Talent Spot: Caroline Lowe, HR director for Hilton London Heathrow Terminal 5
Caroline Lowe, director of HR for Hilton London Heathrow Terminal 5, was single-minded about wanting to work in the hotel industry. As a result, she undertook a degree in hotel management and, on finishing her studies, went straight into the operational side of the business. “I just always enjoyed being in hotels: the look […]
Diary of a misfit: The perfect place??!!
I feel like a teenager again. Not because I’m filled with youthful exuberance, but because I’m waiting for the phone to ring – and it doesn’t. I am transported back more than three decades. I am sitting at the kitchen table pretending to busy myself with homework but unable to concentrate because I am […]
Infographic: Overall staffing levels down despite Olympics boost
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Blog: Recruitment – The growing trend of asking curveball questions
HR professionals are often swamped by candidates that look similar on paper, with similar work experience, education and qualifications. When faced with equally qualified candidates, it can be difficult to find a point of differentiation. Obscure interview questions such as ‘how do you fit an elephant into a fridge?’ or ‘why are manhole covers […]
News: Whitehall to relaunch grad hiring scheme with Facebook Q&A
The civil service has revamped its ‘Graduate Fast Stream’ recruitment programme and plans to relaunch it next week by offering candidates a live question and answer session with a government minister on Facebook. The Q&A session will take place with cabinet secretary Sir Jeremy Heywood on Thursday 20 September and is intended to provide potential […]
Blog: Do you undertake workforce planning?
The economic outlook for the UK may still be flat lining but companies appear to be staying resilient and retaining staff, which is reassuring. Our recent survey of 900 companies throughout the country reveals that 81 per cent will be making ‘no redundancies at all’ in the next six months and just 4 per cent […]
News: LinkedIn misuse means candidate research ‘should be conducted with caution’
Widespread misuse of LinkedIn means that HR professionals should exercise caution when using it as a tool to conduct research on potential job candidates, a researcher has warned. A survey among 2,028 UK adults undertaken by ICM Research revealed, for instance, that around two thirds of people who have used the social networking site in […]
Infographic: The latest national salary snapshot
Talent Spot: Community blogger, Christina Lattimer
Christina Lattimer, owner of HR and leadership development consultancy People Discovery, has been tackling HR issues for all of her working life, even if she didn’t take up her first official HR position until 10 years ago. “I’ve only been a pure HR specialist since 2002 and was a business manager for lot of years […]
Five social media platforms to help boost your career
Social networking can prove a useful tool for finding a new job or moving forward in your career. Here we look at the pros and cons of five key platforms: 1. Link up with LinkedIn Professional social network LinkedIn now has 150 million users globally, so it’s essential you are using all of its […]
Providing operational leadership: The emerging role of the HR COO
HR business partners continue to be challenged by both the business and the HR function itself to play a more strategic role. While the business demands increasingly focused levels of support, the HR department is left balancing such requirements with its own priorities in terms of making cost savings and providing services consistently. Most […]
News: ‘Zero-hours’ NHS contracts branded risky “untested experiment”
An increasing use of ‘zero-hours’ contracts by NHS Trusts trying to make the coalition government’s reforms workable amounts to an “untested experiment” that is putting patient safety at risk, critics have warned. According to the Independent, a number of Trusts including Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals, South Gloucester and University Hospitals Bristol are currently turning to the […]
Blog: Disabled workers – Making reasonable adjustments
Most people will no doubt be familiar with the concept of ‘reasonable adjustments’ to accommodate employee disabilities, facilitate a return to work after sickness absence etc. But often that’s when we get a bit stuck for ideas of how to actually do this in practice – in fact we often rely on the person who requires […]
Blog: How to build rapport during a job interview
Building rapport during a job interview. It’s not always the brightest and the best who get the job. Often it’s the person who interviews well. The bond you establish with an interviewer is a very important factor in doing well at interview. From their point of view, when they meet you they’re considering working […]
Talent Spot: Carole Jones, acting group HR director at Aviva
Carole Jones, acting group HR director at Aviva, is very grateful that Commercial Union took a chance 22 years ago and gave her a job, even though she had little relevant experience. She has since stuck with the company through a number of mergers and name changes and, when the post of acting group HR […]
Blog: What value do you bring to the table?
“Can we speak later? I have a big interview next week and I have some thoughts that I want to run by you. My response was that I would be more than glad to hear what is on her mind. When we spoke later that afternoon, she told me about the value that she […]
Analysis: IBM buys Kenexa to create ‘Smarter Workforce’
SuccessFactors, Rypple, Taleo, and now Kenexa. IBM has taken a leaf out of the respective books of SAP, Salesforce.com and Oracle to mount a takeover bid in the cloud human capital management applications space, by making a $1.3 billion punt for Kenexa. The acquisition target’s HR software is intended to help companies recruit and manage […]
Diary of a misfit: Becoming a wildcard
On my own personal change curve, I appear to have progressed from misunderstood misfit to shortlist wildcard in just under a month. Result, right? So, I am in my second month of job hunting and the transformation has come about largely as a result of a new and improved CV, thanks to a panel of […]
Blog: Humanising human resources
During our recent recession we’ve seen the demands on human resource increase massively through consolidation and downsizing. As our economies begin to regain speed this trend doesn’t seem to be bucking, but there is a choice on where to focus. To so many well performing corporations, numbers matter – I won’t argue with that. […]
Blog: AT&T – Taking talent management to the next level
Advancing technology is having a radical impact on the skills that companies need to attract and retain talent, particularly within the media and communications industries. There is no disputing the power of social media, and because so much online conversation relates to events happening in real time, traditional marketing and advertising companies need to keep […]
