HR Heads

I read with great interest this morning an article published on PersonnelToday.com by Mike Berry regarding our inability to completely ‘take a break’. As my annual leave is due to start tonight (and I am away for just one week!) I already have the nervous feeling that it will all happen whilst I am away.

According to a survey by the Institute of Leadership & Management (ILM) it was found that one-third admitted they work while on annual leave and 4 in 10 return to work feeling more stressed than when they left. This is largely due to the advancement of technology - Blackberries and smartphones are the main culprits for holiday work - more than two-thirds of respondents who own one admit to checking them at least once a day, if not more.

So for the next week I shall endeavour to be out of communication (the urge to check the blackberry at least once per day I sure will be overwhelming though!)  Looking forward to speaking to you on my return on Monday 2nd August…. What will the inbox be like???  I would love to hear from you, and don’t forget to check the live jobs or submit your CV and I will respond as soon as I am back.

Once again, we had a fantastic turnout to the HR Forum that featured guest speaker Leslie Spiers. Discussing engagement within organisations in this trying economic period, Leslie brought to life both realistic situations and numerous examples of how he had improved employee engagement across the businesses he currently works with - taking inspriration from groups including the Masai!

Engagement seems to be one of the most significant factors for businesses facing cost cuts, reduction in workforce and generally negative messages that are often delivered via HR. Severel HR leaders attending the Forum spoke of longer term plans but acknowledged it was difficult to see an impact from those plans in the very short term.

Of significant interest however, was the collective agreement that through engagement strategies, businesses could empower their employees to have more accountability and ownership of their roles within the companies; that a broader and better understanding of where the company was financially actually served to get the employees ‘buy-in’ to new initiatives - often changing existing patterns and habits.

If anyone would like a copy of the presentation by Leslie, or wishes to add their comments - we would be dlighted to hear from you.

With reportedly one quarter of workers thinking about moving job and a summer of strikes on the cards, the big issue facing employers this year will be how to keep staff motivated and happy (Evening Standard 25/5/10).

It is a subject that HR professionals will be facing over the next 6 months. HR professionals skilled in efficient drives, cost cutting and redundancies are no longer those most in demand. Instead it is those with experience of employee engagement and talent management who are increasingly sought after.

A recent CIPD study indicates that job satisfaction has fallen and therefore businesses need to focus on employee engagement and retention to ensure commercial productivity. Claire McCartney, advisor to the CIPD is quoted as saying “we have looked at the skills needed from the next generation of HR professionals - this is not just best practice, but also next practice - and found that HR will increasingly be insight drive”. There will be an increasing focus on collecting intelligent data about employees and using this in engagement and retention.

As such, our next HR Breakfast Forum (Thursday 1st July 2010) will feature Leslie Spiers from Boardroom Dynamics providing insight to leadership engagement, motivation and talent management. Boardroom Dynamics is a management development and consulting company that also specialises in director assessment and executive coaching. Leslie’s career has spanned the public and the private sectors and has involved him working in organisations ranging from small companies to multi-national conglomerates.

If you would like to join us for Breakfast - please contact Jennifer Gaster on 01962 869838 to book your place.

The session with Simon Walker from Talentsmoothie was thought provoking as well as practical.  The benefits of appealing to all generations in the workplace really hit home with a number of case studies showing how some organisations are actually seeing hard ROI from successfully engaging Gen Y.  At HR Heads we are conscious of ensuring we help you to appeal to the talent you want to recruit.  And we believe that our knowledge of the different preferences and attitudes of different generations makes us very competitive as recruiters.

To find out more about Generational Diversity visit www.talentsmoothie.com.

The next HR Heads Breakfast Forum is taking place on Wednesday 17th February 2010.  Our guest speaker is Simon Walker from Talent Smoothie who will discuss and challenge us on our perceptions of Generation Y - generational diversity in the workplace and what HR should do about this!  Contact me if you would like to reserve a place….

This morning saw a group of HR professionals discuss the use of Social Media as a recruitment tool - and how scary was that! The statistics given by both Simon Chalk (LawtonWare) and Sarah Whitemore (Warner Goodman) indicated that 45% HR Managers in America now refer to Facebook to find out more information about a potential employee and 35% of those then actively chose not to recruit that person as a result of something they saw on their pages.

This is a phenomenon that is incredibly active in the working world and as yet only two people who attended this morning had used a means of Social Media to conduct their recruitment process. As HR professionals, we seem to be behind the times - myself included!

If you were unable to attend the session today but would like to receive the notes, please don’t hesitate to contact me - I would be happy to share them with you.

Companies are increasingly bringing the recruitment function in house as the economic climate continues to make businesses and in particular, HR functions within those businesses accountable to their value added service delivery.

However, how many companies are sizable enough to have a specialist Recruitment / Resourcing function? And of those businesses whose HR function handles it – how many of them are trained in the legislation pertaining to interview questions, discrimination laws and competency based selection to ensure a fair and consistent approach. Many organisations leave it to the Line Manager to initiate the recruitment process without any guidance at all and therefore potential employees first impressions may not be as good as they could be.

In the same breath, how many businesses are engaged in the current social media frenzy which is the key attraction strategy that should be used to engage potential employees in this market?

Conducting the recruitment process ‘In House’ could be an extremely valuable, money saving process – if done well and results in the appointment of successful and talented individuals. If not done so well however, businesses may find themselves recruiting on ‘gut feel’, those who are liked rather than good, without evidence of due process and criteria based assessment. If this person then leaves or is asked to leave, the recruitment process was a complete waste of time with the impact on the business significant in terms of clients, relationships and continuation.

Another possible issue is that different managers may apply a different rationale to the recruitment process and therefore consistency in the business is hard to achieve. Similarly, giving feedback to unsuccessful candidates can be a huge pitfall with various discriminations raised unconsciously.

Starting with attraction, I would work with your business to educate the relevant Managers – Line Managers as well as HR if appropriate – to present a consistent strategy and be able to carry out an effective, criteria based recruitment process for the vacancies that your business will need to fill in the future. Working with the Management Team, I would introduce confidence in writing Job and Person specifications, sifting CV’s to shortlist and competency based interviewing techniques to enable your business to recruit the right candidate first time.

Having worked within the Recruitment Industry for 12 years, I have experienced the truly good and the desperately ugly – the worst case being a MD during interview asking if a lady candidate was planning to fall pregnant in the next 12 months or so!! Your business profile and reputation is invaluable and yet a bad impression spread simply by word of mouth from an unsuccessful and disgruntled candidate could be incredibly damaging.

Thursday 29th Jan saw our 3rd HR Heads Breakfast Forum take place.  Attended by a truly diverse representation from the local HR community (from those working in financial services to retail to the police!), the topic for discussion was ‘Formal Investigations - Hints and Tips’.  Our guest speaker for the morning was Linda Taylor from The Employee Relations Consultancy and she very capably navigated us through the potential pitfalls in this area.

It was particularly interesting to hear the way in which different organisations have different minimum requirements and how they addressed those, some having to do more and be more formal at an earlier stage than others.  The role of companion was also addressed and it was found that training dedicated ‘companions’ tends to improve their willingness to partake and reduce the cause for concern at being seen to take sides.

However different professionals and organisations handle their investigations, what was evidently clear from all attending was that mediation is the preferred and therefore immediate response where possible.  Most professionals were keen to resolve in an amicable style where possible and in the increasing litigious world that we live in, this has enormous potential to reduce costs to all.

The next HR Heads Breakfast Forum is scheduled for Wed 13th May 2009.  To reserve a place, please contact us on speaktous@hrheads.co.uk

Well, despite being affected by a major accident that brought most of Southampton to a grinding halt, the 2nd HR Forum was a great success.  Discussed over a delicious breakfast was the hot topic of Employment Law - especially in relation to the use of Agency Workers and where responsibility lies when there is an issue.  We were very lucky to have Sarah Whitemore from Warner Goodman (Commercial Road, Southampton) run the session and provide her expert knowledge to those who attended.  For those of you who did not make it, we have notes available, so please shout and we can send a copy out to you.

We look forward to running the next HR Forum over breakfast in Jan 2009 and invites shall be issued very shortly.

The Labour Market Outlook Survey conducted by KPMG in conjuction with the CIPD has released its latest findings. In summary:

1,221 UK employees surveyed

81% of employers expect to recruit in Q3

29% of employers in the UK plan to increase staff levels through this recruitment

27% of employers in the Southeast of England plan to increase staff levels in Q3

38% expect their total number of employees to rise over the next 12 months