How to engage employees in diverse cultures
The last few years have seen both employee engagement and equality and diversity gain greater prominence. Employers know how important it is to engage their staff, and they’re willing to invest in doing so. Employers also recognise that they need to create a fair environment where all employees are treated equally and are able to […]
How to stay sane at work
1. All development starts with self-awareness. The greater the level of self-awareness, the more personal change is possible and the more that it will stick. Make sure that management and leadership development is more than education and knowledge acquisition. Build in a self-discovery component and encourage reflective learning that places the prime responsibility for development […]
The world’s happiest jobs and what they tell us
The Guardian recently conducted an analysis of nine different occupational surveys to find out which professions report the highest levels of happiness. What do the results tell us and how does poor managerial direction can interfere with natural engagement? The jobs that appeared the most often in the top 10 of each survey analysed were […]
Germanwings crash: we must keep up our progress on talking about mental health at work
The Germanwings tragedy has brought mental health to the forefront of people’s minds. Unfortunately, this is mostly for the wrong reasons, thanks to the sensationalised reporting which dominated the media. Much of the coverage linked mental health with dangerousness – demonising those of us with experience of a mental health problem such as depression. We […]
Mindfulness in the workplace – What HR professionals need to know
Alexander Beiner is a Founder of Open Meditation, a London-based organization teaching non-religious mindfulness meditation in the workplace. In recent years there has been a rising interest among HR professionals into the practice of mindfulness meditation. However, there is still a lot of confusion as to what this practice really is, what it involves and […]
How to support employees through bereavement
There’s so much rich insight coming out of the academic sector that HR professionals need to know. At Academics’ Corner we feature the best HR researchers that tell you what they’ve found and what you need to do differently on the back of the research. Get connected to the academic sector through Academics’ Corner and […]
When yawning costs you money
We all know how it feels to come into work after a poor night’s sleep; it’s hard to think clearly, we’re slow to respond to things and we lack creative energy. What usually results is a slow and unproductive day and we only get back to normal once we’ve slept well again. However there are […]
How to develop resilience quickly
In organisational life, pressure, change and adversity are almost inevitable daily aspects of our work. To cope, we need a proactive rather than reactive approach: we need to develop resilience. People describe resilience in many different ways: as ‘mental toughness’, ‘emotional stability’, ‘grit’ or ‘perseverance’. Perhaps more helpfully, we can think of resilience as the […]
NHS Customer Service – forget about process, it’s about emotional engagement
There’s so much rich insight coming out of the academic sector that HR professionals need to know. At Academics’ Corner we feature the best HR researchers that tell you what they’ve found and what you need to do differently on the back of the research. Get connected to the academic sector through Academics’ Corner and […]
Companies should take a public health approach to wellbeing
More HR teams need to be taking a ‘public health’ approach – similar to that used by national governments – to understand and improve the health of their whole organisation. Traditionally, preventative healthcare and private health screening has been seen as a perk for senior executives only, with elements sometimes offered as part of the benefits […]
Is it worth investing in ‘active’ workstations?
There’s so much rich insight coming out of the academic sector that HR professionals need to know. At Academics’ Corner we feature the best HR researchers that tell you what they’ve found and what you need to do differently on the back of the research. Get connected to the academic sector through Academics’ Corner and […]
Shift workers risk mental and physical health
Staff working shifts outside the hours of 0700-1900 hours are at higher risk of developing chronic health conditions and serious illness, and could even be risking a decline in cognitive function a recent survey revealed. In this article, Gary Cattermole, director at award winning employee engagement consultancy and staff survey specialist, The Survey Initiative, explains […]
Avoid winter coughs and colds
You’ve heard it before: ‘don't go outside in this weather, you'll catch a cold’. But colds are actually caused by viruses, not cold weather. It is true that you are more likely to get a cold during the winter months, but that's because we spend more time in confined, unventilated spaces with larger groups of […]
Putting empathy back on the workplace agenda
One of the more surprising items on the British political agenda this year was empathy. This is largely thanks to Labour leader Ed Miliband, who has cited empathy as one of his core political values and has even recruited the help of empathy expert Professor Simon Baron Cohen to develop his “politics of empathy”. It […]
All in the mind: mindfulness in the workplace
Learn more ways to improve your workplace wellbeing with The Ultimate Wellbeing Toolkit – a practical learning hub brought to you by financial protection specialists Unum, designed to equip HR professionals with the skills and knowledge they need to show employees that they are valued. Since 2009, I have been teaching leaders and executives mindfulness based practices. There […]
The ageless workplace: how to attract and retain employees across five generations
Learn more ways to improve your workplace wellbeing with The Ultimate Wellbeing Toolkit – a practical learning hub brought to you by financial protection specialists Unum, designed to equip HR professionals with the skills and knowledge they need to show employees that they are valued. Regardless of age, a key factor in employee retention is whether staff feel […]
Book Review: Developing Mental Toughness by Clough & Strycharczyk
Title: Mindful Leadership Coaching: Using Mindfulness to Develop Leaders and Transform TeamsAuthor: Peter Clough & Doug StrycharczykISBN: 978-0749463779 This book was reviewed by David Evans of Burn Bridge Associates. Subtitled “Improving performance, well-being and positive behaviour in others”, this is a useful book that will offer new insights for HR managers and line managers alike. Based on over […]
Why your best workers may not always be your employees: exploring the freelance factor
The working environment has changed drastically in the last ten years. Technological advances have empowered today’s workers to become increasingly global, mobile and flexible. And with more and more businesses looking to pursue an on-demand workforce to scale labour efficiently, the rise of the ‘independent worker’ in recent years has been no surprise. According to […]
A ticking time bomb: the workplace stress epidemic
Learn more ways to improve your workplace wellbeing with The Ultimate Wellbeing Toolkit – a practical learning hub brought to you by financial protection specialists Unum, designed to equip HR professionals with the skills and knowledge they need to show employees that they are valued. Presenteeism – or attending work while sick – is on the rise. A […]
Why you should show staff that they’re cared for
Learn more ways to improve your workplace wellbeing with The Ultimate Wellbeing Toolkit – a practical learning hub brought to you by financial protection specialists Unum, designed to equip HR professionals with the skills and knowledge they need to show employees that they are valued. It’s a given that being cited as a company that […]
