Network Rail’s travel time-based redundancy policy branded “unfair and arbitrary”

Unions have branded Network Rail’s decision to make workers redundant if they do not live within 75 minutes of its new offices as “unfair and arbitrary”. The Transport Salaried Staff Association claims that 800 staff from Kent, Surrey, Sussex and Hampshire will be affected by the policy, although the owner of the UK’s rail infrastructure […]

UK unemployment continues ‘steady crawl’ to 9% by year end

Although the latest official unemployment figures were better than expected, the UK is continuing its steady crawl towards jobless levels of 9% by the end of the year, experts warn. According to the Office for National Statistics, worklessness rose by 48,000 in the three months to December, bringing the number of people without employment to […]

Talking Point: Is the fit note fit-for-purpose?

The fit note was introduced in April 2010 and replaced the ‘all or nothing’ classification of the traditional sick note, under which people were either ‘fit’ or ‘unfit’ for work. Based on the premise that you don’t need to be totally ‘fit’ to do some kinds of activities, establishing a third option of ‘may be […]

Valentines Day: Two out of five employees look for love at work

Although many UK employers have traditionally frowned on workplace romances, a huge two out of five employees will nonetheless be looking for love at work this year, according to a survey. The poll undertaken by Jobsite.co.uk also revealed that a third of men would take a job based on the attractiveness of new colleagues. Some […]

Shaping future strategy: Workforce analytics

We see it every day in the headlines, particularly over the last few years – ‘Top Company Cuts 1000s of Staff’.  All too often, there is a knee-jerk reaction after senior executives and managers conclude that headcount equals only cost and they neglect to consider what value their people bring to the business.   They […]

Analysis: Oracle’s Taleo buy marks tipping point in talent management sector

Oracle’s takeover of Taleo yesterday could mark a tipping point in the evolution of the talent management software sector, analysts believe. The story so far is this: SAP buys Software-as-a-Service vendor, SuccessFactors, to beef up its next generation human capital and talent management offerings.   Newcomer Workday, which is also an SaaS provider, readies itself […]

Oracle aims to up SaaS HCM credentials with Taleo swoop

If HR directors ever felt that they were being neglected by the software industry, those days should now be well and truly over. Instead there is a big old war brewing to try and woo them over to the next generation of human capital management applications.   And to this end, Oracle swooped on Taleo […]

Blog: The emerging discipline of strategic workforce planning

The most recent Ochre House HR Network meeting – a think tank of over 650 senior HR figures from employers including BT, Fujitsu and Vodafone – held in Munich in December, brought to light some very interesting issues. We discovered that while practically all large companies now believe that a strategic approach to workforce planning […]

Corporate karma: ‘Being good is good business’

The ethics of businesses are increasingly under the microscope. We only need to think back to the recent banking crisis and the phone hacking scandal to realise the damage that can be done to organisations that are deemed to be acting in an unethical manner.   More and more, HR directors are being asked to […]

National Apprenticeship Week: How to get started

As we enter another year of economic uncertainty, recruiting fresh faces may not be at the top of the corporate agenda for all companies in 2012. Organisations ranging from large firms through to small and medium-sized enterprises are increasingly being asked to balance up diminishing budgets with a need to boost productivity and continue providing […]

Legal Insight: How not to slip up in the snow

Forecasters are warning that adverse weather conditions in the UK could last until the end of the month, giving employers potential headaches as staff struggle to make it into work. Three inches of snow led to 600 flights being grounded at Heathrow over the weekend, disrupting the plans of up to 18,000 travellers.   The […]

Blog: Using Google+ for recruitment

Google+ is becoming an increasingly popular social networking site, but what opportunities does it present to HR and the recruitment process? Circles   What sets Google+ apart is its circles. You can use them to separate your social circles and target your posts at the right people. For example, you wouldn’t talk about looking for […]

London 2012: Planning for travel disruption

London is less than six months away from hosting the biggest sporting event in the world. During the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, the country expects to play host to 90,000 athletes, media representatives and officials, along with hundreds of thousands of spectators who will attend venues across the capital from 27 July to 14 […]

Blog: The link between culture, brand and PR

WASP males don’t tend to get too many invitations to be involved in the promotion of diversity management; which is a shame really.  I’m a firm believer in the notion that the promotion of diversity should embrace the full range of stakeholders and should truly practice inclusiveness in the way stakeholders are engaged with the […]

Talent Spot: Community blogger, Derek Irvine

Derek Irvine, one of HRzone’s most prolific and respected bloggers, started his career as a marketing and brand man in his home town of Dublin. Currently vice president of strategy and consulting services at rewards and recognition software and services provider, Globoforce, he is still based in Ireland, but spends a good chunk of his […]

Blog: Employee stress equals financial risk

Recognise This! –If employee retention is important enough to list as a substantial risk factor to meeting financial expectations, then it should be important enough to find ways to reduce employee stress. I just read an interesting story in Forbes, which noted that a common phrase included in the risk factors on 10-Q forms for […]

Short on rewards – an HR skills crisis

It would be hard to miss the steady growth in demand for reward professionals. Interest in their skills began with a handful of FTSE 100 businesses back in the 1990s, but the job title of ‘compensation and benefits director’ was a rarity at that time.   Today, however, there are a lot more reward roles […]

Blog: How to embed a learning culture

I guess many companies have survived over many years without what we’ve started to call a Learning Culture, but without doubt it’s going to be a major help. When Kaplan & Norton first published their balanced score card method in the mid 1990’s it was interesting to note their attention to learning: Customer goals, Finance […]

Talent Spot: Dan Grant, head of HR at Dell UK

There’s a saying within Dell: ‘It’s not just what you do that’s important, but how you do it…’ It’s a maxim that Dell’s head of HR, Dan Grant, strives to live by. If you’re honest in the way you deal with people and keep your promises, then you can’t go far wrong, he believes.   […]

HRD Summit: ‘HR must hive off strategic activities to be truly effective’

To effectively take that much coveted seat at the top table, HR must follow the example of other functions and separate out strategic activities from transaction-based, operational tasks. But while departments such as IT, marketing and finance have already made the move, it is politically still not considered the right thing to say in the […]