What does it take to become an accredited Top Employer?
Achieving ‘Top Employer’ status for the third year running is something of a coup for a company, not least the HR team and wider business that helped make it happen. On the route to success however, the process is not always an easy one, yet through the challenges and the highs and lows, it is […]
How to visualise big data in the field of HR
The endless flood of data does not stop at HR’s door. Historical HR processes are causing the amount of data to balloon. Our task now is to glean and process the most important information from all the available data. This gives HR an opportunity to create added value in the age of Big Data. […]
Smart working in Whitehall – and what it means for HR
As the election approaches, we’ll hear more and more about government ‘efficiency savings’. Big holes in the parties’ ‘costed proposals’ will be filled by this kind of seemingly inexhaustible manifesto polyfilla. But what is really going on in reforming the way government works? Across all parts of central government there are concerted moves towards ‘Smart […]
Easing the strain with joined-up strategic workforce planning
Today’s businesses have more means of communication available to them than ever before. Yet, when it comes to delivering service excellence, a lack of visibility and interaction within the enterprise can end up limiting performance and leave front-line managers struggling to cope, culminating in a negative impact on customer service overall. Invariably, most large organisations […]
What happens when corporate leaders and managers ‘derail?’
People dictate what organisational culture is, not location, sector or size. Research by Schneider (1987) asserted that ‘the people make the place’; that people are attracted to and recruited into organisations where they think they will fit. Over time, in ways that are outside of individual awareness, organisations maintain the characteristics of the high-status people […]
Why HR needs to take religion seriously
This article is based on the chapter ‘Religion in Organizations: Cognition and Behaviour’ by Gary R.Weaver and Jason M. Stansbury from Religion and Organization Theory: Research in the Sociology of Organizations. HR Zone has exclusive free access to this chapter throughout October. For more information and to read the book chapter click on the link. www.emeraldinsight.com/tk/HRZoneReligion Religiously-influenced behaviour […]
How can we approach live online learning to ensure good practice?
With the advancement of technology the benefits of delivering some learning and marketing through webinars and live online learning have become clear over recent years. There are cost savings for organisations and individuals with regards travel, accommodation, facilities and time away from work. The impact of good live online learning, or so-called ‘virtual training’, can […]
The six stages of the leadership journey
Steering an organisation on its unique journey towards its chosen destination is one of the biggest personal challenges facing all leaders. Why? Because internal and external issues will constantly change the landscape in which the organisation operates. Navigating the landscape is widely recognised as the new core requirement of the 21st century leader. The benefits […]
Why you need to treat your people as mini organisations
People as mini organisations Achieving business success can never be described as a chance occurrence. Organisations have to work hard to succeed. They exist and, importantly, thrive when they have identified their unique selling points (USPs) and, as a general rule, invested in making those USPs outstanding by maximising their potential. It is that USP […]
Interview: Raj Kaur-Hooper, HR Engagement Manager, Twinings
Rajdeep spoke on organisational values and how to get the most out of them on our HRZone webinar, ‘Organisational Values: are they worth the bother?” Click the link to watch her full presentation and the Q&A discussion that followed. She has worked in talent/development/HR engagement roles for 10 years in a variety of industries including retail […]
‘Myopic management’ jeopardising long-term growth
There is a “crisis in management” across UK businesses that is threatening the country’s global competitiveness, a hard-hitting report has claimed. The Commission on the Future of Management and Leadership, founded by the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Management and the Chartered Management Institute (CMI), has warned that “myopic management” is a “millstone around the neck” […]
Merger of cultures: The costs of getting it wrong
You cannot open a newspaper at the moment without the latest merger and acquisition (M&A) processes or predictions jumping out. With the very public tussle over the Pfizer takeover bid for British pharmaceutical firm AstraZeneca hitting the headlines daily, it has bought the issue to the fore even more. With the economy improving and greater […]
People managers – the war’s hotting up for top talent
The role of the line manager has evolved beyond almost all recognition in recent years. The traditionally held view that managers are accountable for making things happen, for delivering results and for creating high performance in their teams is now only a part of the equation. In today’s post-recession world, many organisations have slimmed down, […]
The HR of today v the HR of tomorrow
This article is based on submissions to a new academic journal, the Journal of Organizational Effectiveness: People and Performance, by Paul Sparrow and Cary L. Cooper. The journal is published by Emerald Group Publishing and provides insight into best practice and how HR can add value in a sustainable way. The journal covers a range of […]
“The HR department is not on my side.”
There was an interesting thread recently on social sharing site reddit. The author asked: “What's the biggest incorrect fact you've always believed and insisted you were right, until you learnt how wrong you were?” There were some very interesting responses. Did you know, for example, that all different tastes can be detected on all parts […]
What the HR profession can learn from the advertising industry
Two different worlds with two very different outlooks. But that’s why advertising has interesting insights to offer the enlightened HR professional. Even the hard-drinking, chain-smoking, misogynist world of 1960s advertising from the classic American series, Mad Men, has something to teach the HR profession of today. Kodak visit the agency to discuss their innovative new […]
Special Air Service – what can HR learn from the elite British Army regiment?
This article was written by Joff Sharpe, who spent time as an officer in the SAS. He has also been Group HRD of the Trinity Mirror Group and HRD for PepsiCo. After Piers Morgan hired me as HR Director, he found out that I had been in the SAS, and he thought it was pretty […]
Are line managers doing performance management or forms management?
How’s this for a performance management scenario: It’s mid-February and a manager in your organisation bursts into an employee’s office. “HR’s getting really annoyed. I was supposed to submit everyone’s performance plan no later than the end of January. Here’s your plan from last year. The work hasn’t really changed and you’re doing a great […]
Do CEOs do HR’s job?
These are loaded statements, but do any of them sound familiar? “CEOs do the job of HR."“HR has become all about processes and not people.”“HR has lost the plot.” On the face of it these words seem rather harsh, after all HR work extremely hard often under difficult conditions, but this was the consensus of […]
Outsourced HR: valuable or suffering from performance issues?
The rise of process outsourcing There has been a boom in recent years within the business process outsourcing (BPO) market, with an increasing number of organisations outsourcing or offshoring functions to specialist agencies in an attempt to drive efficiency during the global economic crisis. For HR departments, administratively burdensome tasks were the first in line […]
