This week’s news in brief
HR careers advice
A new service offering free career advice to HR professionals will be
launched in June. The service, provided by Personnel Today and
Personneltoday.com, will offer advice from experts on every aspect of career
management. Readers wishing to take advantage of this service should e-mail [email protected]
Accidental savings
Businesses could save £600m if employers investigated every reportable
accident and acted on the findings, according to the Health and Safety
Executive. Under a proposal by the Health and Safety Commission, it would
become compulsory for companies to investigate all reportable work-related
accidents, ill-health or near misses that could have resulted in serious
injury. www.hse.gov.uk/condocs
Honour for Shell
Shell’s Open University received an "honourable mention" at the
Corporate University Xchange/Financial Times Excellence Awards in Las Vegas
after being in operation for only five months. Its European-based online
university has signed up 4,000 Shell staff out of a possible 10,000 in the
first few months of operation. www.shell.com
Fire-resistant HR
City University’s HR team managed to get fully operational only two days
after a fire gutted their offices. The nine-strong team are now working out of
the students’ computer units after their offices were flooded during efforts to
put out the fire on 21 May. The fire destroyed the fifth floor, including the
journalism department. www.city.ac.uk
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Readers’ survey vote
Last week, 62 per cent of the 242 news barometer voters did not think it is
necessary to have an HR background to be effective at the job. "The most
successful HR leaders have always been those who understand both the HR and
non-HR dynamics of their business. This requires more than just an HR background,"
said Steve James, HR director of Deloitte & Touche.
