Can HR be Trusted?

Posted in: HR Updates on 01/03/2023 Many people definitely have trust issues with HR, believing we are more aligned to the employer’s needs than those of the employee. HR should be regarded however as the go-to department for ironing out any employee relations issues without staff being concerned that they will close ranks with those...

Empowerment, and Engagement in a Digital World.... the Musings of an Analogue Mind

Posted in: HR Updates on 23/02/2023 Empowerment is now a pervasive part of our business and HR language and has been for some time, but still we are being urged more and more to empower workforces to contribute to organisation success through higher levels of customer satisfaction. My first recollection of what is now considered empo...

Naked Networking

Posted in: HR Updates on 02/02/2023 Networking is thought to be an essential business tool to build professional relationships, but have you ever heard of “naked networking”? Well, until recently I never knew such a practice existed until I heard it on the radio on my way to work. Naked networking is a phenomenon popular in Finland w...

2023 Recession & the Impact on HR Activities

Posted in: HR Updates on 03/01/2023 With the threat of a recession looming, what impact will an economic downturn have on HR activities in the year ahead? The obvious impact, you would assume, would have to be on recruitment. As businesses begin to put recruitment freezes in place the number of vacancies will reduce which is in turn...

2022 Wrap Up

Posted in: HR Updates on 28/11/2022 I don’t know about you, but this Christmas has really crept up on me. That said, we put the tree up this weekend, so the festive season is official in our house. When we said good riddance to 2021, we never thought 2022 could present us with a whole new raft of challenges from the war in Ukraine an...

Handling Job Rejection

Posted in: HR Updates on 28/11/2022 Rejection of any kind is tough. It’s only natural to feel downbeat and sorry for ourselves. This applies to interview rejection. It’s a hard fact that we’re not going to land every single job that we apply for. We receive the dreaded “unfortunately” letter and immediately our shoulders slump and we...

HR Challenges in 2022

Posted in: HR Updates on 02/11/2022 When we started the year, we braced ourselves for another spike in Covid cases but were hopeful we’d be coming to the end of the dreadful pandemic and returning to some sort of normal. Little did we know we were on the cusp of a cost of living crisis brought about, in part, by a war in the Ukraine....

Fixed and Growth Mindsets

Posted in: HR Updates on 19/10/2022 “It is not always the people who start out the smartest who end up the smartest” (Bill Gates) Have you ever asked yourself, do I have a fixed mindset or do I have a growth mindset? Which one is better? How important is it to my professional role and my career development? Mindset has been defined a...

Support Career Gaps in Recruitment

Posted in: HR Updates on 05/10/2022 People take time out of work for many reasons. Sometimes it’s a choice; for others it’s a necessity. Women, who are statistically more likely to take time out of work for caregiving, are disproportionately disadvantaged by career gaps. This article from Applied explains why career gaps should not ...

Are Cover Letters A Thing of The Past?

Posted in: HR Updates on 04/10/2022 I’ve read a lot recently about the demise of the cover letter with criticism being directed at employers that still hang onto them. But is the reality any different and should we be dropping them from our selection process entirely? We all know how hard it is to get candidates, especially in the cu...