more than anyone the ongoing challenges being faced by both employers and workers as the seemingly never-ending economic crisis rolls on. Some may be claiming that the green shoots of recovery are now visible but others are telling us to prepare for a triple dip recession. Whatever future difficulties […]
Blog: Demonstrating the X Factor – 3 things to help you sparkle in a job interview
In front of the Judges…Show them the X Factor! In today’s job seeker market there are so many different factors to consider when applying for a job – the content of your CV, the answers you give to role specific questions, psychometric profiling, assessment centres, telephone interviews and then of course the face to face […]
Talent Spot: Community blogger, John Sylvester
Not everyone always understands John Sylvester. The problem is that, for most people, being a motivation and employee incentives specialist requires a bit of an explanation as to what it means. For instance, after struggling to fathom precisely what their dad did for a living, his two sons eventually hit upon the idea of […]
Employee engagement continues to rise up the HR agenda
Given a perfect storm this year of low pay rises/freezes, increasing workloads in the wake of redundancies and falling levels of learning and development activity, the issue of employee engagement has been rising steadily up the HR agenda. And as the difficult economic climate appears set to continue into the year ahead, it doesn’t look […]
Blog: Punk Rock HR – Counting down the top 10 Christmas HR tips
In this mini series, I’m going to count down 10 HR tips as seen through the eyes and ears of Punk Rock. A kind of "HR Top of the Pops" but without the DJ. No need to pogo whilst reading these unless you must. Punk HR refers to brevity, simplicity and purity of thought […]
News: Gen Y will lead to workforce management shake-up
The growing presence of Generation Y in the labour force will lead to new ways of working, generating radical change in the way that employers handle everything from staff retention and talent management to succession planning. According to a global survey of 2,900 managers and graduates as well as 100 in-depth interviews conducted by the […]
Blog: It’s the culture, stupid
“I wanted to let you know that I got the job offer,” she said excitedly. She had two interviews last week — one with a noted brand and the other with a fast growing start-up. One firm really wants her but they are on a hiring freeze until Q1. This is a dilemma that a […]
Christina’s Counsel: How can I tackle my team’s habitual negativity?
Hello and welcome to this month’s dilemma: The challenge As a result of an internal transfer, a client recently took over a new team. But he quickly realised that some of its members had a negative and unhelpful attitude. This negativity manifested itself in a small clique complaining about customer expectations, some of […]
Blog: Getting a handle on cross-cultural communication
I’m in Berlin so I guess it’s appropriate that our theme today is cross-cultural communication, how people from different kinds of cultures can get along better. You know, some cultures are more direct and upfront. People just say what they want to say. And other cultures don’t say no, they don’t say yes, they’re more […]
