Blog: Settlement agreements explained
In June, business secretary Vince Cable announced that settlement agreements would be brought in as part of the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill which is currently undergoing its second reading in the House of Commons. Settlement agreements are the latest in a long list of employment law reforms drafted by the coalition government in a […]
Blog: Workers crave recognition but don’t get enough – survey
Recognise This! – Employees everywhere need and want recognition for work well done. For a couple of years now, Globoforce (my company) has been running semi-annual Workforce Mood Tracker™ surveys, testing the opinions and moods of fully employed US workers. (I’ve featured the results of those studies in past posts here and here.) Now […]
Blog: Recommended reading on HR, culture, recognition and engagement
Recognise This! – To truly lead others, we must never stop learning. Recently, I received an email from Sudan asking me for my recommendations on top 3 books in HR. I thought this was too good of an opportunity to pass up and open up to you, my readers, for a bit of crowdsourcing as […]
Blog: How to stop your talent from becoming tea leaves
A recent report from CIFAS has shown that the dire economic climate has had another impact – staff who may not normally stray from the straight and narrow are turning to fraud and various acts of ‘low level dishonesty’ against their employers, and justifying it to themselves through resentment of payfreezes, insecurity, unemployment and other […]
Blog: Lessons from Olympians – The danger of perverse incentives
Recognise This! – After-the-fact recognition delivers better results than if/then incentives, which can be easily gamed. I’ve written before about the difference between recognition and incentives. This is an important distinction to understand, as is the distinction between incentives and motivation. This was brought home to me in particular this week in two ways […]
How to administer pay cuts in times of austerity
Last week, Reuters reported that the Spanish royal family, surrounded by high unemployment and scenes of public workers striking, had offered to take a pay cut. The move is intended to reduce the €8.3 million annual cost to Spanish taxpayers of keeping them by some €100,000. Leading the way is the Spanish King, Juan […]
Analysis: Holiday pay for long-term sick ruling could prove “costly”
A landmark case over holiday pay for the long-term sick could not only prove costly for employers but also raises as many questions as it answers, according to legal experts. Yesterday, the Court of Appeal ruled that Janet Larner, a part-time clerical worker at NHS Leeds, was entitled to paid leave for the financial […]
Blog: Three ideas for retaining young talent when career paths are scarce
Recognise This! – Boomers are about to surpass Gen Y in the workplace. Steve Boese (another go-to blogger of mine for anything relevant and important in the moment in HR) recently pointed out this alarming statistic: For the first time since these things started being tracked (1950), we are on the cusp of the number […]
Blog: How to offer a benefits package that staff actually want
If your company has an employee benefits package, is it offering your employees what they really want? For employers finding the right employee benefits scheme that helps to motivate and retain staff and that employees actually want can be quite a difficult task, particularly when there are discrepancies between what employers care about and what […]
TV Review: Show Me Your Money
Discussing money with friends, or wages with colleagues, has long been a taboo subject in this country. But in Channel 4’s eye-opening documentary entitled ‘Show Me Your Money’, viewers were introduced to Charlie Mullins, business mogal, founder and owner of Pimlico Plumbers, who has his own ideas on the matter. The story is based […]
News: Pay and promotion not based on merit, believe UK staff
A huge two thirds of UK employees do not believe that pay rises and promotion at their workplace are based on merit or that their employer provides decent opportunities for career advancement. These are the key findings of a survey among 2,628 workers conducted by professional services company, Towers Watson. The study revealed that […]
Blog: Debunking 5 employee performance myths
Deciphering the myths of employee performance: Myth 1: A Mission Statement is Enough Employee performance touches every part of the organisation. However, simply creating a new company vision every three to four years and setting board level objectives of increasing sales or market share is not enough. Such goals have no relevance to […]
News: Diamond to receive £2m payoff
Bob Diamond will receive a £2 million payoff following his resignation as Barclays’ chief executive, but has given up bonuses worth up to £20 million amid a growing furore over the bank’s rate-rigging scandal. The payment is the equivalent of a year’s salary plus pension contributions and is about twice Diamond’s contractual entitlement based on […]
Blog: Fact – Improve management practice by 1% or hire 25% more staff
Recognise This! – A little effort to improve management skills is worth as much as a 25% increase in headcount. A consistent source of good advice and cross-industry perspective on company culture, Blanchard Leader Chat is one of my must-read blogs. Last month, for example, they featured recent global research from McKinsey, Stanford, and […]
News: Land Securities proposes bonus clawback scheme
Land Securities is to become one of the first companies outside of the financial services sector to introduce a clawback mechanism on bonuses and share awards for top executives. The proposals made by the commercial property firm in its 2012 annual report were the result of a review of senior managers’ pay after the sector […]
News: Greater reliance on army reservists ‘could lead to more tribunal cases’
A greater reliance on reservist forces to try and compensate for army job cuts of 20,000 by 2020 could lead to a jump in employment tribunal claims among unwary employers. The coalition government has announced that it will axe 17 major army units over the next eight years, in a move that will see the […]
Blog: How to boost employee engagement
Recognise This! – Recognition, reputation, and performance management are among the top opportunities for improving engagement as identified by Aon Hewitt. Aon Hewitt recently released their 2012 Trends in Global Engagement. Several findings were unsurprising, but worthy of highlighting as many organisations still struggle with getting these basic factors of engagement success right. First, it’s […]
Case Study: Medtronic introduces global well-being scheme to cut absenteeism
Medtronic introduced a global well-being programme last year in a bid to help its employees deal with damaging health issues ranging from obesity and stress to smoking. As a manufacturer of pacemakers, defibrillators and other medical equipment, the vendor knows the value of good health and has long been committed to improving the wellbeing of […]
News: London bus workers set two pre-Olympic strike dates
Demonstrations staged by London bus drivers disrupted services during rush hour this morning as they geared up for two further days of action in the run up to this summer’s Olympics. At least 40 routes were affected due to action at bus garages in Edgware, Westbourne Park, Willesden, Brixton, Garston and Alperton. Drivers at […]
News: HR salaries rise at nearly twice the national average
The salaries of HR professionals grew at nearly twice the national average last year, with HR business partners seeing the heftiest increases due to high demand. Recruitment consultancy Robert Walters’ 2012 Salary Survey revealed that the salaries of permanent UK HR staff grew by an average of 2.6% year-on-year compared with only 1.5% in other […]
