Addressing the modern phenomenon of workplace loneliness We are all aware of the decline of civility in public discourse and interaction. Some of the world’s top leaders are openly abusive and guilty of bullying, mobbing and gaslighting. It’s hardly surprising that these behaviours and attitudes spill over into our workplaces. Employee engagement is at an…

Upskilling defined as:  learn new skills or to teach workers new skills: Re-skilling defined as;: teach (a person, especially an unemployed person) new skills. Our workplaces are changing faster than ever before and key skills learned in an academic setting are becoming outdated fast. A growing number of employers are no longer asking for college degrees. Upskilling and reskilling are more than…

“Live long and prosper” as the saying goes, but how are we going to handle lives that could potentially span 100 years? Life expectancy has been increasing steadily since 1840 by three months per year. Gratton and Scott in their book The 100 Year Life references research from 2009 which suggests that if the trend continues,…

Generational diversity in any organisation encourages a broader range of talent, but it can often mean conflicting ideas and judgements impacted by unconscious bias based on generational stereotyping. Identifying and appreciating generational differences can transform the selection process from one of miscommunication to building up an effective age-diverse and productive team. Mind the gap One of the greatest challenges for let’s say more mature candidates, is when they are…

In today’s high-tech, 24/7, global communication, we are seeing a pace of communication that is super charged. This is something  we would have thought should lead to rapid, informed and correct decision-making. Everyone happy… right? My observation is that the reverse could indeed be true. I would even go as far as to say that in many cases we are creating a pattern and…

I’ve just had two astonishing conversations with two young people. This wasn’t related to wild nights out or any inappropriate behaviour, but their employment conditions.  Both are working on zero-hours contracts. For the uninitiated zero-hours contracts are apparently a particularly British phenomenon. A  bit like Christmas pudding and red double-decker buses, just infinitely less wholesome They are understood to be an employment…

Has a prolonged recession softened hiring managers’attitude to periods of unemployment and a gap in a CV? Perhaps not…

How you stock your fridge is a valuable behavioural interview question! In the absence of her manager, I was recently asked to sit in on some graduate entry-level interviews to support and mentor, Tanya, a new addition to the Talent Management team of an international company. As we mapped out the structure of our individual…

Much has been written about the need for changes that employers should make in order to attract and retain Millennials and now Gen Z. We have seen a veritable outbreak of company Facebook pages, inter-active web sites, Twitter , TikTok and Instagram accounts, mentoring  programmes and the like. But as one client mentioned recently after a less than effective graduate recruitment job fair, an additional challenge…

Job snob  –  Cait Reilly a year down the line I  have followed with interest the story of Cait Reilly, the Geology graduate who instigated a judicial review for contravention of her human rights. She was made to work unpaid at Poundland, a discount store,  stacking shelves and cleaning floors,  or otherwise be obliged to forfeit her government benefits of £53…