Is the most popular person in your business singlehandedly destroying it? For some years my path has regularly crossed an individual who on the face of it is the driving force behind the team’s success. She brings in energy, vibrancy, and draws people together. She appears caring and empathetic. But what I have increasingly become […]
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Fake news from the HR department…or is it a case of blame HR for everything?
It’s been my experience across the past few years that Google page 1, in trying to be helpful, is actually causing untold problems in our society. Have you found that everyone is becoming ever more lazy at checking the facts or digging into the detail? Books have already gone ‘audible’ so we don’t even have […]
The Demonisation of Zero Hours Contracts
Welcome to my blog. In this blog I wanted to talk about zero hours and flexibility. It infuriates me when employment practices are dictated by over emotional and ill thought through media/public hysteria. In recent years, I have been horrified by the demonisation of zero hours contracts. We live in a world where 75% of […]
Harassment in the workplace … are your staff saying #Metoo?
#MeToo has been trending since the Harvey Weinstein media fury kicked off. Men and women are coming forwards saying that they too have had to deal with harassment. I empathise. It is endemic. Both the serious stuff and the lesser kind of harassment. The loud assertive voices saying ‘get over it’ or ‘you’re being over […]
Is workplace anger making life miserable?
A topic that seems to have raised its head on a regular basis over the past few months has been that of anger. Perhaps prompted by us at Jaluch supporting a lot of organisations with redundancies, grievances and disciplinaries at the moment…. a real hotbed of change and unrest perhaps brought on in part by […]
Racism in the workplace – act now and stamp it out!
In recent months at Jaluch, we have seen more racism in the workplace than at any other time I can recall in the past 20 years of running an HR business. And whilst some of it is mild (if there is such a thing) what is really worrying is that quite a bit of it […]
Are Restraint of Trade Clauses about to disappear? Do you care?
Are non-compete/restraint of trade clauses important to your business? Probably submerged under a deluge of press about Brexit and the shenanigans of various politicians, it has barely hit the media that the government is currently consulting about removing the option of non-compete clauses. This will be in order to ‘make Britain the best place in […]
Should pregnant job applicants stay silent?
A few years ago I spent some time with a business associate whose favourite saying was ‘we do what we do…’ leaving unsaid of course, that in doing what we do, we then have to face up to the consequences of our actions and take responsibility for those. Legislation often has unintended consequences. Who would […]
Do all HR Managers deserve more money?
When you read about and see the complex people problems HR managers have to deal with, you really have to wonder if they should be paid more than anyone else. Sometimes you couldn’t make it all up, what employees get up to, what they fail to learn, what chaos they land themselves in. It’s a […]
Reduction in Tribunal claims prompts huge sigh of relief
For 20+ years, employers in the UK have seen a relentless increase in employment law. But a few changes in the past few years have started to turn this around. As a result, I know many employers are now breathing an enormous sigh of relief. Just a few days ago, the new Tribunal claims figures […]
Diversity headaches?
A bizarre question you might think, but let me explain! At Jaluch we monitor the search terms peoples use to get to our website. With nearly 3000 hits a month, what’s fascinating is that most people, for months now, appear to be searching for just two things: how to sack someone with short service and […]
Who says “I’m no racist”… in your organisation?
In recent weeks I have repeatedly heard people saying ‘I’m no racist’. Last week it was someone being interviewed on TV, today it was someone I was talking to. It’s clearly the thing to say in our supremely politically correct society, but what on earth does it mean? In essence to me saying ‘ I’m […]
HR on a shoestring… duff, duff and duffer!
Doesn’t it feel great when we know we’ve saved some money, or when we’ve managed to get what we needed for free? It’s as though the whole world has lit up around us. There’s an old saying, isn’t there… “no one really values what they get for free.” The way to ensure someone really values […]
HR humour – quit your navel-gazing and raise your game!
I recently saw a couple of LinkedIn discussions in HR forums. One asked whether HR should be renamed something more appropriate, relevant. The other asked for ideas on how to make HR people more strategic. This navel-gazing within HR has been going on for decades with the same old questions continually being asked. I do […]
Recruitment versus dismissal
Before I start this week’s blog, I just wanted to point out that last month there were 795 people who read my blog on the Jaluch website. But none of you left any feedback or comments! Cat got your tongue? All sensible thought flown straight out of your head? Typing fingers broken after a tussle […]
Is it just me or does HR speak gobbledygook?
In a recent LinkedIn forum the question posed was: “What do you think of the Government’s plans to introduce a system of shared parental leave?” This reply was then posted which has left me feeling seriously irritated … “In principle, and for the most part, this is an excellent and rather late right that should […]
Company confidentiality
Who cares? We’re on a train! Bookbinders unravelled… I do like it when I’m pondering what to blog about, then something rears up and slaps me in the face! This is what happened last week. I boarded a train to London, the journey was to take 90 minutes so I thought I could work sat […]
Tribunal chaos
Given the work we do at Jaluch, it won’t come as a surprise when I tell you we spend quite a bit of time communicating with the employment tribunals, within the UK. Some are great, others are a total disaster zone that cost money, piles and piles of it! So how do we find a […]
Baby blues – parental leave (part two)
Earlier this week, I commented on Nick Clegg’s thoughts about the current system of parental and maternity leave patronising women and marginalising men. Today, I wanted to focus on the government’s ambitions, in terms of shared parental leave and increased flexible working for staff. In a nutshell, by 2015 the government wants to introduce a […]
Baby blues – parental leave (part one)
Just this week, Clegg announced the government’s intention to introduce shared parental leave by 2015. This announcement has generated delight in some parts, but dismay in others. Essentially the current maternity leave period would be shared with the father on the basis that the rules allowing men “a paltry” two weeks of paternity leave, “patronise […]
The day the employment judge slept
Yesterday two of my colleagues attended a tribunal. One, to act as witness for one of our clients; the other, to provide support and just take the opportunity to see another tribunal in action. You would think in the 12+ years of hearing about and attending tribunals, life would have moved on a bit. Clearly […]
Appraisal angst
For many, it’s performance review time of year again. A time when managers sigh, their stomachs churn, headaches set in and brains whirr to think of any viable excuses to get them out of all that extra paperwork, time spent in meetings and embarrassment when difficult issues need to be addressed and recorded. On the […]
Are you HR team on the ball financially?
I often talk about the need for HR people to be commercial in their approach. After all HR is not exactly in the business just to spout process and procedure, how boring and useless would that be, but HR is there to support the day to day operating of the business. Within Jaluch we have […]
Fit or Sick?
Are you stupid? Am I stupid? Because someone somewhere, I think, is stupid! Last year when your employee was sick they self certified for the first 5 days and after that they got a sick note from their doctor. But now, some clever so and so has come up with the brilliant idea of fit […]
The Naked Truth
As temperatures have kept below freezing across much of the world (although Australia this week actually ‘suffered’ 37 degree heat one night as a result of its ongoing heatwave) innovation, enthusiasm and cheekiness was kept alive in the States and 15 other supporting countries on ‘no pants day’ – this day being the day when […]
