The employee referrals debate today Employee referrals programmes have been around throughout history. Research suggests that Julius Caesar created the first programme when he offered up to one-third of a soldier’s annual salary for referrals into the army. Employee referrals are a way of finding candidates for an open role by asking current employees for introductions…

The IKEA Effect in the workplace A research team Michael I. Norton of Harvard Business School, Daniel Mochon of Yale, and Dan Ariely of Duke, first named the IKEA effect in 2011. They described the IKEA effect as “labor alone can be sufficient to induce greater liking for the fruits of one’s labor: even constructing a…

The phrase “water cooler moments” is used as a short-cut, catch-all phrase to represent the casual camaraderie we look for in our workplaces. These are characterised by serendipitous  feel-good banter, and more personal types of casual discussions around daily news, Size matters Usually a water cooler group would be limited to small number of colleagues…

There is no doubt we are all part of a Covid19 collective trauma even though we all have different experiences of this crisis. Some are actually positive. Introverts love it and people who wanted to WFH actually want it to go on for ever.  But for many, the impact has been negative ranging from discombobulating…

People are slowly returning to work in different stages in various geographies. I have been very surprised to hear some of the experiences HR leaders are recounting around the implementation of pandemic safety protocols. This is not just an HR issue, but also a business and leadership issue. They are seeing a strong polarisation of…

Social distancing is going to change the way our organisations are structured and by default the career and job search landscape. In 2016, I identified an emerging trend which I call a “cluster career.”  This is a series of diversified revenue generating professional activities, operating sequentially or simultaneously. This not be confused with a career…

It’s estimated that there are 3 billion people globally in some sort of lockdown or mandatory confinement. Some countries have imposed strict curfews and restrictions, but most have some sort of stay at home policy. HR leaders the world over are trying to handle the crisis. Overriding concerns are how to manage their organisations during…

With large sections of the global population on lockdown or in different levels of confinement the idea of remote working and the impact on the future of work is preoccupying everyone. Although the circumstances around it are devastating, many people are high-fiving an unexpected upside. This opportunity provides the much-needed empirical ammunition to counter the…

Personal workplace relationship have always been a hot topic in any organisation and an equally hot potato for HR. I have been running workshops on sexism and harassment for organisations way before all of this became a hashtag thing and the question is always posed. Many professionals today work very long hours. They tell me…

I was chatting to a long-standing client on Friday and she touched on the sensitivities of politics and workplace culture. As HR Director of an international and multi-cultural B2B organisation, they are trying to address issues impacting diversity, inclusion and gender balance. She is finding the polarisation of political views which are problematic in our…