Employee vetting in recruitment – a must or a nice-to-have?
How effective is making pre-employment vetting part of the recruitment process in order to reduce subsequent fraud and theft? Which pre-employment checks are necessary and where do you stand on hiring ex-offenders? Such topics have been widely debated in the HR world for years without any clear-cut answers having emerged. But what is […]
Ask the Expert: What is the legal situation around medicals?
The question How useful, in practice, are medicals undertaken as part of the recruitment process? If it is standard to make a job offer subject to a satisfactory medical, how do you decide what an unsatisfactory one is? And when would a medical condition be considered a disability? If the medical reveals a […]
Employee resilience – whose responsibility is it anyway?
The concept of ‘developing resilience’ in employees is becoming increasingly popular as redundancies and talk of fresh economic downturns start to hit the headlines. But although it is intuitively understood that the term is linked to stress management, definitions of what it means in exact terms are often vague. Advocates tend to fall into […]
CIPD Conference Blog: Eight steps to enhance resilience at work
Recent reports that Lloyds Banking Group’s Chief Executive has been signed off with stress and ‘extreme fatigue’ re-enforce the need for a resilient workforce to face the challenges in the changing economic climate. At the CIPD Annual Conference and Exhibition this week resilience was a hot topic and two of our experts, Dan Hughes and […]
Mediation: Part Four – How to deal with the outcome
When destructive workplace conflict rears its ugly head, it will typically be an HR professional who suggests mediation as an option to try and resolve the situation By the time the case gets to mediation, this ‘referrer’ will probably have invested significant time and emotion in it and will most likely have expectations about the […]
Creating a supportive culture in stressful times
Stress is now the most common cause of long-term sick leave in the UK, which means that organisations can no longer afford to ignore the issue. But line managers need clear guidance from the HR department on how to identify early signs of stress within their teams and manage the situation so that it works […]
Legal Insight: Does your organisation pass the stress test?
Stress has become the most common cause of long-term absence from work for the first time, according to the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development’s annual absence report, which was published last month. Given this development and that 2 November was National Stress Awareness Day, it would make sense for organisations to take the opportunity […]
News Analysis: Two thirds of workers suffering high stress levels
Two thirds of all workers are suffering from high levels of stress and are having to take time off work as a result. These are the key findings of a survey among employees at 1,500 companies worldwide undertaken by employee assistance programme provider, ComPsych, to coincide with National Stress Awareness Day today. The poll […]
Employers lose top talent due to neglect not pay, says study
Low trust levels in senior management, job dissatisfaction and excessive amounts of daily stress are the key reasons why employers lose top talent. According to the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development’s quarterly Employee Outlook survey, staff are, unsurprisingly, much more likely to position themselves among the 22% currently looking for a new job if […]
Blog: What HR can learn from Hannibal the Great
In 216 BC Hannibal crossed the Alps in terrible conditions to attack Italy. His generals pleaded with him not to attempt it saying it would be impossible to cross the Alps with elephants. On hearing this Hannibal said “Aut viam inveniam aut faciam” or translated from Latin, I will either find a way, or make […]
Mobile case management system saves the equivalent of 13 NHS staff
Cardiff and Vale University Health Board has equipped community health staff with notebooks to save time by enabling them to access and update patient information wherever they are. Some 370 district nurses and health visitors have been kitted out with machines running Civica‘s Paris case management software, saving them 8,300 hours over the last year. […]
Positive moves: Dealing with the back pain epidemic
Lord Sugar may have mocked Tom Pellereau when he presented his plans for an office chair designed to alleviate back pain. But the Apprentice winner knew what many employers have been forced to learn: the crippling cost of back problems for both staff and the business. Normal 0 false false false EN-GB X-NONE X-NONE […]
Ask the Expert: How can I legally sack an employee with a disability?
The question We have a member of staff who is bi-polar (declared and fully supported since November 2009). Recently, however, there have been changes to his mood and behaviour. He suffers from depression, feelings of self-harm, hallucinations. On occasion, the staff member has also sent inappropriate and racist emails to some colleagues and demonstrated […]
HRD Insight: M&S’ Tanith Dodge on boosting customer service via staff engagement
Employee engagement and good customer service are integrally linked, believes Tanith Dodge, HR director of Marks & Spencer. The idea is that if staff are demotivated and unhappy, they will not be inclined to go the extra mile or care about the impact of their behaviour either on individual customers or the brand image of […]
Stress now most common cause of sickness absence at work
Stress is now the biggest cause of long-term absence among UK workers across all sectors, overtaking cancer as the main reason for taking time off due to sickness. But according to a survey by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development and private health insurance provider, Simplyhealth, staff absence in the public sector have rocketed […]
Case Study: NHS Trust saves £500,000 by managing nurses more efficiently
Basildon and Thurrock University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust claims to have saved £0.5m in a year by introducing software to record employees’ working hours, administer their shifts and manage their expenses claims. Managers at the Essex-based Trust, which employs 1,800 clinical staff – 1,500 of whom are nurses – are now using e-rostering, time and […]
Ask the Expert: Is it OK for staff to smoke e-cigs in the workplace?
The Question ‘E-cigs’ are electronic cigarettes. Basically, they look like cigarettes but work by heating a solution that contains nicotine. This produces an odourless vapour that is inhaled. The user inhales this and gets their nicotine hit. When they exhale, you see a ‘vapour’, which looks like smoke. In fact, the units look just […]
Ask the Expert: Are staff due a holiday after sickness and maternity leave?
Question I’m looking for some guidance on accrual of holidays when an employee has been on long-term sick leave, then returns to go on maternity leave. Is she entitled to accrue almost two years’ holiday? Legal Advice Esther Smith, a partner at Thomas Eggar The short answer to this question is […]
Top UK employers publish guide to improve workplace mental health
Some of the UK’s largest employers have contributed to a report making a series of recommendations on how to ensure that workplaces are mental health-friendly. Some 16 companies, including Barclays, Deloitte, Marks & Spencer and utilities provider Veolia, got together at a business summit hosted by mental health charity Mind and insurance company AXA earlier […]
Barnardo’s wins e-learning award for staff dedication and support
Barnardo’s has won an award for best overall e-learning programme at the Charity Learning Awards this year due to both its dedication and efforts to support a large number of users compared with the size of the learning and development team. Judges were also particularly impressed with the children's charity's innovative approach to learning, and […]