Monday, 5th December 2011 | By Ray Martin
Self-employed ‘to be exempt from health and safety rules’
Promise to ‘root out needless bureaucracy’ following Lofstedt Review
Self-employed people should be exempt from health and safety regulations, while businesses should have the right to appeal to a new panel over decisions that affect them, a major review of health and safety for business has concluded.
The Lofstedt report which was published yesterday and has been adopted by the government as policy, also recommended a review of HSE approved codes of practice to make them more understandable and a ‘consolidation’ of regulations to lower the overall burden of red tape. Other proposals include the removal of strict liability’ for employers in some regulations, and for the HSE to be given more powers over local authority inspections to ensure a consistent approach.
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Monday, 5th December 2011 | By Ray Martin
Under-24s won’t work for firms where social media is banned- Employers out of touch with ‘Generation Facebook’ finds research
Almost half of under-24s say they would not work for a company where social media was banned, a survey has claimed.
The research by recruitment provider Hyphen, which surveyed 1,000 people, found that 48 per cent of people aged 16-24 reject the idea of a workplace where social networking tools were prohibited. Six out of ten (59 per cent) of the same group believe that using social media increases their effectiveness as an employee.
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Monday, 5th December 2011 | By Ray Martin
Nestlé starts talent academy and creates 300 jobs. Investment of £110m will grow site in Derbyshire
Nestlé is to create 300 new jobs in the UK and establish a talent academy for graduates and apprentices, the food manufacturer has announced today.
The additional roles will be available at the company’s coffee manufacturing site in Derbyshire, following a £110 million investment to extend the plant and treble production capacity.
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Friday, 11th November 2011 | By Ray Martin
CIPD 2011: Unleash uniqueness to drive innovation
Management guru Marcus Buckingham pans formulaic models
Employers strangle innovation when they impose standard models of competency and strategy rather than playing to people’s personal strengths, said Marcus Buckingham yesterday.
In the closing keynote of the CIPD conference, management guru Buckingham explained that innovative techniques that work for one leader don’t necessarily work for another because such tactics play to a set of personal strengths or “algorithms”.
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Thursday, 27th October 2011 | By Ray Martin
Employers ‘fail to keep pace’ with social media
Third of organisations report disciplinary issues with use of sites like Facebook.
Nearly a third of employers have disciplined staff for inappropriate behaviour on social media sites, according to a report suggesting employers are “failing to keep up” with online developments.
The report ‘Knowing your tweet from your trend: keeping pace with social media in the workplace’ from law firm DLA Piper, found that most organisations recognise the value of a presence on sites like Facebook (86 per cent) LinkedIn (78 per cent) and Twitter (62 per cent).
In addition, 65 per cent of employers actively encourage staff to use it for work.
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Thursday, 27th October 2011 | By Ray Martin
Olympics build ‘exemplary’ on health and safety
‘No scapegoating’ approach key to success, says HSE
Britain’s safety watchdog has praised the construction of the London 2012 Olympics venues, saying that the whole industry could learn from its exemplary health and safety record.
The Olympics Delivery Authority has adopted an inclusive, “no scapegoating” approach to managing risks which should be adopted by projects of any size, according to a new report from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).
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Monday, 24th October 2011 | By Ray Martin
Medium-sized employers are a ‘forgotten army’ warns CBI
Business group calls for more support for major UK job creators
The CBI has called on government to unlock the potential of the “forgotten army” of medium-sized UK employers, which generate 16 per cent of all jobs.
In its “Future Champions Report”, the business lobby group said that firms with a turnover of between £10 million and £100 million represent less than 1 per cent of businesses but generate 22 per cent of economic revenue in the UK.
With the potential to inject between £20bn and £50bn into the economy by 2020, this group of employers could play a vital role in rebalancing the economy, and could also create new jobs in areas most affected by public spending cuts, according to the CBI.
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Monday, 10th October 2011 | By Ray Martin
Encourage staff to take responsibility, says Sir Terry Leahy
Tesco “had thousands of leaders, not just one”
Encouraging leadership and people management skills at every level of an organisation is key to success, says Sir Terry Leahy. This he commented upon ahead of next months presentation in Manchester where the former chief executive of Tesco, after 14 years at the helm of the retailer will be sharing his experiences .
Speaking ahead of the event, he said that while strong leaders can be an inspiration – citing Sir Ernest Shackleton and Sir Alex Ferguson among those he admires – the key to organisational success is for people from every rung of the corporate ladder to take responsibility.
“Leadership matters everywhere,” said Leahy. “The great thing that we always tried to achieve at Tesco was to have thousands of leaders, not just one. It might just be somebody working in a depot who steps forward when there is a problem with a delivery and takes it upon themselves to sort it out. You’ve got to empower people to take responsibility – that really is the kind of leadership that works.”
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Thursday, 6th October 2011 | By Ray Martin
Bolstering skills vital to UK competitiveness, says Letwin
Graphene technology ‘demonstrates UK technical excellence’
The future growth of UK plc depends on the country getting the full value from its most skilled workers and reforming welfare services to “make work pay”, cabinet office minister Oliver Letwin told delegates at the Conservative party conference.
Speaking at a fringe event organised by the Social Market Foundation, Letwin said that it was vital that the UK jobs recovery was bolstered by “strong fiscal arithmetic” bringing market confidence. This is why the government is sticking to its deficit reduction plans, he said.
However, as well as short-term measures, the minister said that there are long term challenges to address to ensure job and economic growth.
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Monday, 19th September 2011 | By Ray Martin
Knowledge sharing tools key, says Google L&D head
YouTube “a phenomenal learning resource” for staff
Google is using its success as a world-leading content provider to constantly improve its internal learning and development provisions, the company’s global head of learning technologies has said.
Sudhir Giri told delegates at the Charity Learning Consortium conference yesterday: “We are inspired by what the world is doing – we are trying to take what we’ve seen our products do and create that same sort of feeling within Google itself.”
Google’s search engine now processes one billion searches daily, while 48 hours of content is uploaded to Google-owned YouTube every minute – a platform Giri described as “a phenomenal learning resource”.
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