The World Athletics Championship has brought the subject of succession planning into sharp focus, with some big names bowing out and several up-and-coming competitors finishing higher than ranked or expected. The resulting debate about the need to ensure a strong […]
Being an HR practitioner in an SME is a very different experience to working in a large organisation. Practitioners may be working with a management team who see HR as operational rather than strategic. They often don’t fully understand the […]
It’s the ambition of most SMEs to grow …. but according to a recent report from Goldman Sachs, only a small minority (one per cent) are likely to demonstrate the high growth that will create new jobs and drive economic […]
How to boost your business with well thought-out training in summary: Keeping staff skills up-to-date is vital for any business that wants to expand and out-perform its competitors. But how can this be done effectively? To ensure training remains effective […]
Zero Hours Contracts – The Debate in Summary: Zero hours contracts have sparked debate due to concerns about exploitation and lack of benefits, with over a million workers affected. They offer flexibility for businesses with fluctuating staffing needs and can […]
The important role that SMEs have to play in driving economic growth is increasingly being recognised – and as a result there’s been a noticeable rise in HR circles of efforts to help small businesses manage their people more effectively.
As the employers of over 14 million people in the UK, it is important that SMEs get their HR management right.
In a small business, having a ‘happy ship’ is vital. There simply isn’t time for the minor spats, grudges and resentment that can so easily arise simply because someone has been misunderstood or hasn’t got their message across clearly.
Indeed research has shown that a negative interaction with someone has a real impact on productivity – it can take someone several hours to recover not just their good spirits but also their concentration after a difficult or unpleasant exchange with a colleague or their manager.
Meddling business owners are the biggest barrier to their own company’s growth, according to some research from Cranfield that crossed my desk this week. Entrepreneurs, it seems, are finding it difficult to step away from routine, day-to-day tasks and as […]
The sheer diversity of approaches to HR within SMEs was one of the things that particularly struck me while listening to speakers at a recent CIPD conference. The businesses taking part had widely varying takes on everything from recruitment and […]
This week’s CIPD ‘HR in SMEs’ conference provided a fascinating insight into how businesses of widely varying types and sizes are tackling their HR challenges. The presentations highlighted some very diverse approaches – but what was clear was that pretty […]
Good news this week in the form of the latest Job Index from recruitment firm Reed–which shows the UK jobs market continued to grow in March. It’s been a pretty good quarter all round – with overall nine per cent […]
How SMEs can get ahead of the game has been a recurring theme in a number of articles that have crossed my desk this week. The clear message coming through is that there are practical steps that smaller business can […]
