Blog: Restrictive covenants – fair and enforceable or a waste of time?
Restrictive covenants are a big deal in the City, but are they worth the paper they are written on? Over the summer the High Court was kept busy by a case involving a bunch of investment advisors. Employees at a firm called Edward Jones declined to stay at the business when the firm was taken […]
Top UK employers publish guide to improve workplace mental health
Some of the UK’s largest employers have contributed to a report making a series of recommendations on how to ensure that workplaces are mental health-friendly. Some 16 companies, including Barclays, Deloitte, Marks & Spencer and utilities provider Veolia, got together at a business summit hosted by mental health charity Mind and insurance company AXA earlier […]
Blog: Company success entirely depends on your culture
Recognise This! – Company culture is ignored to the peril of the organisation as a whole. Yesterday I wrote about my passion for employee recognition in the workplace. Another topic I’m passionate about is company culture. Too many leaders think company culture is something that “just happens” and is beyond their control. Or perhaps a […]
Blog: It’s not just about the money
Retaining your best workers during an economic downturn can make the difference between success and failure for any company. When pay is squeezed and standards of living seem threatened, people naturally focus more on salary and benefits and less on job satisfaction. In a recent survey by the Institute of Administrative Management, more than […]
Blog: Bullying, politics and manipulation – is it happening in your company?
Do you know what corporate politics, hidden agendas and manipulation are costing your business right now? You might think, "But it doesn’t happen in my company". Well, that’s why they’re called ‘hidden’ agendas. You’re not supposed to know what’s going on. If you did, you’d try to put a stop to it. You […]
Blog: IT can be HR’s best friend
The IT organization and HR have always had a mostly adversarial relationship as IT rarely sees HR as a true IT consumer, more as a clueless and demanding relative. Most HR departments for their part are usually very under informed when it comes to HR and IT’s role in supporting the business. But listen up it’s time […]
Business has talent – and much of it over 65
Imagine you had access to the pick of global talent, to some of the most successful business people in the world. Imagine if, in your organisation, you could harness the abilities of any of the following business leaders: Warren Buffett, David Rockefeller, Amar Gopal Bose of Bose Corporation, Gordon Earle Moore of Intel, Bob Oatley […]
Ask the Expert: Is posting Facebook pictures of planking at work acceptable?
The Question Two members of staff posted pictures of themselves ‘planking’ on Facebook or lying in places that put their health and safety at risk – on top of a top shelf in a backroom and above the back door at work. Comments have been made about this on Facebook, which included the manager […]
Blog: Gamification – silly name, but it could help engagement and innovation
At the end of the 80’s, Action Man was ‘Toy of the Decade’. Before the age of video games millions of kids used Action Man in real games, and the fantasy they created was as vivid and involving as pressing buttons on a Play Station. Our very own Kevin Thomson managed the ‘Action Man’ brand […]
CEO Insight: Company Shortcuts’ Lara Morgan on the importance of recruiting the right people
I only made it where I am today because of the people I surrounded myself with. I have not always known what exactly I wanted to achieve, but I have known that I did not have all the right skills and expertise, says Lara Morgan, entrepreneur and co-founder of Company Shortcuts, a firm that provides […]
Blog: The internal superinjunction
There has been a lot of talk on the interweb lately about super injunctions, and a certain footballers apparent ability to score more often off the pitch than on it. We talk of these injunctions as if they are new phenomenon, or reserved for the super rich and wealthy when actually, for most employees and […]
Colt saves £300,000 on recruitment costs by consolidating systems
Colt Technology Services has saved £300,000 on recruitment costs alone this year by replacing a hotchpotch of recruitment systems with a single Software-as-a-Service-based offering. Telecoms and IT services specialist Colt operates in 13 countries and is expanding rapidly. Because it is currently hiring about 600 new staff a year, the company was keen to apply […]
Virgin Media provides customer service-style Employee Services
Virgin Media has taken a leaf out of customer services’ book by centralising its HR, payroll and benefits units into a single Employee Services division in a bid to provide staff with a more consistent experience. The telecoms supplier brought the three previously separate teams together so that they could pool resources and share expertise […]
Simple steps to help women reach the top
Gender equality remains a problem at the top of UK business. While there is a general consensus that Lord Davies’ call for more of it at board level is a good thing to aim at, many people believe the road to that particular promised land will be much longer and far more arduous than first […]
Blog: Thank God it’s Monday – what it takes for true employee engagement
Thank God It’s Monday While waiting on the bus the other morning, one of the other gentlemen at the stop started complaining about the local bus that makes the same stop as the express bus which we both catch. The driver of the local bus stops when she wants to, regardless of the number of […]
Holcim cements behaviour metrics into leadership development scheme
Evidence suggests that HR-sponsored leadership development programmes that are deemed to be high quality are 20 times more likely to measure performance than those rated as ineffective. Despite this, however, only 5% of organisations are able to provide meaningful metrics that effectively demonstrate a correlation between HR and business performance. But if HR is […]
New boss hacks back on Everything Everywhere management team
The new boss of mobile phone company Everything Everywhere marked his first day in the job by wiping out half of his management team including two senior HR executives. Olaf Swantee, chief executive of the company, which was created out of the merger of Orange and T-Mobile last year, announced yesterday that he had hacked […]
Blog: What are you bringing to the top table?
Recognise This! – If HR wants a seat at the table, then bring metrics the CEO cares about. Over and over again, I hear HR pros talking about “getting a seat at the table.” Laurie Ruettimann’s post last week reminded me again of this highly contentious topic. I’m always astounded that HR doesn’t have […]
Dress codes and uniforms: it’s all about presentation
I read an article about dress codes in the Times newspaper with great interest the other day. The Marylebone Cricket Club had received complaints from some members that its dress code was being ignored, which led to concern over falling standards. This snippet made me consider whether dress code standards were also slipping in UK […]
Leadership development programmes not up to snuff in too many organisations
Just under a quarter of HR professionals believe that their leadership development programmes are ‘highly effective’, while about one in five admit that they are useless. But according to research from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development and talent management consultancy, DDI, about a third of UK leaders rate the quality of leadership in […]
