Rick

December 2008 - Posts

• Are HR professionals ready for the recession?

  The CIPD’s John Philpott has predicted that 600,000 jobs will be lost next year and that the redundancies will continue into 2010. The British Chambers of Commerce have warned of pay freezes and even cuts in wages over the next year. It all sounds... Posted Dec 31 2008, 10:56 AM by Flip Chart Fairy Tales Filed under: Uncategorized

• Politics returns to economics

  Last month I wrote about how, as soon as things get difficult, all talk of public policy being decided by unelected groups of experts goes out of the window. Political independence is fine when the economy is growing and everything is running smoothly... Posted Dec 30 2008, 11:00 AM by Flip Chart Fairy Tales Filed under: Uncategorized

• No gongs for bankers this year

  It may come as a surprise to readers outside the UK that, as well as having a lax regulatory regime that allows financiers to make and keep large amounts of money while screwing up the economy for everyone else, this country also rewards them with public... Posted Dec 28 2008, 12:28 PM by Flip Chart Fairy Tales Filed under: Uncategorized

• Out of sorts

  Sorry for the lack of posts. I’ve been attacked by the germ that seems to have knocked half of London for six over the past couple of weeks. Judging by the blog stats, which have dropped off over the last few days, most people have already packed... Posted Dec 23 2008, 09:21 AM by Flip Chart Fairy Tales Filed under: Uncategorized

• Random Acts of Reality

  There are now dozens of blogs on my sidebar and I don’t get round to reading them all nearly often enough. At the weekend, when I was waiting in the car for my wife to arrive at the station, I trawled through a few of them on my iPhone. Yes, I know... Posted Dec 19 2008, 09:49 AM by Flip Chart Fairy Tales Filed under: Uncategorized

• The working time opt out - much ado about nothing

  There is a lot of fuss this morning about the European Parliament’s vote to remove the right to opt out of the EU’s Working Time Directive. The anti-EU papers are having a field day, business organisations are predicting ruin and employment... Posted Dec 18 2008, 01:12 PM by Flip Chart Fairy Tales Filed under: Uncategorized

• What if Santa hired management consultants?

  I’ve heard it said that Irish people tell the best Irish jokes and Jewish people tell the best Jewish jokes. The same is probably true of management consultants. The Berkeley Partnership is running a series of cartoons with the theme ‘What... Posted Dec 17 2008, 01:43 PM by Flip Chart Fairy Tales Filed under: Uncategorized

• The Department of Transport’s shared services fiasco

  Like most bloggers, I just love it when events prove me right. It’s only two weeks since I commented on the government’s plan to cut 30% off the cost of its back office functions by setting up shared service centres for human resources, payroll... Posted Dec 16 2008, 11:42 AM by Flip Chart Fairy Tales Filed under: Uncategorized

• Top financial brains conned by an old trick

  Just when we thought it couldn’t get any worse, we find out that our banks have been the victims not only of their own incompetence but of fraud as well. Even the cleverer banks, like HSBC and Santander, who managed to avoid the worst of the sub... Posted Dec 15 2008, 06:24 PM by Flip Chart Fairy Tales Filed under: Uncategorized

• Haringey’s gets new £200,000 children’s services boss,

  Another installment of the Haringey saga. The council, or should that be Ed Balls, has appointed a new director of children’s services. According to the London Evening Standard, Peter Lewis will earn £200,000 a year. That’s considerably more... Posted Dec 12 2008, 06:43 PM by Flip Chart Fairy Tales Filed under: Uncategorized

• The last Woolies Christmas

  At the Personnel Today awards night last month, there was a team from Woolworths up for one of the awards. As is usual at these events, everyone clapped their friends enthusiastically, while giving only polite applause to people they didn’t know... Posted Dec 11 2008, 03:39 PM by Flip Chart Fairy Tales Filed under: Uncategorized

• Is the sacking of Sharon Shoesmith legal?

  To the delight of many, including the local MP, Sharon Shoesmith has been sacked by Haringey Council. According to the council’s press release, she was dismissed without compensation or pay in lieu of notice. Now, as any HR manager or employment... Posted Dec 09 2008, 01:38 PM by Flip Chart Fairy Tales Filed under: Uncategorized

• The dreaded D-word

  Here’s Nobel prize-winning economist Paul Krugman writing in yesterday’s Guardian: The world economy is not in depression; it probably won’t fall into depression, despite the magnitude of the current crisis (although I wish I was completely... Posted Dec 07 2008, 04:38 PM by Flip Chart Fairy Tales Filed under: Uncategorized

• Mergers and organisational culture

  Now here’s a man after my own heart. Tata’s Ajoy Mukherjee reckons you should get your HR people involved as early as possible when planning a merger and that you should pay particular attention to organisational culture. Due diligence can... Posted Dec 04 2008, 02:36 PM by Flip Chart Fairy Tales Filed under: Uncategorized

• Payback time

  The government has announced that, from this week: Branded high-visibility jackets must be worn by offenders carrying out work on community payback projects. Jack Straw rejected criticisms that this amounted to medieval justice: What this is about is... Posted Dec 04 2008, 12:51 PM by Flip Chart Fairy Tales Filed under: Uncategorized