The stats on the level of engagement in all organizations come out overwhelmingly against the boss. 66% seems to be a standard figure for disengaged employees, so let’s work around that. It starts with the top employee who can bail fastest and more easily than the others. Then it trickles downwards, so that means losing your…

You can cultivate gravitas with inside out work Many think it is not is possible to cultivate gravitas, which is considered to be central to executive presence. That elusive quality said to contribute by 25% towards career success.  It seems it can be acquired by anyone, at any age. It’s about presenting your best self, all the…

Will me being LinkedOff with LinkedIn make a difference? I have just cancelled my premium membership to LinkedIn. You could say I’m LinkedOff with LinkedIn and have LinkedOut. Reduced professionalism Social media is awash with blogs and posts about the decline of the traditional channels. To cut to the chase, one over arching comment is this. With all the…

How helpful are Blind CVs? There has been a recent move towards proposing blind CVs in the recruitment process. Intended to increase diversity and reduce bias in areas such as gender, ethnicity and ageism, a number of organisations are committing to this system, including the U.K. Civil Service, the BBC, the NHS,  the European Union, KPMG and HSBC. But…

Getting beyond copy-paste recruitment Copy-paste recruitment is generally business as usual in most organisations. A job description will be drafted for any open assignment. Usually this involves pulling out the old one, or re-positioning the CV of the last successful post holder.  “Get me someone like….” is a common instruction. Even if the post was last filled five…

Diversity initiatives and commitment Diversity initiatives are hard to introduce and even harder to manage successfully and bring to fruition. Many would say they are the window dressing and lip service to appease campaigners. Having a diversity policy is very different to making it effective. Neil Morrison covered this exact point in his post the other “Some are more equal than…

What’s happening to the career path? We all know the concept of  having a career path has shifted. Initially this was almost imperceptible, but in the last few years, it is well.. dying, some would say already dead. We saw the arrival of the portfolio career and now I’m seeing the start something else.  What I’m calling a cluster career. That…

Future of work –  is HR equipped to deal with it? There are two concepts guaranteed to divide HR opinion around the future of work.  They are: the sharing or collaborative economy portfolio careers In theory they are both fine and dandy. The reality is something different. The sharing economy Listed in WIRED as one of the main…

HRTech World in Paris was overwhelming. The sheer scale and energy of the event, with more than 3500 delegates, hundreds of sponsors and 200,000m² of exhibition space, meant some strategic cherry picking was needed. Although I became something of a Josh Bersin stalker, I spent a lot of time in the DisruptHR area, listening to pitches and talking to…

An increasing number of women are going on journeys of self-discovery  Years ago, if a woman had a difficult time, she might call some friends and open a bottle of wine, cry over a chick flick (a marathon Colin Firth, Pride and Prejudice session is my mooch movie of choice) or eat her favourite comfort food. Today, she doesn’t get…