Six Skills You Need to Strike from Your CV

The future of work is here. Most HR pros know which skills people must have to survive and thrive in this hypercompetitive working world. We all need good emotional intelligence, to adapt to new technologies, to work well in different cultural settings, and to be able to effectively solve complex problems – either alone or in a group. But what about the talents you shouldn’t waste time emphasizing? If you don’t want to wake up one day and realize you’ve become redundant, check out these skills that are no longer…

5 Powerful Ways to Green Your HR Processes

"The blind pursuit of profit at all costs is untenable. It is essential that we make money the right way. After all, if communities suffer as a result of a company’s actions, those returns are not sustainable." - Indra K. Nooyi, CEO Pepsico Earth Day 2018 is the perfect opportunity to green your HR processes. HR demands a great deal from the environment. Besides doing your part to keep our planet healthy, you’ll also get your people excited about working for an organization that wants to be sustainable. One surefire…

Take the stress out of feedback: 5 ways to critique a colleague

“He has a right to criticize, who has a heart to help.” – Abraham Lincoln Very few of us actually enjoy telling someone the work they’re doing isn’t up to par. But giving constructive feedback at the right time is crucial - to your individual growth, your colleagues’ development, and your company’s success. Adam Grant, a highly respected organizational psychologist, puts it best: "If you look at the data, one of the biggest drivers of success... is your ability to seek and use negative feedback...because that really determines how close…

Can’t Get and Keep the Best and Brightest? Time to Talk About Your Brand

Once upon a time, ‘employer branding’ was not much more than a buzzword. But companies today understand that to stay competitive and get the best talent on the market, coming up with a compelling employer brand is key. The reason for this is the rapidly changing workforce. The rise of the gig economy; putting talent ahead of length of employment; and the focus on quickly wracking up diverse career experiences are trends that are fuelling the growth of a global job market. As a result, it’s harder to attract and…

Just GDPR? What Europeans Need to Know About America’s Privacy Shield

It’s been a busy few months in the fast-moving world of data security. The new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) that comes into force on May 25 is keeping law firms, IT professionals and legal technology providers up late trying to answer a bunch of new and complicated questions. GDPR is getting a lot of coverage across Europe. But what about something called the EU-US Privacy Shield?   GDPR: european regulation, global scope   The goal of GDPR is to protect all private data. So any organization that stores or…

Worried Your Best Employees Will Leave? Make Them An Offer They Can’t Refuse

CEOs polled by the Conference Board C-Suite Challenge survey ranked failure to attract and retain talent as their No. 1 concern, followed by creating new business models and cash-flow volatility. In today’s job market, highly qualified candidates are an increasingly rare commodity. To remain competitive, organizational leaders have been forced to focus their efforts on getting, engaging and keeping top talent. In this environment, talent management is no longer a bonus, but a critical corporate function.   Below, are some pearls of wisdom from the world’s top executives on how…

Women: Success Has No Expiration Date

The good news is that young people, more than during the 1990s or even early 2000s, view feminism as a movement that matters. The bad news, for women who for a variety of reasons haven’t yet hit their professional stride, is that we live in a youth-centered culture in which many young women believe that success can only be obtained while they’re young. Or, if one becomes successful later in life, it’s the product of years of single-minded effort. However, behind the endless parade of glittering headlines about the newest…

Will the Real GDPR Step Forward? Beyond the Hype, What You Need to Know

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will finally and totally keep data private, no? It’s all over the news: companies around are getting ready to comply with a European law that, beginning on May 25, will be the biggest shake-up in personal data privacy since the internet was born. Thing is, there are several issues surrounding online privacy that companies need to pay attention to that go beyond GDPR compliance. Indeed, beyond the hype and hyperbole, several noteworthy aspects of this regulation have quietly slipped underneath the radar.   GDPR:…

Why Monetising Your Employees’ Wellbeing is a Good Business Strategy

“There is no evidence to show any conflict between economic growth and happiness. And indeed, quite the reverse,” said Professor Sir Angus Deaton, winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2015, during a keynote speech at the Business Leaders Summit in Davos, Switzerland, in January. Gone are the days when feeling good about where you worked was little more than a wishful aspiration. Traditional measurements for “being good at your job” - working long hours, being connected to the phone and constantly feeling overwhelmed - are fast falling by…

Collision Course? Flat Organisations Vs. Fast Moving Millennials

“The world of work today is changing.”   Bet you’ve never heard that line before.   But this time, the change is more than a cliche, and it’s all about millennials, their bosses and organisational structures. Specifically, millennials continue to seek out quick career advancements and the ability to grow within an organisation. Paradoxically, businesses are looking to flatten their organisational charts and remove the need for multiple layers of management - 33% of organisations according to a recent Mercer report.   However, isn’t this an obvious contradiction? Millennials are…

Be My Valentine? The Responsible Way to Date Your Coworker

The season of love is upon us. So as Cupid prepares to draw back his bow, now's a good time to have an open, honest chat about the dos and don'ts of getting involved in an office romance. While the office hookup is as old as work, the #MeToo movement has shined a bright light on the issue of sexual harassment in the workplace. As a result, interoffice romantic relationships have hit a 10-year low, according to CareerBuilder's Annual Valentine's Day survey. In 2008, 40 percent of respondents admitted to…

3 Things Your Performance Conversations Should Have

It’s review time; time to talk about your performance over the last month, quarter or (heaven forbid) year. Even if you have hit all your goals and are feeling good about your work, the idea of a performance review might still be leaving you with an uncomfortable feeling. It doesn’t matter what side of the table you’re sitting on, and you probably sit on both - as a manager and a team member, performance conversations aren’t that fun. Additionally, mishandled performance conversations can negatively impact your team and lead to…

Top HR Tips for 2018

This time of year provides a great opportunity to reflect on what has happened over the last year, and what the year ahead may have in store. HR, People operations, Talent, or whatever it is called in your business is becoming more and more prominent in the press, especially around the future of work, automation, AI and more. Below, are five more grounded tips, or reflection points for the year ahead:   1. Build, buy, borrow, rent? Just as every business function thinks about what it needs to succeed, so…

7 HR Podcasts You Should Follow in 2018

You may think listening to podcasts is just a way to survive a boring commute or a way to kill time while folding laundry. The truth is that they not only take your mind off of monotonous tasks, but they also keep you inspired, educated and informed. Many industries and organisations are dealing with massive changes due to an emerging use of technology, new employment regulations and a younger and more diverse workforce. It’s often the role of HR to help the company adapt to these changes - something that you…

Growing Fast? Teach Your Employees to Act like Recruiters

  At our last HR, Talent, & People Professionals Meetup, Hessie Coleman, The Head of People Operations at Starling Bank, and Catherine Alani, the Head of Recruitment at Transferwise, spoke about how they work on creating a company culture that attracts talent and keeps employees happy. Marc Cooper, the Managing Director at bob, opened up the evening to questions from the audience.   Here are some of the key takeaways from the discussion:   How do you attract and recruit the right people? There are usually two segments potential employees…