Only a third of employers handle staff mental health issues well

Although about a quarter of employees have experienced mental health problems while in employment, only just over a third believe that their employer is supportive of such issues. An online poll of 2,068 UK workers undertaken by YouGov on behalf of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development revealed that a worrying one in five […]

CEO Insight: Stinkyink.com’s John Sollars on recruiting for start-ups

One of the most difficult and exciting decisions any new business owner must make is when to take on staff, and even more importantly, in what role, John Sollars, managing director and founder of Stinkyink.com tells our sister publication, www.BusinessZone.co.uk. The key issue is deciding at what point you actually need somebody else to help. […]

Half of UK managers expect redundancies in 2012

Nearly half of managers expect their organisations to cut more jobs in 2012, with more than a third feeling insecure about their own employment prospects. These are the key findings of a survey among 800 bosses in UK companies undertaken by the Chartered Management Institute. The study also revealed that more than half of those […]

Blog: New Year memo to self – boost employee health and wellbeing

Christmas is coming fast and with it that annual angel/demon where you are already forgiving yourself for indulging two sizes in the wrong direction with the promise that starting Jan 1st you really honestly will do something about your health. Of course, businesses do this too. They get to the end of the year, worked […]

Talent Spot: Emma Blaney, group HR director at Informa

Emma Blaney may have fallen into HR by chance, but it is no accident that she has risen to group HR director at Informa. It’s taken dedication and hard work. Today, Blaney works in Switzerland at the international publishing and conferencing company’s head office, reporting directly to the group chief executive and having responsibility for […]

The secrets to HR outsourcing success

Outsourcing can work and be good for the business. But, time and time again, we hear reports of dissatisfaction and things going wrong. So what are the secrets to success and what do HR directors need to consider here? A good starting place is to ask yourself why you want to outsource at all.   […]

Talking Point: The wimpish manager problem

A recent survey that I saw looked at employees’ views on their managers. One of the horrifying findings of the study, which was published by ‘HR Directors Business Support’, was that 86% of workers believed that their managers had no integrity.   And, unfortunately, I feel their views were soundly based. The workforce is, collectively, […]

Lowering organisational stress levels

Pressure appears to be endemic in today’s society – and nowhere more so than in the workplace.  Indeed, in many companies, it seems to be almost an ethos. As a result, pressure to meet targets, make money and even push for promotion is simply part of day-to-day life for hundreds of thousands of employees up […]

Blog: Some strategic HR predictions for 2012

 Recognise This! – Bersin’s predictions for 2012 are already beginning to come true. Are you ready? What can you expect in 2011 in Strategic HR and Talent Management? Bersin’s 14 predictions for the year seem largely on target to me. John Hollon, editor of TLNT, provides an excellent summary of all 14 predictions, but here […]

Plan in advance to cope with winter weather, warns ACAS

With the weather expected to turn increasingly wintry over the weekend, HR departments must prepare themselves by ensuring that suitable staff policies in place, ACAS has advised. According to the mediation service, advance planning is key to ensuring that everyone and everything keeps working smoothly when circumstances turn unpredictable.   Adrian Wakeling, the organisation’s guidance […]

Employers drag feet in evaluating cost impact of pension auto-enrolment

The introduction of pension auto-enrolment among large companies next year will result in lower wage growth in some instances as well as reduced hiring activity and less generous employer contributions in others. These are the key findings of a survey among 653 HR professionals undertaken by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development and published […]

Blog: The golden thread – aligning HR and business strategy

I once worked with an organisation that had introduced a Value Chain methodology. So far so good.  But they had made the critical error of trying to pigeonhole HR into one of the ‘links’ in the chain, instead of realising that HR is a support function that, by definition, underpins everything that the company does. […]

Business Cloud Summit: Cloud = the end of tech talk for HR

A key advantage of cloud computing in an HR context is that it removes the need to talk about technology with professionals that have to date shown little interest in it. Teresa Farrell, IT and projects manager for Irish Life and Permanent Plc’s group HR service centre development, said during a panel discussion at the […]

Blog: The serious issue of recruitment fraud

In March of 2011 there was a topic that was posted on The FIRM’s discussion forum that was quite alarming. One of the members, a UK based recruitment manager, working in-house at a large company had flagged the issue of Recruitment Fraud.    I wrote the majority of this post then. It is updated here […]

Finding and keeping disabled workers

Organisations facing cost pressures in today’s challenging economic environment would do well to explore the business case for employing disabled people. Exceptional characters such as Stephen Hawking, David Blunkett and Richard Branson would appear to prove the point that it doesn’t make sense to simply exclude them in the mistaken notion that they have nothing […]

HMRC slammed for lack of strategy on £96m skills spend

The National Audit Office has slammed HM Revenue & Customs for lacking in skills and having no idea of either how much it spends on skills development or where the money goes. Evidence from a customer survey and external stakeholders, which was cited in the auditor’s report, suggested that the government department did not have […]

HRD Insight: Dan Grant on Dell’s ‘Connected Workplace’ scheme

As job roles become increasingly global and Generation Y progressively enters the workforce, Dell’s aim in introducing its ‘Connected Workplace’ initiative was to continue being able to attract and retain staff. The initiative, which was initially piloted in the UK from November 2009 into early 2010, was rolled out across Europe, the Middle East and […]

Blog: Are your hiring managers trained in how to interview?

When you interview people for a job you are asked to make a judgment call on whether the people you interview are good enough and suitable for your company. But what makes you think you are good enough to do the interview and represent your company? Are you suitably trained to conduct a proper interview […]

What role does HR play in social media usage?

Sift Media’s analyst and research arm, K2 Advisory, has unveiled a significant new survey in order to understand the role that HR plays in shaping the use of social networking tools in today’s workplace. The world of work is changing at a very rapid pace and many of the drivers of this change are technology-based: […]

Staff engagement: Systems versus the human factor

It is only natural that HR professionals are interested in better ways of managing the workforce.  As a result, scarcely a week goes by without an advertisement or article on the topic of retention, engagement, motivation and/or talent management appearing somewhere.   Systems are recommended to HR departments to help them understand, measure and generate […]