HMRC staff stage series of lightning strikes
Around 20,000 HMRC call centre staff and enquiry officers held a half-hour walkout this morning over alleged moves towards privatisation – a charge strongly denied by HM Revenue & Customs. Tax officers did the same this afternoon at 4.30pm and those on late shifts plan to leave half an hour prior to their usual 7pm finish. […]
Blog: The art of communication in tough economic times
We all felt it. The incredible desire to get 2012 off to a great start, this Olympic year that’s full of hope, only to be confronted with headlines indicating that the next 12 months could in fact be far worse in terms of the economy and employment market than the ones that have passed. Not […]
Ask the Expert: Can we sack someone for performing badly?
The question An operations manager recently contacted me and requested that we terminate the employment contract of a member of his team for poor performance. The employee has 13 months service with the firm. I advised him that we should manage the employee’s performance through the company performance management procedures, but he insists […]
Self-efficacy: Limiting the damage of redundancy
Christmas is a time for giving. But some presents are less popular than others – and that includes the dubious gift of redundancy. Sadly, however, Christmas is a depressingly common time for workers to be handed their notice – Virgin Megastores went into receivership on Christmas Eve, 2008; Woolworths closed the last of its stores […]
Health and wellbeing programmes: Engagement is key
Many organisations are beginning to understand that employee wellbeing plays an important role in personal happiness and productivity which, in turn, has a positive impact on corporate performance. But one of the biggest challenges is simply engaging staff sufficiently to actually take part in the wellbeing programmes intended for their benefit. High levels of such […]
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. […]
Ask the Expert: What rights do staff have during performance reviews?
The question I am a standalone HR Manager in medium-sized company and took over this year, after the previous HR Manager left. A few months after I started, I was informed by senior management that a member of staff, who has been with us for six years, was to be performance-managed out of the […]
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 […]
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. […]
HR headaches ahead as 6 million plan to delay retirement
One in five people in their 50s plan to work for at least 10 years longer than the current state retirement age, creating yet more planning headaches for hard-pressed HR departments. A survey of 1,500 over 50s undertaken by insurance and pensions company LV= revealed that 6.1 million or 28% of the entire age group […]
Creating a sunny workplace ‘climate’
It is widely accepted that effective leaders are critical to organisational success. But in times of economic uncertainty, when confidence is low and even short-term predictions are impossible, a good leader comes into their own. Right now, all across Europe, organisations are depending on their managers to ensure that they continue to perform in the […]
HR vacancies rise, but salaries remain flat
The number of permanent HR vacancies, particularly for global and public sector posts, is on the rise, even though pay continues to remain relatively flat month-on-month, a report has revealed. According to October’s Talent Spotlight from recruitment consultancy Badenoch & Clark, the amount of permanent HR positions available increased by 1.3% last month compared with […]
Legal Insight: How to tackle bullying in the workplace
Former England Rugby Union international, Ben Cohen, has called for people to make a stand against bullying in general and homphobia in particular. To this end, his Foundation is calling for the creation of an annual ‘Standup Day’ to take place on 14 November each year. Although the aim of the Day is to encourage […]
Employee resilience – whose responsibility is it anyway?
The concept of ‘developing resilience’ in employees is becoming increasingly popular as redundancies and talk of fresh economic downturns start to hit the headlines. But although it is intuitively understood that the term is linked to stress management, definitions of what it means in exact terms are often vague. Advocates tend to fall into […]
Case Study: Lancaster Landmark Hotels focuses on attitude to boost retention
The Lancaster Landmark Hotel Group has boosted both staff retention and customer service levels by focusing on recruiting and developing personnel who it believes have the right attitude and behaviour. The organisation operates three high-end London hotels, each of which is managed independently and caters to different types of customers, which made it difficult to […]
Seven secrets to staff engagement
The fundamental role of HR is to motivate the right people to do the right things at the right time. This situation puts the spotlight on how to boost employee engagement and ensure that workers are committed to the organisation. If you want staff to perform effectively, what are you going to give them in […]
HR Forum: HR lessons from the beautiful game
The Beautiful Game has important lessons to offer team-based, talent-dependent industries, believes Professor Chris Brady, former dean of the BPP Business School, who is now helping his son to run Southend United. “People say that business is more complex than football. But rather than saying that ‘business is complex and football is simple’, it’s […]
Blog: A Beecroft in a bonnet – is the leaked report really such a big deal?
There’s been a lot of hoo-ha this week over the leaked Government report proposing that – shock horror! – people should be fairly sacked for being no good at their job. The main bone of contention though seems to be the ‘compensated no-fault dismissal’ – the suggestion that employers should be able to dismiss incapable […]
Government funds released to train more online spooks
The Coalition Government is to channel funds from its £650m National Cyber Security Programme into making good a shortfall in the number of internet specialists required to combat online information security threats. Concerns about the inability of GCHQ to retain enough cyber experts were raised earlier this year in the Security and Intelligence Committee’s annual […]
