Talent Spot: Gill Crowther, HR director at Nominet
By the time Gill Crowther, director of HR at Nominet, had finished university, she already knew that she wanted to work in HR. She had studied engineering, but the fact that she seemed to be very good at getting people to help her with her studies gave her a “moment of revelation” that management […]
Blog: Does gender equality stretch to pensions?
In the clean and well-rewarded land of management it’s easy to believe that the situation for women at work isn’t really too bad these days and to overlook what’s actually going on at the employment coalface – particularly in respect of older working women. While we managers, diversity specialists and HR professionals focus our attention […]
Blog: The Olympics – Learning lessons in flexible working
RBS has announced that its staff will be able to work flexibly during the Olympics. This news echoes that of Whitehall who also recently announced staff would be permitted to work from home for the 7 week period covering the Olympics and Paralympics. Whilst the intentions of both these organisations is to help employees […]
How business savvy are you – really?
Let’s face it, the phrase ‘HR needs to be commercial’ is nothing new. Yet it’s a theme that keeps recurring. Time and again we hear the argument that HR is not business focused enough and more HR directors need to be on the board. Ellie Rich, operations director at Michael Page Human Resources, comments: […]
HRD Insight: Fujitsu UK’s Ella Bennett on HR’s role in supporting change
The rate of change that organisations face appears to be increasing on a daily basis. At the end of 2011, Mervyn King, governor of the Bank of England, pronounced: “Who knows what’s going to happen tomorrow, let alone next month?” And just to confirm the situation, Harvard Business School professor, John Kotter also wrote: […]
Blog: Why it makes sense to upgrade your HR system
There are many good reasons to work in Human Resources. Perhaps you like helping people grow their careers, or it gives you a thrill to capture the latest talent for your firm. But the one thing you probably didn’t put in your “must have” dream job description was wading through a pile of administrative […]
Blog: Dealing with summer absences
Thoughts are now beginning to turn to summer holidays: for many employees a chance for much deserved and needed rest and recuperation. It would be easy to think the summer, with blue skies and warmer temperatures, might be an easier time for business. Yet unfortunately the figures show otherwise, and many organisations can expect […]
Blog: Making the abstract real – Living workplace values
Recognise This! – Your company values do you no good unless employees know how to live them in their daily work. I think it’s a fairly safe bet to say most companies today have defined set of core values – behaviors and ideals the executive team has invested a good deal of time and effort […]
Blog: Recruitment – What jobseekers really want
We recognise that there is a war on talent, which is making it difficult for employers to find candidates with desired skill sets. With this in mind, when you’ve found the ideal person for the role, you don’t want to lose out because they decline the position, so it’s vital that applicants have a positive […]
Christina’s Counsel: Help! My boss is creating a long hours culture
The challenge Recently appointed in a relatively new company as its first HR manager, my client has a dilemma. She described with some dismay her fear that the managing director was starting to instil a long hours’ culture in the organisation. No explicit statement existed in this regard, but some behavioural trends, which seemed […]
The HRZone Interview: The CMI’s CEO Ann Francke on management
Ann Francke only started her new job as chief executive at the Chartered Management Institute on 12 June, but she is already on a mission. As you’d expect, she not only wants to encourage more managers to gain professional qualifications, but she also wants them – and their employers – to recognise the power of […]
News: Northumbrian Water wins award for health and well-being initiative
Northumbrian Water has won a prestigious accolade after introducing an holistic wellbeing initiative that helped to cut its sickness absence rates by 3.1% between 2010 and 2011. The provider of water and sewage services to customers in the North East of England received charity Business in the Community’s Workwell Award last night after seeing absence […]
Blog: 6 tips to ensure project success
I remember attending SHRM a few years back, and I met a gentleman who was diligently taking notes in each session. He had sheaf of paper and was taking so many notes you would have thought that he was a stenographer. I just had to wait for the right moment before I casually introduced […]
Blog: Why a balanced boardroom is a better boardroom
So, it’s a proven fact that having women in the boardroom improves business performance. Now, before you write me off as a radical feminist with a chip on her shoulder pad – hear me out. Drawing upon a database of 441 companies, the McKinsey Women Matter 2010 report found that “companies with the highest share of women outperform companies […]
Is leadership development really the answer to your problems?
The idea that there is a key requirement for ‘better leadership’ as the ‘answer’ to most, if not all, business and organisational problems remains prevalent. Numerous surveys by management consultancies reinforce the notion that there is a leadership talent ‘gap’ and, by extension, a need for more and better leadership development activity. This idea […]
In a Nutshell: Five considerations when creating a welcome pack for new hires
When lastminute.com moved its group headquarters to a swanky new Farringdon office in April, it seemed like a good chance to revamp its welcome pack for new joiners. As a result, it turned to us, the same language consultancy that had worked on the ‘tone of voice’ of its marketing collateral a few years before, […]
News: Junior IT technician blamed for RBS debacle
A junior IT technician who was hired after RBS laid off more than 20,000 UK staff and outsourced their work to India was to blame for the bank’s massive computer failure last week, it is being claimed. According to a source at tech website, The Register, the “inexperienced operative” who is understood to be part […]
Blog: An anti-engagement manifesto
A few weeks ago, in my Alien Abduction blog, I promised a bit more on the topic of employee engagement. So here is the employee anti-engagement guide…It is a pretty well-established fact that when it comes to keeping people enthusiastic, money is surprisingly far down the list of effective motivators! Fat salaries and bonuses […]
Blog: Crisis stories – What RBS’ Stephen Hester can teach us
RBS‘ Stephen Hester has emerged to apologise to his customers for the ‘technical issues’ that have left millions of customers frozen out of their accounts. Interestingly, he used the analogy of delayed planes waiting to clear after heavy rain to highlight the fact that the backlog of problems needs time to be fixed. I’ve talked […]
News: Redundancies to leap as employers bid to cut staff costs
Amid warnings of a deteriorating economic situation, UK employers are shifting their focus towards making voluntary redundancies and outsourcing loss-making services in a bid to cut staffing costs. Sir Mervyn King, Governor of the Bank of England, told MPs on the Treasury Committee today that the economic situation had now worsened to such an extent […]
