News: Two out of five civil servants to home-work during Olympics

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Up to 40% of Whitehall staff will be asked to work from home to help ease congestion on London’s transport network during the seven weeks of the Olympic and Paralympic Games this summer. According to the Telegraph, other employees may also be asked to change their working times or take annual leave from 21 July […]

Blog: Why you should beware of video CVs

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Following attendance at a recent recruitment industry event, it seems that the idea of using video CVs as a recruitment tool may be coming back into ‘vogue’ – certainly if the number of companies extolling the benefits and trying to sell their systems and software to me are anything to go by. I first encountered video CVs as a concept […]

Analysis: Oracle’s future product roadmap for Taleo

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In part one of this two-part news analysis, Oracle’s senior executives explained the shifting nature of the human capital management applications marketplace and the vendor’s rationale for acquiring Software-as-a-Service-based recruitment and talent management systems supplier, Taleo. In part two, Jason Blessing, the man in charge of Taleo’s product line, explains what the merger is likely […]

Analysis: Oracle – Why we bought Taleo

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The cloud human capital management application wars are set to be one of the prevailing technology topics of 2012 and beyond. SAP’s acquisition of SuccessFactors, Oracle’s purchase of talent management and recruitment firm Taleo, which completed last month, and Workday’s forthcoming stock market flotation all bear testimony to the importance of the HR marketplace to […]

In a Nutshell: Six steps to becoming a goal-driven organisation

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If you really want to ensure that your business performs, ensure that individual and corporate goals are managed effectively. Becoming a goal-driven organisation doesn’t have to be onerous. Start with these six simple steps:   Establish clear goals for everyone: That means from the chief executive to the most junior person in your organisation. These goals […]

Blog: Would you consider crowdsourcing staff performance feedback?

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Recognise This! — You can’t have a meaningful discussion about performance, goals, and successes in an environment of fear, dread and anxiety. How do you feel about performance reviews? Personally, I think the annual performance review (as most commonly implemented) is broken.   It’s too infrequent, too fraught with anxiety and fear (for the manager […]

News Analysis: Could Ceridian give SAP and Oracle a run for their HCM money?

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A lot of attention has been focused recently on SAP’s SucessFactors takeover, Oracle’s Taleo purchase and Workday’s presumed-to-be imminent initial public offering. But these are not the only moves to be taking place in the Software-as-a-Service human capital management applications space.   Cloud-based HR and payroll provider, Ceridian, for example, recently closed its acquisition of Dayforce, […]

Blog: LivePerson – A culture-based approach to recruitment

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This is my tweet (see below) from Thursday afternoon after I got a glimpse of LivePerson’s campaign to find a new CTO. “A CTO with heart” does not quite fit into my mind when I think of a CTO. I know numerous Chief Technical Officers, but I would be hard pressed to figure out which […]

Saba’s social HR software includes controversial ‘People Quotient’ rankings

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Social networking software that links people-centric HR processes with the collaboration tools that those very people require – that’s the claim made by Saba about its so-called People Cloud. The Software as a Service-based bundle of applications brings learning, talent and social collaboration functionality together into one place with voice, video and web conferencing, it […]

Case Study: Pernod Ricard standardises global talent management

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Pernod Ricard is in the process of standardising its talent management processes across the world in a bid to support business growth more effectively. The multinational supplier of wines and spirits plans to consolidate a fragmented assortment of talent management procedures and applications into a single Software-as-a-Service-based system from Taleo that will operate across its […]

UK to be 450,000 technicians short by 2020

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An 18-month review has revealed that the UK will be 450,000 skilled technicians short by 2020 unless action is taken to remedy the situation immediately. Technicians, who are skilled to a professional level, will be needed to fill roles in engineering, science, medicine and other technical occupations, but there are currently only 1,500 people who […]

Blog: Five tips on how best to recruit Generation Y

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By 2020, the Millennial generation will account for 50 per cent of the working population and will represent the majority of the workforce. As Millennials consume information in different ways than their Gen X and Boomer counterparts, it’s no longer enough for companies to connect to potential employees via traditional communications channels such as newspapers […]

Budget 2012: Five industries singled out for special treatment

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The Chancellor picked out the aerospace, energy and pharmaceuticals, creative media and science industries as being crucial in helping the UK reduce its reliance on the financial services sector. George Osborne said in his Budget speech today that he would be “backing” the five industries as part of a “deliberate strategy to create a more […]

HR software deployments: ‘Big bang’ or phased roll-out? Part two

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In part one of this two part article, we heard from construction consultancy, Cyril Sweett, about the merits of taking a ‘big bang’, ‘all-in-one-go’ approach to introducing a new human capital management system. This second part looks at the pros and cons of taking an alternative tack, however – that of phasing in a deployment […]

One in five tech employers reject candidates due to their social media profile

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Almost one in five technology firms have actively chosen not to hire someone because of their social media profile, research has revealed. In previous runs of the study, around 40% or so respondents’ checked out candidates’ profiles on social media sites. But this is the first time that they have admitted to rejecting candidates because […]

Salesforce.com to make HR “a weapon for transformation”

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Salesforce.com has proclaimed that it wants to make HR “a weapon for transformation” by enabling practitioners to interact with workers in a more social way. The Software-as-a-Service vendor made the statement as it launched the first fruit of its Rypple acquisition in the shape of a performance management application.   The offering dubbed ‘Salesforce Rypple’ […]

National Science and Engineering Week: UK to be 2m engineers short by 2015

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Guess how many engineers and scientists we’ll need to remain competitive in the next five years? Some 2.2 million. How many kids are going into engineering at the moment as a career? More like 125,000.   That sobering statistic is one of the prompts behind ‘The Big Bang Fair,’ a jobs fair that hopes to […]

500 KPMG staff informed of redundancy risk – by voicemail

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Hundreds of staff at the accountancy arm of management consultancy, KPMG, have been informed that they are at risk of redundancy – by voicemail. The company has, somewhat ironically, been voted ‘one of the best companies to work for’ by its staff over six consecutive years.   But five hundred employees were reportedly sent a […]

HR software deployments: ‘Big bang’ or phased roll-out?

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There are two possible approaches to introducing a new HR system – one is to go for a big bang, ‘all-in-one-go’ implementation, while the second is to phase in the deployment over time. And both approaches have their merits as was highlighted at software supplier Unit4’s customer conference in Birmingham last month. Construction consultancy, Cyril […]

Talent Spot: Community blogger, Ron Thomas

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Ron Thomas, a principal at New York-based HR consultancy StrategyFocusedHR and favourite HRzone blogger, always knew that business was his calling, even if he didn’t know in exactly which branch he’d end up. “I knew I was going to major in business in college,” he says. “I was always intrigued by people who came to […]