Blog: Why you should dump ’employee of the month’
Recognise This! – Employee of the Month programmes create competition and resentfulness, not appreciative work environments. Compensation pros – when you think of base pay in today’s organisation, do you think in terms of guaranteed annual increases or in some form of pay for performance? Most realise the former is the method a century […]
Blog: Company culture according to GE’s Jack Welch
Recognise This! — Jack Welch puts company culture ahead of results. Do you? When you hear the name “Jack Welch,” what do you think of first? “Neutron Jack,” famous for an (often misunderstood) employee differentiation method that resulted in the bottom 10% of performers being let go annually? A powerhouse industry captain who helmed […]
Ask the Expert: Should car allowances be included in sick pay?
The question I have a case of someone who is taking long-term sickness absence (eight months). They were paid a combination of statutory sick pay and company sick pay for the first six months, which included their monthly car allowance in full. Their manager has now decided to stop paying the car allowance, saying […]
Blog: Most employers spend more on office cleaning than staff motivation
Does having a clean office improve your profits and where am I going with this? Most HR professionals recognise that happy employees are more effective, hence our performance equation mantra, happy employees = happy customers = happy profits. Motivated employees are by default happier and many studies prove that employers with highly motivated workforces outperform […]
Living Leader Learnings: Why saying ‘well done’ just isn’t enough
The challenge A sales team leader at a mobile technology company asks: “I am constantly telling people at work that they have done a good job. I say ‘well done’ all the time, but it doesn’t really seem to make a difference. I do sometimes feel a bit like a broken record. How can […]
Ask the Expert: How legal are contract clauses to work overtime for no pay?
The question I’ve just downloaded an Employment Contract T&C’s template from an online provider and it contains the following condition: 5. Hours of work Your normal hours of work are between [TIME] and [TIME], [Mondays] to [Fridays] inclusive, with a lunch break of one hour. You may be required to work such additional hours […]
Blog: Are annual performance reviews strictly necessary?
Recognise This! – Yes, getting rid of the annual review can be done successfully. Do we really need annual performance reviews? I’ve written before that there is a balance between ongoing feedback from multiple sources and annual feedback from one source. I’ve also written about what it would look like if you scrap the […]
Blog: Attendance bonus schemes – money wasted or money well spent?
For small and medium size companies workforce costs are one of the largest expenditures. It’s no wonder why, in the current challenging economic climate, so many business owners get increasingly frustrated if the attendance of their employees is poor. Employee absenteeism costs UK businesses £32 billion per year and therefore forward-thinking companies are proactively […]
Blog: Do you recognise your “plumbers” as well as your “poets”?
Recognise This! – Your star performers can’t shine without the daily efforts of your middle tier. Who gets recognised in your organisation? Just the superstars – the top 10% high performers? Or do you acknowledge those who grind out the work day after day – the middle 80% who make it possible for your […]
Blog: Crappy performance management rule 2 – Never attempt to motivate staff
In my previous blog I articulated rule 1 of crappy performance management: Don’t tell anyone about the vision. In this article we step up a gear and think about the 2nd most important of rules when designing a ‘wet lettuce’ performance management mindset. Crappy Performance Management Rule 2: Never attempt to motivate staff – […]
HP gives contractors a 5% pay cut ultimatum
High tech giant HP is reportedly offering IT contractors at its Enterprise Security Services division a stark choice in pay terms: either take a 5% rate cut next month or lose your post. That 5% is a minimum, by the way – it could be bigger in some cases. (One slice of the workforce, the ones […]
Public sector employers not liable for asbestos claims, rules Supreme Court
Public sector employers no longer risk having to shell out hundreds of thousands of pounds for asbestos-related claims after the Supreme Court finally settled a long-running dispute between insurers over liability. The ruling in the landmark case centred on the question of who was responsible for paying compensation for claims relating to invariably fatal asbestos-induced […]
Blog: Four steps to take on finishing your staff engagement survey
Recognise This! — Strategic recognition is a powerful tool to align employees with your goals and take appropriate action after your engagement survey is done. Like 80% of the people on our “My Engagement Survey Is Done, Now What?” webinar yesterday (recasts available here), do you conduct an employee engagement survey? Though we didn’t […]
Blog: Are you wasting 35% of your payroll costs on disengaged staff?
Recognise This! – Lack of employee engagement costs you 35% of your payroll, or up to $17.5 Million annually in a 1,000 person organisation. Like organisation culture, employee engagement is a frequent topic of mine. Indeed, creating a culture of recognition is a foundational element to creating an environment in which employees choose to engage. […]
Legal Insight: Employee or consultant? Lessons from the Student Loans Co
Taxation has never been a more contentious issue. Political arguments have been raging for months now over everything from the 50p rate and tax evasion among high earners to the reintroduction of a £10,000 threshold for people on low incomes. Also to hit the headlines recently, however, was the case of Ed Lester, chief […]
CEO Insight: Briggs Equipment’s Richard Close on staff engagement
As fears of another recession continue to mount, many business leaders are looking for new ways to either turn around their balance sheet or ensure that it grows. But all too many simply fail to look at their number one asset: their people. Over the last 20 years, I have worked with a number […]
Blog: Building a magnetic culture
Recognise This! – Great books on organisation culture are few and far between. ‘Building a Magnetic Culture‘ is a must read. Readers of my blog know that organisation culture is passion of mine – especially how to build a culture of recognition and then proactively manage it. I’ve heard many discount the ability to […]
Racism claim upheld after pub manager calls black worker “Sooty”
A pub manager repeatedly called a black employee “Sooty” and told him to stand under a light when she spoke to him so that she could see him, an employment tribunal has heard. But according to the Daily Telegraph, when the staff member, Joel Perry who is of Jamaican origin, made a formal complaint about […]
Unpaid overtime saves employers £29.2bn each year
One in five workers regularly work unpaid overtime saving employers a huge £29.2 billion per year, with older workers and long-servers by far the most likely to offer their services for free. According to an analysis of official government figures undertaken by the TUC to mark ‘Work Your Proper Hours Day’, some 5.3 million people […]
Dept of Health apologises for paying senior execs via limited companies
The Department of Health has apologised for misleading the opposition about paying senior figures via limited companies to help them avoid income tax. According to one insider, the 25 cases identified by The Guardian could be “the tip of the iceberg”. The comment mirrors that of AccountingWEB member, The Black Knight, who commented on […]
