If there could be such a thing as a positive outcome from Covid-19, it’s that workplace safety, health and wellbeing has been elevated to a tier one consideration for many organisations and its individuals. Which is really where it always should have been.
The key to creating a physically and mentally healthier workplace culture however, is to not treat responses to occupational health and safety risk with quick fixes, to try and plaster over specific challenges.
Health and safety training is often the biggest tick-box for compliance, but how do you embed training into the rest of your health and safety risk management processes to effectively manage health and safety risk and evidence compliance when it matters?
The pandemic has accelerated the change in the employee/employer dynamic. Employees’ career development priorities and expectations of their workplace and employer have shifted, with many of us demanding more from our place of work, its leaders and decision-makers.
HR is juggling all the traditional challenges along with these new expectations. Dropping the ball can mean failing to attract and retain the top talent or keep existing employees happy, motivated and productive.
Just ‘ticking boxes’ is a very dangerous approach to take when dealing with compliance, especially if it is connected to a key accreditation like the Conveyancing Quality Scheme (CQS)!
CQS is used by panel managers and lenders as part of their selection processes to determine which conveyancers they allow to act on their behalf, so holding this accreditation is business critical and should not be seen as a mere ‘tick box’ exercise!
- Topic:
- Legal
A recent survey found that HR was one of the primary industry sectors targeted by cyber-attacks.
The survey found that 60% of the reported data breaches in organisations were a result of successful cyber-attacks through HR functions, with some organisations reporting more than one data breach.
We look at the reasons why HR is often a target for cyber criminals and the key ways that HR professionals can put in place measures to help prevent cyber-attacks in their organisations.
- Topic:
- Human Resources
This a question that has been posed to us by a number of law firms over the last week of so having received emails from a company promoting their latest webinars.
Suffice to say that the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) has not announced that solicitors need to undertake new compulsory learning subjects, it just appears to be one company’s way of promoting their training!
- Topic:
- Legal
I don’t think anyone is in doubt that nearly every aspect of life today is dramatically different to how it was 12 months ago. A few of the impactful changes we have seen are:
- Face masks becoming the norm
- An increased focus on our health and wellbeing
- The exchange of handshakes for social distancing and elbow bumps
- An increase in online purchasing
- Computer screens fast became our window to the world
- Finding solidarity in social recognition
The disruption we have witnessed is leading to a new phase in our working lives. As a result, organisations will need to examine how they create value and start to develop a more human-centred future. The role HR plays in this will be pivotal going forward, ultimately shaping the future of Work, the Workforce and the Workplace.
- Topic:
- Human Resources
As COVID-19 restrictions are easing across the UK, businesses are looking ahead over the coming weeks and planning how their workforce can make a safe transition to new working conditions. In this article, we examine the health and safety issues which need to be considered from two perspectives.
So much has changed over the last year as the pandemic caused untold disruption to businesses and their staff. Large numbers of people have been forced to work from home and others have had to adjust to more restrictive conditions and protocols when still attending their usual place of work – or have been furloughed and unable to attend at all. Now we are heading towards another shift and HR teams across the UK are working out the details and practicalities of who should return, when, and what the working environment looks like.
- Topic:
- Human Resources
Making people central to their success
“To me, the model of success is not linear. Success is completing the full circle of yourself.”
There’s going to be something of a circular, cyclical theme to this reflection on learning, improvement and the importance of people being at the centre of things. As the quote above suggests, circles and success are no strangers to each other and we’ve been thinking within this area lately, in particular regarding people-centric product design and a cycle for the creation, delivery and review of effective learning experiences. It all stems from a belief that it’s really important to ‘put people into products’ – to ensure that the initiatives and developments we undertake are really focused on and effective for, those intended to benefit from them.
HR modernisation: will you throw your hat in the ring?
For today’s HR professionals, it can feel like work involves wearing a lot of hats. Need to navigate a route towards improved company performance? Pop on a pilot’s cap. Busy with health and safety concerns? Try this hard hat on. Involved in difficult staff situations, or legal disputes? Time for the police helmet. Got training and coaching programmes to set up? Look out your mortarboard. Mindful that a hundred more tasks are waiting in your in-tray? Maybe a magician’s hat is what you really need, so you can pull a few more rabbits from it.
Luckily, achieving greater efficiency with a HR or payroll solution is not just for larger organisations, as moving from manual processes to software simplicity works for SMEs too. Indeed, every opportunity to automate repetitive or time-consuming tasks will free up your team to focus on responsibilities that have a real impact on your business. So, let’s look at some of the ways you can leverage software to make your work life easier, using the key areas below.
Recruitment > Onboarding > Compliance > Self-service and Mobile > Reporting > Integrations
An experience shared by everyone
Did you know that the origin of the word ‘pandemic’ is rooted in Greek? The term comes from ‘pandēmos’, derived from ‘pan’ – ‘all’, and ‘dēmos’ – ‘people’. It’s a word that’s so familiar to everybody now, after a difficult and deeply strange 12 months. It aptly describes something huge, a phenomenon that has undoubtedly affected all people and transformed every personal and work life in some way.
The world is dramatically different. Face masks have become as much of a habit as the brushing of teeth. There’s a heightened focus on health and wellbeing, nature and hobbies. We’re binging on TV series (ok, perhaps that’s not totally different) and learning to keep our distance, with changed greeting customs and different forms of social recognition – memorably demonstrated by the clapping for key workers. Banking and shopping have altered too, with an exponential increase in online transactions. As a result, more people are tech-savvy, with digital screens of some description now even more common than they were before.
Looking at all of this from a HR perspective, it feels like employee experiences matter more than ever too.
- Topic:
- Human Resources
