USA - Negativity and Blogging

One of the easiest ways for disgruntled employees to turn negativity into a dangerous weapon is to create a weblog or 'blog'.

Managing Workplace Negativity - Negativity and Blogging

Australia - WA & NSW Pay Awards

Award wage workers in NSW and WA have today won a $20 a week pay rise from their State Industrial Relations Commissions despite the Federal Government arguing that no increase at all should be awarded to low-paid workers in NSW and WA. (ACTU)

$20 Pay Increase for NSW & WA Workers Sets Benchmark for 'Low Pay'Commission

New Zealand - Holiday Entitlement

Minimum annual leave entitlements will rise to four weeks in 2007. What is the likelihood of an increase to five weeks for people already entitled to four weeks?

Five Weeks Holidays Still A Dream

HR And Training Not Delivering Skilled Workforces

Recent international research conducted for Accenture shows that most senior executives surveyed consider that their workforces lack the skills needed by their companies to achieve market leadership, and even critical functions are not performing as well as they should. Moreover, only 11% of respondents said they were very satisfied with the performance of their human resource (HR) function with marginally fewer (10%) rating their training function very highly.


HR And Training Not Delivering Skilled Workforces

Mergers And Acquisitions Failing To Achieve Value

Mergers and acquisitions (M&As) continue apace but many deals fail to create expected value, according to a recent survey by Accenture and the Economist Intelligence Unit. More ...

Mergers And Acquisitions Failing To Achieve Value

New Zealand - Temporary Pacific Island Workers

The Pacific Cooperation Foundation (PCF) has welcomed comments by Phil Goff, NZ Trade and Defence Minister, that New Zealand is now committed to looking at potential temporary labour schemes for Pacific Islanders.

Pacific Island Temporary Labour Schemes

UK - HR and IT

Results from a study by talent management solutions company Taleo, show a significant disconnect between HR's strategic functions, including talent acquisition and workforce planning, and IT ability to support these business initiatives.

HR Poorly Supported By IT Systems

UK - Outsourcing Threatens Lives

Thousands of lives are being threatened because of the 'dangerous practice' of sending medical notes overseas for typing, according to speakers at the UNISON annual conference.

Outsourcing Medical Records Threatens Lives

UK - Offshoring

A fifth of employees in the UK worry about their jobs because of the risk of 'offshoring' to low-cost countries such as India or China, according to new research from consultants Watson Wyatt.

Offshoring Worries But Does Not Demotivate Employees

Canada - New Brunswick Call Centres

New Brunswick Premier Bernard Lord announced this week that Illinois-based Virtual-Agent Services (VAS) has established a customer-contact centre in the Town of Nackawic, its 15th centre in the province. It is expected that the new centre will create up to 50 jobs within its first year of operation.

Boost For New Brunswick Contact-Centre Industry

New Zealand - UK Poaching Social Workers

Commenting on reports that British organizations are offering up to NZ$110,000 to attract social workers from New Zealand, National Party Welfare spokeswoman Judith Collins says she fears many frontline social workers will be tempted by the offers of big pay cheques in the UK and also Australia when the profession here is facing a staffing crisis.

UK Poaching Kiwi Social Workers

USA - Overachieving Execs

Business executives are showing a dramatic boost in their achievement drives, according to a new study by Hay Group's McClelland Center for Research and Innovation. In fact, they are overachieving to the point of harming not only their own careers, but also the organizations they lead.

Overachieving Execs

Canada - Labour Shortage

A survey by Hewitt Associates, a global HR services company, has found that big and small organizations in all industries throughout Canada are finding it challenging to attract and retain workers.

Employers Struggling To Find And Keep Employees

UK - World Cup 'Sickies'

Amicus has attracted the wrath of business owners following widely-cited reports in the media that it has encouraged World Cup 'sickies'. Meanwhile employees are spending more time on World Cup websites.

World Cup 'Sickies'

USA - Performance Management

Information Builders, the enterprise business intelligence (BI) standard of choice for organizations around the world, announced that the company has been named a leader in the Ventana Research 2006 Performance Management Vendor and Product Scorecard report. Ventana Research, the leading performance management research and advisory services firm, evaluated more than 20 vendors over a three-month period to offer enterprises the tools necessary to evaluate when selecting a partner for enabling performance management. Information Builders was cited for empowering executives with the understanding required to make strategic business decisions based on their organization's business performance.

Ventana Research Names Information Builders a Leader in Enabling Performance Management

USA - 'Fatherpreneurs'

Entrepreneurs with families are not the absent fathers they're often thought to be, according to Business.com's recent survey conducted in time for Father's Day, June 18. The survey is a snapshot of today's business owners with children that Business.com is calling "fatherpreneurs."

A Happy Father's Day Surprise: Business.com Survey Reveals New Generation of 'Fatherpreneurs' Who Seek to Balance Family and Work

USA - MBA Careers

Many young MBAs who go into investment banking might just owe their career to happenstance as much as their die-hard allegiance to Wall Street, according to research released in Stanford Knowledgebase.

Stanford Business School Research: Are Wall Street Careers Just the Luck of the Draw?

UK - Employment Situation

Unemployment rate rises again to 5.3% but the number of people in work is the highest figure on record.

Employment Statistics

UK - Performance Management Systems

Most organizations have lost sight of the fact that performance management systems should aim to enhance performance by motivating staff.


Performance Management Systems Fail To Motivate

UK - Sexual Harassment

New guidelines released by the Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) are designed to help employers combat the ongoing problem of sexual harassment in the workplace. On the eve of the twentieth anniversary of Jean Porcelli's landmark case that established sexual harassment as a form of harassment under the Sex Discrimination Act (SDA) it remains all too common, says the EOC.

Sexual harassment is no joke

USA - Pilot Age Restrictions

Thousands of pilot jobs in this country will soon be outsourced to foreign airlines with the apparent consent of the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA), the nation’s largest pilot union. Industry observers say that these job transfers will occur due to the union’s support for an FAA regulation that prohibits American pilots from flying for American companies past the age of 60 (the "Age 60 rule"). In contrast to ALPA’s stated position, a significant number of ALPA’s own members along with pilots at Southwest, JetBlue, Air Tran, and the British Air Line Pilots Association (BALPA) are actively lobbying to change the age limit. In March, the International Civil Aviation Organization voted to establish age 65 as the new international standard.

America’s Most Experienced Pilots...The Next Wave of Outsourcing

Global - Learning Management

HRsmart, Inc, a leading global talent management solution provider, announces its launch of the latest in learning management technology.

HRsmart Launches Latest Version Of Its Learning Management Solution

USA - Staffing Software Partnership

TempWorks Software, an innovative developer of leading software solutions designed for the staffing industry, today announced its recently formed partnership with Metro Software Consultants, Inc., the developer of the staffing software solution, TempPak. The arrangement enables Metro Software to offer the TempWorks fully integrated software solution and its additional web service applications to its customers as an alternative solution or upgrade to current TempPak offerings.

TempWorks Software and Metro Software Consultants, Inc. Form Strategic Partnership

Australia - Employment Situation

Unemployment falls to 4.9%

Seasonally adjusted, the number of people in employment also rose by 56,000 to 10,142,200 in May.

Global - Union Rights Report

115 trade unionists were murdered for defending workers' rights in 2005, while more than 1,600 were subjected to violent assaults and some 9,000 arrested, according to the ICFTU's Annual Survey of Trade Union Rights violations, published today.

Brutal Suppression of Workers' Rights Detailed in Worldwide Report

Australia - Wage Freeze

"Today marks twelve months since workers on federal awards last won a pay increase ($17 a week) and under the Howard Government's new IR laws they will now have to wait indefinitely for their next wage rise," ACTU Secretary Greg Combet said today.

A Federal Government 'wage freeze' for more than 1.6 million low paid workers starts today, 7 June 2006, says the ACTU.

UK - Strike Activity

Today's figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showing a sharp rise in the proportion of total working days lost to labour disputes in the public sector during this decade indicates that there is more to good employment relations than improvements in job prospects and pay conditions alone, comments Dr John Philpott, Chief Economist at the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD).

Increase in strike activity highlights public sector paradox, as unrest coincides with jobs and pay boom

UK - Working Time Opt-out

The UK Government is right to stand firm over the UK opt-out from the Working Time Directive, according to the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD).

Stand firm on Working Time Directive opt-out, CIPD urges government

Australia/NZ - TMS Asia-Pacific acquires Travel Personnel Limited New Zealand

Australia-based International travel and hospitality management specialist TMS Asia-Pacific (TMS) has acquired Auckland-based Travel Personnel Limited New Zealand.

TMS Asia-Pacific acquires Travel Personnel Limited New Zealand