HRzone.co.uk

167 Planning Days til the Olympics!

Taradaynes — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 19:24:18 +0000

Whether you’re a sports lover or loather, it will be nigh on impossible to be a sports eluder when the huge sportsfest that is the Olympics hits London in a few months’ time. Unless, like me, you’re planning on leaving the country for most of it (*smug*), you can expect travel chaos and overcrowding everywhere. Well, everywhere except the workplace that is - it could be a fortnight of staff shortages for employers, as sports fans take time off to watch the Games! From the lucky ones who got tickets to events, to the less fortunate who just want to watch it all on the box, there will be few people who will be happy to ignore it all and come into work every day as normal.

3 Surprising Findings from Latest Globoforce/SHRM Employee Recognition Tracker

DerekIrvine — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 18:33:51 +0000

Recognise This! – If the vast majority of your employees are dissatisfied with your recognition programme, perhaps it’s time to change the programme.

I greatly enjoyed leading a webinar discussion yesterday with Evren Esen of SHRM on the results of our bi-annual Globoforce/SHRM Employee Recognition Tracker. (Recorded webinar available on HR.com.)

Commissioned to dive into the expectations and experiences of HR managers and above with employee engagement and recognition, the tracker revealed several interesting points:

Top Management Challenges

Any colour so long as it's black!

accordengage — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 17:21:42 +0000

When my soon to be son in law bought his new car, I wasn't surprised to see that it wasn't the base model. He specifically sought out a high specification model in a colour and with bodywork that's a bit unusual. And he's had more work done on it since to individualise it even more. If I see it when I'm out I know it's him, I haven't seen another one exactly like it around the area. That's the appeal I think - it's different and reflects his personality. The days of the Model T Ford and the "any customer can have any colour he wants so long as it's black" approach has obviously long gone and we all now select a car based on what's most important to us, whether it be performance, economy, number of seats or whatever. We're all different.

National Apprenticeship Week: 'Schemes cut hiring costs'

catheverett — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 17:03:34 +0000

Four out of five employers that currently provide apprenticeship schemes claim that they will play a bigger role in their recruitment policy in future as they help to cut hiring costs.

Fee hikes for skilled migrant worker visas a "bitter blow", says CBI

catheverett — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 15:31:11 +0000

The CBI has condemned the coalition government’s decision to double the visa fees that employers have to pay in order to hire working migrants as a “bitter blow” to UK business.

Fair Terms & Conditions?

RGreen — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 14:38:13 +0000

I've just downloaded an Employment Contract T&C's template, from an online provider (promoted via one of these HR websites).

The template 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 as are necessary for the proper performance of your duties without extra remuneration.

Is that last line acceptable (legally & ethically)? I should add, I wil not be advocating this condition!

Unilever scientist jumps to death following redundancy

catheverett — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 14:33:34 +0000

A top food scientist jumped to his death from the roof of his laboratory only hours after being made redundant, an inquest has heard.

Blog: Are most diversity initiatives just PR stunts?

catheverett — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 12:52:17 +0000

If we want to create truly sustainable change and a culture of involvement and responsibility throughout our organisations, then we need to examine our every action to ensure that it supports our objectives.

Diversity's a PR stunt? Sustainable change requires total commitment, not just rhetoric

Emma Littmoden — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 12:40:55 +0000

Sadly, this isn’t always the case – as a recent survey from recruitment firm Adecco has shown. The report identified that almost half of UK workers see diversity schemes in their organisations are mere PR stunts. However, the organisations stress that they are serious about changing things and the business case for investment in diversity is certainly clear – ensuring ways to develop British talent from any and every background makes sense. So what is stopping individuals engaging with the policies?

Does this just apply to Diversity Policies, or do they feel the same about other policies too? It appears that they do, so why?

Middle Managers Feeling Pressure

Will Mitchell — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 11:37:50 +0000

The resilience theme is continuing in my blog posts, this time due to a recent news item I’ve read.

Analysis: Oracle's Taleo buy marks tipping point in talent management sector

catheverett — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 11:02:28 +0000

Oracle’s takeover of Taleo yesterday could mark a tipping point in the evolution of the talent management software sector, analysts believe.

The University of Life - Are you a lifelong learner?

christinapd — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 09:46:10 +0000

I was at a seminar a few weeks ago when the host asked the audience for a show of hands to indicate if they considered themselves “lifelong learners” Yes, I knew the answer to that and my hand shot up. It was interesting to see that nearly everyone else did too. It got me thinking about what people meant when professing this.

For me, my love of learning didn’t start at school. I remember choosing my “O Level” options, (Yes showing my age). I opted for shorthand and typing. A brave decision then: This was in the days of typewriters and dictaphones. PC’s and word processers were still just a twinkle in someone’s eye. My teachers were horrified. Apparently I was far too bright to throw away one of my options learning something I could apparently do in a night class. I stubbornly dug my heels in and insisted. Little was I to know that learning how to speed type and present information was probably one of the most useful skills I would need in the world of work.

Remote working: How to get started

catheverett — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 09:30:29 +0000

Over the last ten years remote working has been steadily gaining a foothold in the UK workplace, changing the nature of work and the daily commute.

Survey Finds Workplace Coaching Limited to Few - Why?

leslieallan — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 06:57:38 +0000

Nearly every respondent to a recent survey of 250 UK companies said coaching in the workplace has helped individuals and their organizations. As I wrote in my previous blog post on coaching culture, they cited improved personal skills, better communication, higher confidence levels and greater motivation.

With so many benefits, one might expect all companies to adopt coaching - and make it available to as many employees as possible. The Institute of Leadership and Management survey found that isn't the case.

Only 68% of companies with 230 to 500 employees said that coaching is part of their development toolkit. For companies with more than 2,000 workers, the percentage rises to 90%. (Organizations with 501 to 2,000 employees reported using coaching 81% of the time.)

Recruitment agencies indulge in "casual racial discrimination"

catheverett — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 18:24:35 +0000

UK recruitment agencies are indulging in "casual racial discrimination" against job seekers from black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds, making them more likely than white applicants to apply to employers directly.

HMRC to charge PAYE dodgers from April

catheverett — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 16:39:59 +0000

HM Revenue & Customs will require employers to pay a security from April if it believes that there is serious risk they will fail to pay the requisite PAYE tax deductions or National Insurance Contributions on behalf of employees.

The powers are an extension of an initiative that has already been successfully used to ensure the payment of VAT, insurance premium tax and environmental taxes.

If employers fail to pay the security, they will be punished with a fine of up to £5,000 and the action will be enforced through the courts.

Oracle aims to up SaaS HCM credentials with Taleo swoop

catheverett — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 16:16:00 +0000

If HR directors ever felt that they were being neglected by the software industry, those days should now be well and truly over.

PM refuses to rule out 'golden skirt quotas' of 30%

catheverett — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 15:25:27 +0000

The Prime Minister has said he will not rule out introducing so-called ‘gold skirt quotas’ as a means of boosting the number of women at board level.

Age Diversity in the hospitality sector

inmyprime — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 13:51:58 +0000

It’s good to see that the Institute of Hospitality is actively promoting age diversity in the workplace. It’s a sector which for a number of reasons, not least the flexibility of hours and jobs on offer, has much to offer older workers.

The organisation has published a 50-page document - The case for recruiting and retaining older workers: a business imperative for the Hospitality sector – produced by Capita Consulting on behalf of the Department for Work and Pensions.

The knowledge pack is designed for hospitality sector stakeholders to understand and explain the benefits of older (50+) worker recruitment and retention. The document presents the business rationale for continuing to promote and support ongoing activity on the older worker agenda.

Further details are available at:

Blog: The emerging discipline of strategic workforce planning

catheverett — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 12:45:29 +0000

The most recent Ochre House HR Network meeting – a think tank of over 650 senior HR figures from employers including BT, Fujitsu and Vodafone - held in Munich in December, brought to light some very interesting issues.

We discovered that while practically all large companies now believe that a strategic approach to workforce planning is essential, only around a fifth have successfully embraced the concept.

And while the majority of the rest are intending to introduce strategic workforce planning over the coming year, what they really seem to be talking about is relatively unsophisticated resource planning.