News: Wanted – One wolf boy/girl, with circus skills and all their own hair

Wanted: One “wolf boy/girl”, with “strong circus skills” and all of their own hair. This is the essence of a job advert posted on Directgov’s Universal Jobmatch web page by Circus of Horrors, which were finalists in the ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ TV programme a couple of years ago.   The group is looking for candidates […]

News: Deloitte’s Bersin buy signals HR’s growing strategic importance

In recognition of the HR function’s growing strategic importance, Deloitte Consulting has acquired analyst company, Bersin & Associates, in a bid to access a new customer base. The aim is to keep the existing Bersin team intact and run it as a business unit under the moniker of ‘Bersin by Deloitte’, with the aim of […]

Talent management in a post-recession world

The UK may have officially emerged from recession towards the end of last year, but many employers are still worried about the stability of their workforce – especially if greater business confidence and improving job opportunities make it more likely that talented staff will start jumping ship. In our HR 2012 Salary and Market Insight […]

News: Top 10 talent trends for 2013

From the continued impact of the difficult global economic situation on HR departments to a growing focus on workforce diversity, 2013 looks set to be a dynamic and exciting year. Recruitment consultancy Futurestep, a Korn/Ferry company, outlines the top 10 trends that it expects to see in the talent management arena:   1. To outsource […]

Talking Point: Why put all your eggs in one talent management basket?

Talent management has traditionally focussed on the individual. Employers identify potential shining stars who they can train, mentor and coach in order to excel and take over key positions in the business.   This is how it has always been, but is it necessarily how it should always remain? The question is, does this approach […]

What can HR learn from the sales team?

Every business professional could improve their performance by adopting tried-and-tested selling techniques. But it is particularly true of those working in HR, a profession that requires top quality people and communication skills and the ability to win boardroom buy-in on often alien concepts ranging from workplace wellbeing strategies to the latest employee benefits.    But […]

The skills paradox flourishes

We are in a skills paradox. On the one hand, headlines have screamed all year of redundancies, high unemployment, and graduates struggling to get a foot through the corporate door.   On the other, they have also been warning of rising skills shortages and on-going talent wars.   While there has and always will be […]

News: Gen Y will lead to workforce management shake-up

The growing presence of Generation Y in the labour force will lead to new ways of working, generating radical change in the way that employers handle everything from staff retention and talent management to succession planning. According to a global survey of 2,900 managers and graduates as well as 100 in-depth interviews conducted by the […]

Three considerations for effective succession planning

In the wake of the crisis that engulfed the BBC following the Jimmy Savile scandal, the broadcaster’s director general, George Entwistle, was forced to resign after only 54 days in the job. But less than a fortnight later, the BBC Trust was able to announce his replacement.   Lord Tony Hall of Birkenhead, chief executive […]

Blog: Making recruitment pinteresting

With the rise of social media, a 2-page formulaic CV is quickly becoming an old fashioned way of understanding what personality and talents a candidate has. Today, it’s all about their Twitter feeds, LinkedIn profile, Facebook, and increasingly, Pinterest.   In June this year, Pinterest recorded a staggering 10.4 million users, and 400% month-on-month growth, […]

How to work effectively with the CEO

HR directors are in a unique position to provide credible, strategic advice to the chief executive and have a direct influence over the effectiveness of decision-making and direction-setting. As the organisation’s ‘people experts’, HR directors bring a perspective and expertise that are critical to ensure executive teams do justice to the direction that is set […]

Blog: Work-life balance is a bottom line issue

"You are a great model of work-life balance, Ron. Thanks for showing me.” Last week I linked to an article titled Why the Work-Life Balance is Now More Important Than Ever.   It was a UK-based article on work-life balance and it cited five countries and how each of them approaches it. The comment was based on […]

Blog: Have you thought about candidate cloning?

Hiring a star performer for your business is not easy. And with the war for talent only becoming more competitive, questions are already beginning to form as the future of recruitment remains wavered. For example, what happens when the experienced talent pool shrinks? Or when the best talent becomes too costly? Perhaps your star hire […]

How to rebuild staff morale following a crisis

There have been plenty of instances of organisations lately in which bad news can only have damaged employee morale and confidence and had a negative impact on overall effectiveness and efficiency. Cases in point include the four figure job losses experienced at Ford and the BBC’s handling of investigations into sexual abuse claims surrounding Sir […]

Talking Point: Is low staff turnover for losers?

Who on earth ever said that low attrition rates were the mainstay of business success? Staff turnover levels have been obsessed over for years and are still the cause of many a furrowed brow in meetings on the subject.   Some teams are even trained to worry – far too much – about an issue […]

Giz a job: The state of the HR recruitment market

There have been encouraging signs of more HR hiring activity during the last couple of months following our golden summer of sport.  HR stakeholders are now back in the office and permanent recruitment is starting to move again, with the flow of new opportunities also on the rise.   Financial and professional services   As […]

A buyer’s guide to talent management software

Over the last 18 months, the talent management software sector has changed beyond all recognition, which has led to a lot of general confusion. Underpinning these changes has been the growing importance of talent management as a discipline as well as a shift away from on-premise systems towards cloud or Software-as-a-Service options.   The impact […]

Unified HCM: Why it matters

Unified HCM. Unified talent. Integrated talent management. So many terms. So many definitions. Does it all really matter? The answer is yes! Many companies have deployed core HR systems with separate “best-of-breed” talent management solutions. All too often this approach doesn’t have the positive impact on business performance that is expected. A commonly cited reason […]

News: HR needs to break out of its comfort zone, warns report

Too many HR professionals are struggling to meet the needs of a constantly changing global business environment and feel themselves paralysed in the face of seemingly monumental challenges, research has warned. The study mirrors the findings of a report published earlier this week by management consultancy, KPMG, which revealed that the majority of senior executives […]

News: Financial services firms scoop up at race diversity awards

Financial services organisations topped the charts this year in terms of accolades for promoting race diversity and equality in the workplace. Business in the Community’s Race for Opportunity campaign hosted its annual awards dinner at the London Hilton on Park Lane last night, in which four out of nine of the winners came from the […]