Guru

This week’s guru

Running the country? That’s just the day job

Do you remember the Blairs’ public spat over parental leave? Well, you’ll be
pleased to know that Tony has managed to balance his home and work commitments
following Leo’s birth.

At the Opportunity Now awards in London last week, Cherie Blair told the
audience that the Prime Minister does manage to pop up to the nursery to see
the baby after a hard day running the country.

But with barrister Cherie embarking on a new case and Tony trying to secure
Labour’s second term, Guru is concerned that little Leo could suffer.

The next government could learn a few lessons from the HSBC bank, which won
the Framework for Action category at the awards. The judging panel, which
included Personnel Today’s editor Noel O’Reilly, was impressed by the bank’s
attempts to promote women into management positions and support of work-life
balance practices.

PC job-seekers choose Tuesday

Tuesday is a very important day. Not only is it the day Personnel Today hits
the desks of HR professionals, but it is also when all your staff are looking
for new jobs.

Research by a leading online European recruitment agency shows that it
receives the most visitors on a Tuesday. This represents 37 per cent of the
500,000 page views a week.

Most staff access the jobs site during their lunch hour through their work
PC. Unsurprisingly, staff showed little interest in investigating new career
options over the weekend, claims jobpilot.co.uk.

We’ve all heard about your type

Guru has already warned disciples that the type of mobile phone ring you
choose sends out messages about your personality.

Now research suggests that the style of typefaces used in e-mails also tells
the recipients about your character.

Psychologist Dr Sigman was commissioned by printer firm Lexmark to perform
the study.

Sans serif typefaces, such as Arial and Modern, are the "sensible pair
of shoes of print", whereas curvy typefaces such as Georgia are used by
fashionable types.

Times New Roman and Palatino show trustworthiness and a compromise between
old and new.

Guru was disturbed to find that Courier – his favourite – is the
"anorak of typefaces" and tends to be used by boozy, chain-smoking
journalists. Anyone for a pint?

Police go back to grass-roots level

Like an old episode of The Bill, the police stories continue to run and run.

Personnel Today revealed that the Police Federation’s pre-election calls for
an extra 12,000 officers could be impossible to meet (22 May).

But Guru hears that those police forces that are trying to swell their
numbers are experiencing some unforeseen benefits – well-manicured gardens
being one of them.

One unnamed force has used new recruits as gardeners because there were not
enough places in police training schools. The £18,000-a-year recruits had
already completed a two-week induction course and were on the payroll.

Other training colleges are struggling to cope. Apparently, Hendon Training
Centre in London is so under pressure to train coppers that Scotland Yard was
hiring hotel rooms at £75 a night to house recruits.