Three ways to win arguments with colleagues August 28, 2015 It’s intent, rather than substance, which really riles people From debates over strategy to differences in political opinion and personal values, tensions are likely to flare up in high-pressure work environments. But when your conduct is being scrutinised by colleagues, you’ve got to keep your cool. Here are three tips for speaking your mind [...]
Why money is just not enough to keep top employees August 27, 2015 With the job market heating up in the City, employers are revisiting their staff motivation and retention strategies to prevent their best people from leaving and taking new job opportunities. But this may not be as simple as finding more money to tempt people to stay: increasingly, employees are looking for alternative benefits, including better [...]
The four costly hiring mistakes you should avoid August 26, 2015 Choosing the right candidate for a position is a tricky task. It requires the right mix of gut instinct and objective evaluation to assess an applicant’s qualities and experience. Worse still, the cost of making the wrong decision can be massive. Research by the Society for Human Resources Management found that replacing a poor hire [...]
It’s high time businesses embraced the “Anywhere Office” says O2’s Ben Dowd August 25, 2015 Productivity is a vogue word, found on the lips of politicians, the governor of the Bank of England, and in businesses everywhere. And with the productivity of employees in the UK nearly a third lower than their G7 counterparts, it’s not surprising the nation’s productivity problems are under the microscope. Unfortunately, government intervention and [...]
The danger of ambition without talent: Raw ability is as rare as raw beauty, so a motivation to improve is crucial August 23, 2015 The view often professed in self-help books and women’s magazines is that ambition and determination alone will help you achieve your desired result, regardless of talent and ability. I have always suspected that this premise was too politically correct to be true; we all know people who are aspiring to something which they simply do [...]
Does loyalty still count in the City? August 21, 2015 Most professionals reach a point in their career when they need to make a decision: are they better off staying with their current employer, or should they find out whether the grass is greener on the other side? Employees of the Big Four accountancy firms are often highly prized and invariably have many [...]
Three “softer” skills you don’t know you need August 20, 2015 Bosses can tell if you’re tolerant just from your handwriting As GCSE results are released today, employers are once again questioning the usefulness of the national curriculum in preparing young people for their careers. A 2014 survey by Kaplan and supported by the CBI, for example, revealed that technical knowledge was ranked twenty-fourth out [...]
In defence of metric-driven management August 19, 2015 Workers are willing to share data, but trust is paramount Before last weekend, the culture at Amazon was associated with break-out spaces and day-care for dogs. But a New York Times article has slammed its “bruising” regime, underpinned by “purposeful Darwinism”. The controversy centres on the data-driven approach to Amazon’s staff management, and its use [...]
How successful people spend their holiday August 18, 2015 Neglect planning at your peril That's my lesson for taking a vacation: vacation will kill you,” surmises Tesla founder Elon Musk in a recent biography, having contracted a severe bout of malaria following a holiday in Africa in 2000. Indeed, the most successful business leaders don’t necessarily have the most successful holidays; last year, [...]
Top contacts: Why it pays to share details August 16, 2015 Individuals and businesses lose out because of precious behaviour A LOT of people have achieved a favourable position by having attractive and important contacts in their little black books. The most logical scenario is to keep those cards close to your chest. But this is the wrong approach. Some time ago, I had [...]