Feature Articles

There are many reasons why it is important to measure people’s performance but doing so properly is not as easy as it first might appear. In this article, Judith Christian-Carter takes a look at the need for measuring people’s performance and some of the pitfalls to avoid.

We have a fundamental problem as it seems, most office jobs, and many factory jobs are sedentary, and being sedentary is very bad for our bodies. A recent report commissioned by Public Health England has found that office workers spend 75% of their working day sitting down — and the impact of this on our health can be anything from mild back pain to premature death from heart disease. This is serious stuff but “how can we change?” asks Gudrun Limbrick.

Whistleblowing appears to be a growth industry. Certainly, it is a highly newsworthy topic, especially following Edward Snowden’s revelation of some of the US National Security Agency’s activities, which embarrassed the USA and allied governments. Focus this down onto your own organisation and recognise that an employee with a grudge could greatly harm your organisation, even if the revelations are false, says Bob Patchett. Regrettably, humans maintain a belief that where there is smoke there is fire.

Judith Tavanyar highlights the flawed art of corporate decision-making

Anecdotally, it seems that there is a general move away from the 9–5 “standard” working practice and a tendency towards greater flexibility in the working day. Modern life very often needs a very modern approach to how work fits in with the rest of who we are. Zero-hours contracts and home-working are both growing at a rate of knots and adding to the options available to employer and employee, but is this new flexibility only available to a select few? Gudrun Limbrick examines a new study that has found that this might be the case.

The word “microlearning” has recently appeared on Learning and Development’s horizon. While supporters are extolling its virtues, others are urging caution about its use and appropriateness. Here, Judith Christian-Carter explores the new concept of microlearning and considers the context in which it should and should not be used.

The basic structure of recruitment, on the face of it, has changed little since we first came up with the idea of not simply giving jobs to our children in the order in which they were born. We make these important decisions based on the application letter, form or CV and the interview. The process has got tighter as our concerns for fairness and equality have increased and we have a greater tendency to hand all or part of the process to agencies but, whether the process has become any more effective or any less stressful for all concerned is another matter entirely, says Gudrun Limbrick.

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are constantly concerned about the level of their staffing and to explore ways to reduce costs and overheads, which can lead to a redundancy situation. Redundancy can be a complex and difficult process. Stuart Chamberlain, Croner author and employment law specialist, sets out ten 10 tips to employers on small-scale redundancies — that is, where only a few people are affected — to enable them to avoid the legal pitfalls.

A new workplace problem: an employee has complained about a colleague who used an e-cigarette during a meeting with her. She asked him to stop but he refused. He says, the company cannot ban him from using e-cigarettes in the workplace, as he is trying to stop smoking, and that there is no legislation which bans e-cigarette use at work or in public places. There is no company policy on e-cigarettes. Stuart Chamberlain, Croner author and employment law specialist, considers these issues and suggests steps to take if the employer does decide to ban e-cigarettes in the workplace.

In claims for psychiatric illness or injury arising from the stress of doing the work an employee was required to do, the issue to be determined is whether the kind of harm had been reasonably foreseeable, which depended upon what the employer knew or ought reasonably to have known about the employee. The High Court applied these principles in Easton v B & Q plc [2015] EWHC 880 (QB).