Editors Blog

There was much drama in the air at Personnel Today's Best Places to Work in HR event last week (partly due, no doubt, to the fact that our second annual awards ceremony was held at Shakespeare's historic Globe Theatre).

So who would take centre stage as the overall winner? That was the question.

The focus was on great performances of the management kind rather than the acting kind. And HR fellows looked on in anticipation as the drama unfolded and Motability Operations was crowned overall winner of the Best Places to Work in HR 2008.

Last year's winner was a hard act to follow, but this year's event, in association with Courtenay HR, exceeded expectations and provided a much-needed, fantastic feel-good atmosphere, with a buzz of excitement running through the crowd.

It was time to forget about the economic doom and gloom and celebrate, as HR teams were rewarded and recognised by Personnel Today for being great at their jobs.

Continue reading "Best Places to Work in HR | Awards show HR teams have plenty to be proud of" »

You will remember Financial Times columnist Luke Johnson - he of the 'The truth about the HR department' article that caused such a stink among the profession at the start of the year.

He launched a scathing critique labelling human resources a "necessary evil", and a term "that should strike fear into the heart of every self-respecting entrepreneur". He even compared HR's power within an organisation to that of the CIA and the Israeli intelligence service Mossad.

Well, he's back, but his musings in last week's FT was something HR professionals should read for different set of reasons. The vast number of employment regulations are "an intolerable burden on the private sector", he says.

Continue reading "Employment law | Overhaul required?" »

Continue reading "Morale | Forget bonuses, how about chocolate?" »

The Sunday Times ran a good piece last week on the Heyday retirement age challenge and its potential impact on older workers in the UK.

The article focused on Andrew Webster, a teacher at a West London school who was forced to retire at the age of 68, despite protests from staff and parents.

An estimated 25,000 people face default retirement in the UK every year, regardless of whether they want to continue working past the retirement age.

I was struck by comments from Neil Carberry, head of employment and pensions at the CBI, who said that getting rid of the mandatory retirement age would mean that the only way someone could be asked to leave was via a disciplinary process, which could mean "a very undignified end to some people's careers".

That's an interesting view and one I'm sure many in the HR community would have a view on.

Continue reading "Retirement age | Campaign gathers pace..." »

As the City begins to resemble Gomorrah, as the fat-cats make a quick exit saying 'Sodom... Sod 'em all' as they run off into the sunset with their fat wads, leaving twitchy traders to talk themselves (and the rest of us) into a recession, it seems its all the fault of one, unfeasibly powerful, all-knowing überbeing.

But while God undoubtedly moves in mysterious ways - and not just because He's got a bad case of haemorrhoids - it is not that non-existent deity that is dictating events and leading to the biggest haemorrhaging of jobs in the history of jobs.

Continue reading "Robert Peston | One Horseman of the Apocalypse" »

It might seem mad with the current meltdown in the financial markets to start trying to get employers to report on employee health and wellbeing in company reports, but that's exactly what employers group Business in the Community are doing. And I, for one, support them. Just to remind you, BITC tires to get its 850 members including many from the FTSE 100 to take Corporate Social Responsibility seriously. Today BITC launched the annual report for its campaign Business Action on Health. The campaign aims to make employee health and wellbeing a boardroom issue.

The report shows that eight out of 10 FTSE 100 companies are publicly reporting on employee health and wellbeing compared to seven out of 10 last year. Forty are doing this in their company reports and the campaign aims to get 75% doing so by 2011. But is health and wellbeing a boardroom issue or just a low level employee welfare matter? It all boils down to the business case.  Tools like Business Healthcheck, developed by PwC and launched in March alongside Dame Carol Black's recommendations on work and health, show how to measure the return on investment in health and wellbeing. There are many good reasons to take the issue seriously but at a time when cost cutting is high on the agenda of most boardrooms surely anything that can demonstrably save money is worth a try?

"Employee engagement is not just a buzzword - it has a clear link to increased business success". Not the words of a leading thinker or top practitioner at the latest HR conference, but of a cabinet minister.

Recently resfuffled business secretary John Hutton's words upon announcing a government review into new ways of increasing employee engagement should be welcomed by the HR community.

The fact that the government has finally woken up to what the vast majority of us have known for years - that engaged workers perform better, stay in their jobs longer and boost profits - is a shot in the arm for the profession.

Continue reading "Employee engagement | Hutton puts HR firmly on the government's agenda" »

Personnel Today is supporting a campaign by the Employers Forum on Age (EFA) to force the government to commit to remove the default retirement age (DRA) in 2011, rather than merely reviewing it.

Ditching the retirement age will provide much needed clarity for both employers and employees and give organisations more than two years to prepare. EFA director Catharine Pusey outlines the arguments for scrapping the default retirement age in this week's magazine.

The EFA is working with a growing number of employers, including Co-op and Hertfordshire County Council, who are operating successfully without a fixed retirement age and is encouraging other employers to follow suit.

It is our view - and the EFA's - that it's inevitable the default retirement age will be removed altogether, whatever the final outcome of the Heyday legal challenge currently being considered by the European Court of Justice.

So now's the time for HR professionals to show leadership and make the decision to ditch the retirement age. You can register your support for our campaign by signing our petition on the Number 10 website.

The wait is over. We've completed our quest to identify the people making the biggest impact in HR and business and it's time to reveal our Top 40 Power Players 2008. This is Personnel Today's ranking of the most influential practitioners in HR today.

If you're not aware of the people featured in this year's list, then you need update your contact book and start networking. Time to get to know them, perhaps?

So how did we identify our Power Players? Over the past few months the Personnel Today editorial team has debated and argued the list and nominations and voted on the finalists.

With valued input from our editorial advisory board members - a range of ­academics, senior HR directors and consultants - and importantly you, our readers, we have ranked the nominated individuals in order of their industry influence and impact throughout 2008.

Continue reading "Power Players | You help to choose HR's top 40" »

Civil servants' union the PCS has posted a five-minute video on YouTube to help get its argument across in the long-running dispute over public sector pay.

The film features numerous public sector workers describing their predicament inter-cut with  Mark "I'm angry" Serwotka, general secretary of the PCS, questioning the discrepancies between public and private sector pay rises.

Jennifer, an admin officer, makes the point that while MPs receive a £24,000 expense account, she earns just £15,000 per year for a a 37-hour week.

It may not be the best argument for better public sector pay but the emotion with which it's relayed makes it pretty compelling.

Could this be the future of industrial relations? Upon writing this post, this clip had had 637 views since it was posted on 2 September, so perhaps not. Nevertheless it does start to show the internet can be used to garner public support for a cause that might otherwise create a negative reaction...

Continue reading "Industrial relations for Web 2.0 | PCS union make its case for better pay on YouTube" »