Blog: 10 top tips to build an engaged workforce
An engaged employee is someone who will go that extra mile for your company. Companies with high employee engagement levels grow on average 4.5 times faster than those with low levels, according to a 2010 study by Hays. Engaged employees means lower staff turnover & higher productivity. However, engagement takes work – here are […]
Employers lose top talent due to neglect not pay, says study
Low trust levels in senior management, job dissatisfaction and excessive amounts of daily stress are the key reasons why employers lose top talent. According to the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development’s quarterly Employee Outlook survey, staff are, unsurprisingly, much more likely to position themselves among the 22% currently looking for a new job if […]
Blog: What HR can learn from Hannibal the Great
In 216 BC Hannibal crossed the Alps in terrible conditions to attack Italy. His generals pleaded with him not to attempt it saying it would be impossible to cross the Alps with elephants. On hearing this Hannibal said “Aut viam inveniam aut faciam” or translated from Latin, I will either find a way, or make […]
Mediation: Part Two – How to find the right provider
The mediation industry has no single regulatory body. The Civil Mediation Council runs a workplace mediation provider registration scheme, which provides a register of mediation suppliers. Although this is a positive step forward, as yet there is no single code of good practice for workplace mediators and the scheme relies on self-certification. As a result, […]
Getting women on the board is not about quick fixes
The newspapers have been awash lately with damning surveys suggesting that large companies still have a long way to go to balance up their boardrooms and create working environments that support women’s career progression as much as they do men’s. So it came as no surprise that Lord Davies’ Review has so far yielded minimal […]
Blog: How to take the pay issue off the table
Recognise This! – Recognition and rewards cannot replace compensation – it’s an entirely different “currency.” Fellow blogger and Compensation Café founder Ann Bares recently ran a survey looking into what level of pay (or pay increase) would be needed to “take the issue of pay off the table.” This is a highly complex but […]
Staff education and training are critical to corporate security
Earlier this year, a security firm called RSA was embarrassed by a major breach that led to information about its user authentication token technology leaking out. The company not only faced a huge bill to physically replace its offerings, which were now useless, but also attracted unwanted column inches from press around the world. Just […]
Blog: Developing a customer-service mindset in HR
“We hire happy people and teach them to make sandwiches.” ”To maintain a connection between the front lines and the back office, every manager is required to spend four days a year on the shop floor.” (Pret a Manager). “We hire ‘customer service people’ and teach them all about coffee.” (Starbucks). This week, I ordered […]
Blog: On-boarding as a first step to cutting staff attrition rates
Companies work so hard at recruiting the best talent, rolling out the red carpet, increasing original offers, offering bonuses and other perks to attract the right candidates. But once you’ve signed on the dotted line kiss the best behaviors goodbye. The process is similar to dating where the early stages of the chase and initial […]
Top mandarin’s pay link to PM’s salary “crude” and “arbitrary”
The perceived link between senior public servant’s pay and the Prime Minister’s £142,500 salary has been criticised by an influential Commons Committee as "arbitrary" and "too crude" to be meaningful. In a report published today, the Public Administration Select Committee said that, while there was an acknowledged need for civil service pay restraint in the […]
Talent Spot: Denise Keating, head of the Employers’ Network for Equality and Inclusion
There isn’t much in either an HR or business setting that Denise Keating hasn’t tried and mastered. As well as systematically working to make herself an expert in every aspect of HR, along the way she has also picked up experience of areas such as IT and clinical governance. “I never lost jobs, just gained […]
Blog: Is social media a legal nightmare or a boon?
As an HR director, are you worried about what effect social media is having on the business, and in particular your employees’ use of it? Have you had problems with employees posting inappropriate or even damaging comments on social networking sites? Most businesses are aware of the positive benefits of social media in promoting their […]
‘Humanising’ HR through social media
Traditionally, HR’s main involvement with social media has been to police employees’ online activities and ensure that they are not breaching company policies if using social networking sites within working hours. But the function is also gradually starting to see the benefits of employing the channel more widely itself. A recent survey conducted by SysComm […]
Blog: It’s time for HR and recruiting to kiss and make up
Recently I read a great book called In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the whaleship Essex. It tells the true life story of a whaling ship from Nantucket in the 1820’s which was sunk by a rogue sperm whale. Herman Melville based his famed novel Moby Dick on this tragedy. The […]
Building much-needed business savvy
Learning and talent development professionals are used to expanding the skills of others in the business. Customer service has to improve and technical skills must be upgraded. Staff need to acquire knowledge of new technologies and leadership capabilities should be refreshed and strengthened. But a key development area that will also pay real dividends […]
Gloucester Council’s shared service centre to save local jobs
Gloucester City Council’s move to a shared services model for revenues, benefits and welfare rights-based services will safeguard local jobs and should even create more as other authorities sign up to the arrangement, it has claimed. The Council has outsourced the delivery of the services to outsourcing company Civica in a bid to make annual […]
Talent Spot: Jez Langhorn, McDonalds’ VP of people for Northern Europe
Although ‘persistence’ and ‘staying the course’ may not be the sexiest of qualities, they are important ingredients to business and HR success and should not be underestimated, says Jez Langhorn, McDonalds’ vice president of people for the UK and Northern Europe. And in fact, such doughty terms could also be applied to his own working […]
Blog: TK Maxx – when collaboration pays off
Having heard Penny Illston, HR Director at TK Maxx UK & Ireland, speak at our HR Conference recently, I was delighted to see their hard work pay off following a recent visit to one of their stores. It was relatively quiet in the store and only one person serving at the cash register. With no-one else in […]
Location, location, location – and what it means for shared services
The creation of an HR shared services centre can lead to savings of between 20% and 40% depending on location, with the majority coming from reduced labour costs. According to Josefien Glaudemans, marketing director at specialist location services consultancy Buck Consultants International, the workforce generally accounts for 80% of any organisations’ expenditure alongside other factors […]
How to nip unfair dismissal claims in the bud
Each year in the UK, there are approximately 50,000 unfair dismissal cases – the equivalent of just under 1,000 per week – that end up being taken to an employment tribunal. That’s a headline measure of just how big an issue this is for the UK economy. Unfair dismissal has been the largest single matter […]
