Rick

May 2009 - Posts

• The Bloody Apprentice

  This is funny. Well it made me laugh anyway. Cassette Boy produced this spoof of The Apprentice by splicing together clips from 43 episodes. Listen through headphones if you’re at work! Hat Tip: Guru Read More... Posted May 29 2009, 05:21 PM by Flip Chart Fairy Tales Filed under: Uncategorized

• HR Transformation: It’s the Business Partners, stupid!

  The Economist has just posted an article on HR Transformation. It begins: Human resources transformation refers to the massive restructuring of corporate human resources (HR) departments that took place in the decade or so after 1995. Before that, the... Posted May 26 2009, 05:47 PM by Flip Chart Fairy Tales Filed under: Uncategorized

• It’s politics not economics that threatens our AAA rating

  The announcement by Standard and Poors that it might, in four years or so, downgrade the UK’s credit rating from AAA to AA, has brought forth predictable hysteria from the usual suspects. But this doesn’t mean that the UK is currently in a... Posted May 22 2009, 02:33 PM by Flip Chart Fairy Tales Filed under: Uncategorized

• Vince Cable would be wasted as Speaker

  I’m dismayed by the number of political mavericks being talked up in the media as possible replacements for Michael Martin when he steps down as Speaker of the House of Commons next month. The Speaker’s job is absolutely not one for a maverick... Posted May 20 2009, 07:45 PM by Flip Chart Fairy Tales Filed under: Uncategorized

• HR war stories

  It probably sounds perverse, but one of the things I like about talking to HR people who have been around the block a few times is their war stories. This is a classic: Advised by a manager of an incident, I got the expected phone call from an aggrieved... Posted May 16 2009, 02:16 PM by Flip Chart Fairy Tales Filed under: Uncategorized

• Devolution and the NHS

  Sorry for the lack of posts this week. I have been asked to help out with a major re-organisation which will probably take up a lot of my time over the next few months. Posting may therefore be a bit light for a while. As I have said before, just because... Posted May 15 2009, 06:09 PM by Flip Chart Fairy Tales Filed under: Uncategorized

• The gender pay gap – an American perspective

  Thanks to the folks at Compensation Cafe for their Friday Special link to my post on the gender pay gap. Compensation Cafe, as the name suggests, is a group blog focused on remuneration. What’s the collective noun for a bunch of Comp and Ben specialists... Posted May 12 2009, 06:57 AM by Flip Chart Fairy Tales Filed under: Uncategorized

• Top 50 HR blogs in 2009

  Toronto-based entrepreneur and business commentator Evan Carmichael has named Flip Chart Fairy Tales as one of the Top 50 Human Resource Blogs To Watch In 2009. This is very flattering. I’m in the ‘On Organizations’ category, along with... Posted May 09 2009, 03:32 PM by Flip Chart Fairy Tales Filed under: Uncategorized

• Has Labour lost the will to fight?

  Has the Labour Party just lost its will to fight? As well as landing punches on itself, it seems to allow the opposition to dance around it, striking at will, while making no attempt to hit back. Last night’s Question Time was symptomatic. Nadine... Posted May 08 2009, 01:07 PM by Flip Chart Fairy Tales Filed under: Uncategorized

• The end of the beginning?

  This made me laugh on my long train journey this morning. The FT’s Lex columnist muses on the shortest recession in history: The end of the recession is nigh, at least if you believe investment banks. Merrill Lynch talks of a “three-dimensional... Posted May 07 2009, 06:31 PM by Flip Chart Fairy Tales Filed under: Uncategorized

• What causes the gender pay gap?

  Just a week after the government’s Equality Bill, with its provision to force companies to publish their gender pay gaps, comes the news that the pay gaps in government departments are as bad, or in some cases worse, than private companies. The... Posted May 06 2009, 04:07 PM by Flip Chart Fairy Tales Filed under: Uncategorized

• Who will be first to call in sick with ’swine flu’?

  I have deliberately avoided reading too many articles about swine flu in the newspapers. Most of it is hysterical rubbish. I prefer, instead, to read to doctor blogs. They’re much more fun. Dr Crippen is in today’s Guardian politely suggesting... Posted May 01 2009, 11:23 AM by Flip Chart Fairy Tales Filed under: Uncategorized