UK - Settlement Agreements

A Settlement Agreement (previously known as a compromise agreement) is a legally binding confidential agreement between you and your employee.

Settlement Agreements - a guide for employers

UK - Parental Leave

New statutory rules first trailed last year, have now been announced as coming into force in April 2015, which allow working mothers to effectively share their statutory maternity leave and pay entitlement with their partners.

'The New Parental Leave rules - what they mean for the workplace

UK - Measuring Employee Attitudes

John Telfer, managing director at IBP looks at alternative methods for obtaining employee feedback and explains why a healthy dose of gaming theory can bring surprising results.

HR app asks workers "how d'you feel right now?"

USA - Unpaid Interns - a HR Legal Issue for 2014

One of the leading issues that will be facing many US HR teams in 2014 is the topic of unpaid interns.

Unpaid Interns - a HR Legal Issue for 2014

Big Data - Turning the Data Deluge into Strategic Value

While the focus in many companies is on long term projects to improve customer understanding, there are other areas of the business, most notably employee recruitment and development, where big data should be making a real difference.

Big Data - Turning the Data Deluge into Strategic Value

UK - Living Wage

Over 30,000 low paid workers stand to benefit from a rise in the 'UK Living Wage' rate worth up to £400 a year recently announced during Living Wage Week at the start of November.

Rise in UK Living Wage good news for low paid workers

Why Employers Should Ensure Employees are Prepared for the Future

Employment surveys have indicated that after health insurance, employee retirement plans are the most desired benefit of workers. In spite of that, a large number of small businesses still do not offer employee retirement plans.

Why Employers Should Ensure Employees are Prepared for the Future

Multicultural Business Meetings

Culture impacts everything you do. This follows on into areas of business such as the meeting - how cultures approach, run and conclude meetings differ.

Multicultural Business Meetings: How to Avoid Getting Lost in Translation

UK - Government's consultation on the prevention of illegal working regime

Nearly 500 individuals, employers and representative organisations responded to the Government's consultation indicating broad support for the Government's aims to get tough on rogue employers whilst supporting compliant employers.

Implications for business following the findings of the Government's consultation on the prevention of illegal working regime

UK - Further Changes to Employment Law - October 2013

2013 has been a significant year where changes to employment law and tribunal rules are concerned; but the change is still on-going. October brought further amendments to the law regarding executive pay, national minimum wage, third party harassment provisions and pension protection from TUPE.

Further Changes to Employment Law - October 2013

How HR leaders can get CEO sign-off for HR expenditures

Human resources expenditures often fall to the bottom of the list when organizations evaluate priorities and allocate funds. But as the HR leader, it’s your job to communicate the importance of your initiatives and secure the resources you need to drive results for your department and the organization.

Make Your Case: How HR leaders can get CEO sign-off for HR expenditures

How Culture Impacts Teamwork

A lack of attention to cross-cultural communication in a team setting can bury your organisation in strife, muted conflict, poor motivation and worse.

How Culture Impacts Teamwork and What You Can Do About it

NZ - Women SME owners doing better than men

Women SME (small and medium enterprises) owners in New Zealand are outperforming their male counterparts in a number of important areas according to a national survey.

Women SME owners doing better than men

B Lab Awards 79 Companies for Positive Impact on Workforce

Study after study shows that being ‘best for workers’ means being best for shareholders because the name of the game is winning the war for talent

B Lab Awards 79 Companies for Positive Impact on Workforce

USA - InterviewStream Transforms Video Interviews with WebRTC

Today's video platforms allow recruiters and hiring managers to conduct live and pre-recorded interviews with any candidate in any location, at any time - significantly reducing travel costs and scheduling hassles.

InterviewStream Transforms Video Interviews with WebRTC

UK - Law and Religious Clothing

Following the recent ruling that a Muslim woman must remove her face veil while giving evidence in her trial, and the investigation by the Daily Telegraph which revealed that the wearing of a full face veil has been banned for staff dealing with patients in 17 NHS hospitals, there has been much discussion about the wearing of face veils in public and particularly in the workplace.

Religious Clothing and the Rights of Employees - What Should an Employer do if an employee wishes to wear a veil/ other religious clothing?

UK - Summer changes to employment law and tribunal rules

2013 has been an important year for business owners, HR specialists and employment law practitioners. This is because we all have witnessed staged implementation of various changes to employment law and tribunal rules.

Summer changes to employment law and tribunal rules

UK - Engineering & IT Fuel August Rise in Permanent UK Jobs

A new job survey suggests that the labour market in the UK continues to strengthen as the total number of job vacancies increased at the sharpest rate in over six years.

Engineering & IT Fuel August Rise in Permanent UK Jobs

Canada - OHS and the HR profession

The OHS field is vast and to effectively manage the risk within organizations, you need the expertise on board to do it! In this article we will be reviewing the OHS program administration requirements.

OHS and the HR profession

UK - Preventing illegal working

Employers' duty to prevent illegal working is underpinned by a civil penalty regime which is now being reviewed with a raft of Government proposals aimed at strengthening and simplifying the system. The proposals are part of the forthcoming Immigration Bill designed to make it more difficult for illegal migrants to live and work in the UK.

Government proposals to overhaul the civil penalty regime for employers & top ten tips for right to work checks

UK - Government declares that "Firms have a duty to hire Britons" but what are the implications for employers?

Employers have a social responsibility to take on and train local young people, rather than taking the "easy option" of employing skilled workers from overseas, a Tory minister has said. In recent media interviews, skills minister Matthew Hancock said businesses that give local youngsters on-the-job training end up with more loyal and motivated workers. Employing more local workers would also aid economic recovery, he argued, calling on businesses to consider their social duty as well as commercial interests. His controversial comments are reminiscent of Gordon Brown's 2007 call for "British jobs for British workers" - and sparked similarly fierce debate. Surely such an approach amounts to discrimination, and downplays the merits of a flexible labour market? Or is it time for UK businesses that rely on migrant workers to rethink their recruitment culture?

Government declares that "Firms have a duty to hire Britons" but what are the implications for employers?

UK - What employers need to know about stress at work

Stress at work is a costly affair and hits businesses financially, but also has a negative influence on staff relationships, poor performance, staff turnover and leads to more management time being spent on resolving the issues arising from stress.

What employers need to know about stress at work

UK - Summer time blues for employers

Summer holidays should be a time for workers to relax, but advances in technology means that many people top up their stress levels, rather than their tans when they go on annual leave.

Alarmingly, research conducted by the Institute of Leadership and Management (ILM), revealed that over half of managers (54%) feel compelled to work while on holiday, with many finding it hard to switch off their smartphones, which leads to a fifth of workers returning from annual leave more stressed than before they left.

Summer time blues for employers

Canada - Is it HR’s job to manage OH&S?

The simple fact is that, in many organizations, Occupational Health and Safety (OH&S) has become a Human Resources (HR) responsibility. In an era where corporate social responsibility has grown to come to include health and safety, how can HR fulfill its role in building an effective OH&S system?

Is it HR’s job to manage OH&S?

A strategic internship programme can give you the satisfaction of training future employees for a successful, enjoyable career.

Laying the foundations for a sustainable future: How to start a successful internship programme

UK - Internships & HR - What You Need in Place

When managed with transparency and care, business internships create a win-win situation. Properly managed interns gain confidence and priceless work experience, and the advantages of taking on a good intern are innumerable. Managed badly, however, internships can be a pointless and demoralising exercise for the intern and costly for the employer. Here are a few tips for internship success.

Internships & HR - What You Need in Place

UK - Unnecessary Redundancy Payouts in the NHS

According to a report by the Government spending watchdog, the National Audit Office, large sums of money have seemingly been wasted on unnecessary redundancy pay-outs in the NHS.

Unnecessary Redundancy Payouts in the NHS

Australian Minimum Wage Decided

The Fair Work Commission has decided to increase the Australian national minimum wage by $15.80 a week or 41 cents per hour based on a 38 hour week for a full-time employee. The new national minimum wage will be $622.20 per week or $16.37 per hour and will affect more than 1.5 million workers in Australia from July 1 2013.

Australian Minimum Wage Decided

UK - Case Study: Home Group

Home Group has been using iTrent, MidlandHR's specialist HR and payroll solution, since 2010. Following the successful roll-out of iTrent HR and payroll, the company introduced iTrent Employee and Manager Self-Service as a key part of its new HR strategy.

The self-service strategy was introduced to provide both employees and managers with the technologies and tools to find information relevant to them in a more user friendly, timely manner.

Case Study: Home Group

UK- Performance Management Process

Developing an effective performance management process is crucial for a number of reasons; namely the direct financial gain from ensuring employees are successfully meeting expectations, for generating motivation and engagement amongst the workforce and for aligning employees to strategic objectives.

Performance Management: Creating an Effective Process and Dialogue

Australia - How to attract and hold on to top IT talent

It's a well known HR statistic that it costs an average of 2.5 times an individual's salary to replace an employee when they leave. So in today's unpredictable economic climate it is essential that businesses retain staff, especially those classed as 'top talent' - your highest performers.

How to attract and hold on to top IT talent

Social Media and Video

The recent announcement that Skype Video will be integrated into Outlook Email for instance shows how video, as a social tool, is becoming ever more engrained in modern day communications.

Collaboration at Work: If You Have a Message, Say it with Social Media

Using Training as a Strategic Tool

"What is the best way to get the maximum return on the training budget?"

At a time when training budgets are tight - the above question as to where to invest it for maximum returns is clearly a top-of-mind issue for many organizations. The dilemma is: Should the focus be on maximizing individual employee potential or should it be on maximizing organization returns?

Using Training as a Strategic Tool

UK - Talent Retention Biggest Challenge

This year's Employee Rewards Watch Survey from Thomsons Online Benefits highlights the on-going financial demands that companies are under to control costs at a time when 34 per cent are finding basic pay more difficult to control than any other element of reward.

42 per cent of organisations believe retaining talent will be the biggest challenge of 2013 according to tenth annual Thomsons survey

How To Attract Headhunters

One of the best ways to achieve a career advance is to become noticed by professional headhunters.

How To Attract Headhunters

UK - To Give An Executive Garden Leave?

When it comes to an executive leaving the job, it is pretty common that the companies put the executive on garden leave. In such a situation, the executive is paid for the notice period, while being ordered to stay at home and is restricted from business or from working with any other company. Every now and then, there have been debates whether garden leave should be given to a leaving executive or not. In such a case, including the 'garden leave' clause in the executive's employment contract will essentially be a good idea. However, such an inclusion doesn't necessarily mean that the employer can enforce it upon the executive. Therefore, it is considered wise on the part of an HR professional to weigh up the pros and cons before granting garden leave to a leaving executive.

To Give An Executive Garden Leave?

UK - Video Technology Enhances the Remote Worker’s Experience

Yahoo's recent announcement to ban remote working firmwide, starting from June 2013, has been the topic of a lot of media coverage and a reason for concern for many current flexible workers. Yahoo claim that "speed and quality are often sacrificed when working from home" but I would argue that if you provide the right technology - which is definitely available - it is possible for employers to support remote workers and make sure they are productive, involved and in touch.

How Video Technology Enhances the Remote Worker’s Experience

Canada - Work Pressure and Job Control

Having control over one's work schedule and job autonomy are associated with lower levels of job pressure. However, having more control of one's work can also have negative consequences.

Work Pressure and Job Control

USA - Performance Management: Not Just for Big Business Anymore

Smart analysis of performance issues across your workforce can identify opportunities for process improvement, employee training and many other ways to improve your business.


Performance Management: Not Just for Big Business Anymore

A Comprehensive Look at Unemployment in the U.S.

The unemployment rate in the U.S. rose to 7.9 percent for the month of January despite 157,000 new jobs being created, according to the Department of Labor. This number, however, isn't necessarily the best indicator of economic conditions in America. The unemployment rate is actually somewhere between 11 and 41 percent, depending on how the number is derived. The following is a guide that breaks down how the government calculates unemployment and what it means for you.

A Comprehensive Look at Unemployment in the U.S.

USA - Big brother is definitely watching

With as much as 60 to 80 percent of employee time on the Internet having nothing to do with work, organizations are facing an epidemic of 'cyberloafing.'

Big brother is definitely watching

USA - HR and Divorce

When looking for help during a divorce, few people consider the human resources department at their place of employment as a place to go for assistance.

How HR Can Help an Employee Survive and Thrive Through a Divorce

Canada - Panoramic Feedback

Once upon a time, an entrepreneur could design a good product and sell it unchanged for years. But today's Internet-based companies must constantly innovate to maintain their lead in a shifting marketplace.

Constant Innovation Is Key To Customer Satisfaction For Internet Companies

UK - Religious discrimination

HR experts Croner have advised employers to have robust, justifiable reasons for restricting the wearing of displays of religious faith such as crosses.

Religious discrimination

Canada - Helping women succeed in business

Ontario has introduced a new initiative for women entrepreneurs on low incomes.

Helping women succeed in business

Who Are You Meant To Be?

This book goes beyond any other personality system or four quadrant model currently available by integrating a century old personality system with breakthroughs in brain science and neuroplasticity. These two behavioral change experts demonstrate how psychological needs originating in the brain are the driving force for the behavior behind each of the functional areas of the brain. By showing us how the brain actually develops, they demonstrate what we have to do to get beyond the "aha" moment to real growth and development over time.

Who Are You Meant To Be?