Opinion – Page 7
-
OpinionJonny Gifford: The role of corporate social responsibility in business
It’s about ethical, values-based leadership, human rights, fair wages (at both ends of the spectrum), governance, transparency and diversity.In the short term, it can be more profitable to disregard ethics. But there are strong business benefits in rooting HR and benefits strategies in CSR, even though they can be harder ...
-
OpinionRosemary Lemon: The benefits of benefits
With benefits, the clue is in the word and, what’s more, the advantage of having benefits should be mutual. Benefits should be something considered of value to both the employee and the employer.Too often, they are seen as ‘normal market practice’ at a certain grade and taken for granted. Or, ...
-
OpinionNicola Kerr: Delay to extension of flexible-working arrangements
This legislation will give employees the statutory right to request a contract variation for flexible-working arrangements, and will require employers to consider the request in a reasonable manner.However, the right to request does not create a right to flexible working.As part of its strategy to create a modern workplace for ...
-
Opinion
Kuljit Kaur: Staff motivation and morale issues in the NHS
HR professionals in the NHS must examine how to get the best value out of their employee benefits and incentive budgets to deliver tangible results.While pay hits the headlines, studies show that the main reason employees leave an organisation is lack of recognition, with our recent NHS Employee survey finding ...
-
Opinion
Ian Hodson: Financial education will be key in 2014
One thing that has become critical is the provision of financial education in the workplace and ensuring that the right offering is there to ensure that financial planning will underpin employees’ career and retirement planning. This is becoming even more important when looking at the pensions landscape, the demographic changes ...
-
Opinion
Jeff Archer: How to balance healthcare education and interventions
Where busy employees often struggle is with the important question of why they should invest in making changes to their food routine or healthy lifestyle in general when they are already busy enough with day-to-day living. What is clear, however, and we’ve all seen this happen, is that once any ...
-
Opinion
Colin Hodgson: Don't underestimate role of pre-paid cards in global recognition
The first is the way we talk about reward and recognition. It is important for us all to remember that recognition is what employees want and what organisations need to give.Recognition does not always have to be associated with reward, but where it is, the reward reinforces the act of ...
-
Opinion
Iain McMath: Cost-efficient Christmas incentives
When looking at Christmas incentive strategies, employers need to remember how diverse their workforce is and, consequently, what individuals would, or would not, appreciate as a gift. For example, a non-drinker may not appreciate a bottle of wine or champagne, and a vegetarian is likely to balk at a frozen ...
-
Opinion
Benjamin Reid: Performance reviews need to be open and honest
For Frederick Winslow Taylor’s Scientific Management Approach in 1911, performance review was something managers did between themselves to establish what tasks workers should do.Even by 1957, Douglas MacGregor (he of Theory X and Y fame) was finding himself ‘uneasy’ at the way in which performance appraisal puts managers in the ...
-
Opinion
Tim Roberts: The connection between HR and sustainability
The connection between HR and sustainability might appear intangible. Does ‘employer of choice’ equal sustainable HR? The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development stresses that embedding sustainability requires us to link vision and values to the environmental contribution required from every employee. Yes, HR’s critical contribution is embedding transformational change. ...
-
Opinion
Cary Cooper: How to build sustainable staff motivation
I have real doubts that sustainable motivation comes from a bonus culture. As we have seen in the banking industry, it had the unintended consequence of encouraging risk-taking behaviour that ultimately created the financial crisis.For me, sustainable motivation comes from some sense of ownership of success. This can come in ...
-
Opinion
Matt Duffy: Accurate data is key to effective segmentation
Employers should liaise with HR and payroll to ensure they have as much relevant information on employees as possible.Analyse this data to identify different segments and populations of employees. While most employers acknowledge the obvious categories based on standard demographic dimensions, such as generation, gender and ethnicity, few recognise that ...
-
Opinion
Olga Tregaskis: Work practices could boost productivity
High-performance work practices (HPWP) is the term used to refer to HR management practices associated with employee engagement, performance management, work organisation, skills development and learning. Increases in performance do not necessarily come from a single HR practice, but from the synergies of an architecture on performance management that values, ...
-
Opinion
Peter O'Hara: Workplace giving via flexible benefits
We work with many employers and flexible benefits suppliers to provide workplace-giving schemes via flex portals, and many employers also enhance their employees’ donations made via the scheme.We completely agree that it is vital to communicate all benefits and also to perhaps consider being far more flexible with window opening ...
-
Opinion
Charles Cotton: Take care with Christmas perks
The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development’s Employee outlook: summer 2012 survey, published in May, found that more than half of employees are facing financial struggles, so it is important that employers recognise this when introducing or changing an incentive scheme, especially one that is themed around, or linked to, ...
-
Opinion
Guest opinion: Richard Scase, Emeritus professor of organisational behaviour, Kent Business School
The rise of China and India as economic powers means large employers need to find new ways of motivating and inspiring staff, but smaller firms may have the answers they are looking for, says Richard Scase, Emeritus professor of organisational behaviour, Kent Business School, University of KentArticle in fullThe world ...
-
Opinion
Guest opinion: Ivan Robertson, managing director of Robertson Cooper and Emeritus professor at the University of Manchester
What employees crave is to feel good and their psychological wellbeing can result in greater commitment and energy, particularly if bosses know how to use it to its greatest effect, says Ivan RobertsonArticle in fullAll enterprises want to get the best possible results. They do this by directing and sustaining ...
-
Opinion
Guest opinion: Barry Hoffman, head of human resources, Charteris
When looking to motivate and reward professional services staff, it can be easy to subscribe to some with common misconceptions - the trick is to avoid doing so by looking to individuals’ value, says Barry HoffmanArticle in fullIf you believe all the tabloid hype, then the City is awash with ...
-
Opinion
Guest opinion: Talent management. By Duncan Brown, assistant director general, the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development
The merit of talent management is a hotly-contested debate but does it really lead to an over-emphasis on external recruitment and can individual stars prove to be counterproductive?Psychologist Carl Jung observed that "great talents are the most lovely and the most dangerous fruits on the tree of humanity: they hang ...
-
Opinion
Guest opinion: Align reward with business and staff
There is compelling evidence that badly-designed or poorly-installed HR policies are often more damaging in reducing employee commitment than having no policy in place at all.Article in fullEmployees are placing increasing importance on how their manager, and not just their organisation, rewards them. This poses several challenges for HR, not ...