Category: HR Information

A consultation launched by the government is asking for the views of the scientific community on how science funding should be invested.

The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) is looking to record the opinions of a wide range of organisations from the UK scientific community, including small and medium enterprises, multinationals, universities, students and think tanks.

It says funding could be allocated for a multitude of purposes, from refurbishing a university laboratory to investing in a new major international project.

The news follows chancellor George Osborne's pledge to invest long-term in science and infrastructure, increasing capital investment to £1.1 billion and growing it in line with inflation each year to 2020.

Commenting on the consultation's launch, minister for universities and science David Willetts said: "Today's launch of our consultation on future capital investment is a historic opportunity for British science.

"The next five years will see the largest ever sustained capital spend on science investment. Our scientists can identify the next Crick Institute or the next equivalent of the Laboratory of Molecular Biology for us to invest in."

The consultation will provide evidence for the government's Science Capital Roadmap, which is to set out a long-term strategic vision for a world-leading science and research infrastructure. It will be published during the autumn.

A series of questions is available on the BIS website, inviting organisations to give their views on how the money should be spent.

The government is hoping to maintain the UK's position at the forefront of scientific innovation. Although the country has just one per cent of the world's population, 16 per cent of the highest-quality scientific articles are published in the UK.

Investing in science is necessary to support the coalition's industrial strategy and to maintain the international competitiveness of UK research.

The government says it expects greater investment to elicit a number of responses from the research community, resulting in greater collaboration, better equipment sharing and improved access for industry.

Leaders need to reveal their personal side if they are to restore levels of trust among workforces.

This is the conclusion of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) and the University of Bath, which have produced a new report entitled 'Cultivating trustworthy leaders'. 

HR staff have a particularly significant role to play in this area, as they have a number of means at their disposal to ensure trustworthy leaders are recruited and developed. 

The research states that leaders need to share their personal stories and take an interest in the personal experiences of their employees if they wish to maintain long-lasting, trusting relationships.

People still experience high levels of uncertainty regarding their future and now require "a greater and more overt demonstration of trustworthiness from their leaders".

HR methods that could be used to help address the issue include conducting values-based interviews, providing information on self-awareness, assessing staff using 360-degree feedback, creating environments where staff could have open conversations about trust and visibly rewarding trustworthy behaviours.

However, the study also found that HR departments currently have too many rules and policies in place which could damage trust, as they suggest departments do not have confidence in employees.

Individuals have little incentive to earn trust in such environments, as there are few opportunities for them to demonstrate their reliability.

Claire McCartney, research adviser at the CIPD, said: "It's proven that organisations with high levels of trust perform better in terms of innovation, problem solving, engagement and knowledge sharing. 

"Given the recent crises in trust in the banking and healthcare sectors in particular, it's more important than ever that HR steps up to provide the appropriate platforms for trustworthy leaders to develop."

She added that HR departments need to allow leaders to flourish and should not focus too much on process and technology.

The CIPD and the University of Bath studied 13 organisations with experience of retaining and developing trustworthy leaders. Their findings build upon an earlier report entitled 'Where has all the trust gone?'

A leading communications expert says HR departments have an important role to play in developing a clear communications strategy that will engage staff.

According to Karen Heath, chief engagement officer of Anthony Hodges Consulting, communications should be tailored to the needs of employees whenever possible.

Many companies do not take this approach, HR Magazine reports, often opting for a blanket communication sent to all staff rather than addressing each employee individually. Time and resource constraints tend to prevent organisations from taking the latter approach.

Ms Heath said it is worth questioning the efficacy of communications that fail to resonate with up to half of a firm's workforce.

Staff in separate locations often feel disengaged as a result of a "head office centric" approach to communications, she added.

Employers need to bear in mind local practices, economies and events, which can often have an impact on employees' financial situations.

"With ever more diverse workforces in the future, the idea of getting the message across effectively to every employee will become even more important," she said. 

"If you look at auto-enrolment in pensions, the message that you give employees in their twenties should be very different to those approaching retirement."

Changing shift patterns can also present challenges for communications, Ms Heath said. Audience analysis and research is vital before embarking on any communications campaign.

Ms Heath's comments highlight the importance of effective communication to ensure staff engagement levels are maintained.

In March, Martin Reed, the chief executive officer and chairman of psychometric people management tool provider Thomas International, said better communication is needed to ensure firms retain top talent.

He said both staff and management are often reluctant to have difficult conversations in the workplace and that frequent one-to-one discussions and conversations about problems that may arise are essential to maintaining engagement levels.

According to Mr Reed, such an approach is necessary because employees are likely to look for opportunities elsewhere as the economy continues to recover and this could pose problems for some organisations.

Two-thirds of HR professionals welcome the introduction of early dispute settlement by the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (Acas).

This is according to a poll conducted by Personnel Today, which reveals that 65.3 per cent of respondents believe early conciliation constitutes a positive step in tackling workplace disputes. 

Just 6.3 per cent of those polled disagreed with the statement, while 28.4 per cent were undecided.

Gill McCarthy, director of operational policy and performance at Acas, said it was positive from the perspective of her organisation that most respondents welcomed early conciliation.

Most of the audience of a live webinar held by Personnel Today (52.5 per cent) believe the level of tribunal fees is about right, while 28.4 per cent think they are too low and 12.7 per cent oppose them entirely. Just 6.3 per cent said they thought fees are too low.

Acas recently announced the introduction of the early conciliation service, which means claimants will need to contact the organisation before lodging an employment tribunal claim from May 6th.

The process is designed to save people the time, cost and anxiety involved in undergoing an employment tribunal.

Independent research has found that the pre-claim conciliation (PCC) process – the forerunner of early conciliation – has benefited the British economy by around £19 million.

Over three quarters of the 20,000 cases a year that the PCC has dealt with were not referred to an employment tribunal. 

The research also found that the average cost to employers of claims dealt with through PCC was just £475, with employers spending an average of just one day on a claim. This compares with an average of £3,700 and four days for an employment tribunal.

Acas chair Sir Brendan Barber said: "Early conciliation will give us the chance to help even more people resolve their disputes early as well as save taxpayers some of the cost of running the tribunal system."

The polls were conducted during a live webinar held on April 9th, with the vast majority of respondents describing themselves as HR professionals. The number of respondents ranged between 891 and 901.

A mismatch of talent is costing the global economy billions of pounds, a study has shown. Inability to adapt for new job roles is costing around £84 billion in lost productivity and avoidable recruitment costs.
 
Professional services network PwC assessed millions of interactions on social network LinkedIn to figure out how talent behaviour and opportunities matched up. The firm revealed a strong correlation between adaptability of talent in specific countries and the performance of its companies. If the markets were better able to match talent with the right opportunities, billions of pounds could be saved, PwC said.
 
The study also showed that the longer time spent trying to find the right candidates for roles, and the increased likelihood of mismatched talents leaving their roles sooner, is costing the global economy around £11.8 billion in avoidable recruitment costs.
 
Michael Rendell, partner and global head of HR services practice at PwC, commented that chief executives are worried about a growing skills gap, adding that worldwide unemployment in continuing to rise.
 
"The better employers and employees are at adapting to changing circumstances and aligning their skills with the available opportunities, the more productive organisations will become," he said.
 
A better talent fit between employers and workers could unlock billions of pounds in productivity, drive markets' competitive advantages and help close up the skills gap, Mr Rendell added.
 
As part of the study, markets were assigned talent adaptability scores based on five factors, including the average number of positions held by a professional during their career, how many times they had switched industries and the average number of open vacancies divided by the market's population. The score was used as a means of indicating how markets respond to shifts in demand.
 
Taking the top spot in the leaderboard for adaptability was the Netherlands, with its international business base and multilingual workforce helping ensure talent is matched to the right roles. Emerging markets such as China and India had lower scores as a result of factors like having fewer mature markets and a geographic size that limits worker mobility.
 
The UK took the second spot in the table for its adaptability, although the nation stands to gain £1.11 billion in extra productivity and avoidable recruitment costs by better matching workers with roles.

New figures released by the Higher Education Funding Council (Hefce) reveal more students than ever have been accepted onto science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) courses.

In total, 98,000 students were accepted onto these courses via the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) during 2012-13.

Acceptances onto engineering and technology courses rose by six per cent, while acceptances onto computer science courses increased by 12 per cent on the previous year and are now higher than at any point since 2003-04.

Data was also gathered on those taking the subjects at A-level, with increased entries in STEM subjects signalling the likelihood of further growth at undergraduate level in the coming years.

While the total number of A-level entries remained flat between 2011-12 and 2012-13, the numbers of entries to STEM subjects grew by 6,000 (two per cent).

Yvonne Baker, director of the National Science Learning Centre, which is run by a consortium of universities and provides continuing professional development for science teachers, welcomed the news.

She told the Guardian: "This shows that students are taking seriously the messages about high-value qualifications and also that the emphasis put on supporting STEM by employers, charities and government through initiatives like Project Enthuse, which supports teacher CPD, is having real impact."

However, the data also suggests that it is becoming increasingly difficult to be accepted into some STEM disciplines.

Hefce stated that a physics applicant ten years ago could have been up to ten per cent more likely to secure an acceptance than in 2013-14. It also observed a similar trend in mathematical sciences and chemistry. 

The figures will come as welcome news for the government, as STEM subjects are one of its priorities. 

While STEM graduates have among the highest earning potential, many employers find it difficult to recruit staff with the relevant skills in the subject.

Recently, the government made GCSE and A-level science subjects more demanding as part of its education reforms. 

New subjects added to the curriculum include the study of the human genome, gene technology, life cycle analysis, nanoparticles and space physics. 

A new initiative has been launched to promote good recruitment practices among a range of different employers.

The Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) has developed a Good Recruitment Charter in conjunction with a range of organisations, including Santander, Royal Mail and Dixons Retail. It defines nine key principles of recruitment practice.

Areas covered by the charter include flexible working, candidate experience and extending good practice equally to permanent, temporary, contract and part-time workers.

Employers who sign up to the charter stand to enhance their brand and attract candidates by demonstrating their commitment to good recruitment practice, the REC states.

Those that participate in the 'aspirational' initiative are to be given advice, guidance and research on the latest innovations in recruitment good practice.

They will also be provided with self-assessment tools so they can evaluate their own processes and identify areas for development.

REC chief executive Kevin Green said: "This campaign was created by employers for employers with the objective of promoting good practice in recruitment and resourcing. 

"As demand returns to the economy and businesses are looking to hire more staff, fine-tuning their resourcing strategies is becoming critical. This is the right time to create a national focus on good recruitment."

He added that such recruitment practices benefit candidates as well as businesses and ensure employment opportunities are maximised across the country.

Mr Green gave several reasons for the decision to launch the campaign now, HR Magazine reports.

Although there are currently 2.5 million people currently unemployed, 40 per cent of employers struggle to find the talent they need, Mr Green said.

In addition, 25 per cent of employers say poor recruitment for one role has cost them over £40,000.

Some 47 areas of the UK economy are currently experiencing skills shortages, whereas previously this was only the case for 14 areas.

The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development's head of public policy Ben Willmott welcomed the charter, saying it provides HR practitioners with key principles that can be used to develop "sustainable recruitment and employment practices".

Businesses in the UK should aim to make it easier for fathers within their workforce to operate on a flexible basis as and when required.

HR Magazine editor Arvind Hickman has called for a shift in employer attitudes, as he believes flexible working is currently weighted too strongly in favour of mothers.

This comes at the expense of dads' rights, and with the shared parental changes due to come into effect next year, now is the time for the government and companies to get the issue in order.

Mr Hickman told how he recently spent some time with a business associate at the Brockwell Lido, and it was immediately apparent that the place was full of children and stay-at-home mums. However, there were no men within the cafe area, underlining just how difficult many find it to take time off from work when they need it.

"Why is it that women disproportionately take on the primary parenting role? The short answer is that current legislation and societal norms are heavily geared towards mothers assuming primary child care. And, according to our report on flexible working, dads aren't happy about the lack of flexibility," he wrote.

Mr Hickman went on to point to a study by the Institute of Leadership and Management, which recently showed fewer than ten per cent of new fathers take more than two weeks of paternity leave.

In addition, a quarter of men do not even take a single day off in the aftermath of their child being born.

It is clear that flexible working is an option that could work well for many fathers all over the UK, so now is the time for it to be implemented on a wide scale.

Mr Hickman said employer attitudes towards men taking time off and working flexibly need to change, as dads increasingly want choice and flexibility.

A new survey has highlighted a lack of female role models in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) subjects.

The YouGov poll revealed that one in ten people named the male engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel when asked to identify a famous woman from the field. 

Over two thirds (68 per cent) of the British public named Marie Curie – the Polish physicist and chemist who died in 1934 – as the most recognisable female role model in science.

The survey was conducted for ScienceGrrl, a not-for-profit organisation set up to celebrate and support women in science.

Its report, Through Both Eyes, states that the UK has the lowest number of female engineers in the EU and the number of girls taking A-level physics has stood at 20 per cent for 20 years or more.

'Cultural straightjackets' are hampering women's access to STEM subjects, the report claims, and limiting women's personal and earning potential.

Society is highly gendered and unconscious biases need to be tackled in order to empower individuals with real choice, it states.

"It is old news that women and girls are under-represented in STEM careers," Dr Anna Zecharia, a neuroscientist at Imperial College London and director of ScienceGrrl, told the Daily Telegraph. 

"Why are we still talking about this? It's time to face up to the fact that it's our society, education system and workplaces urgently need a facelift."

The report says that initiatives to encourage more women into STEM are misplaced, as they imply that girls must change.

Instead, the responsibility lies with the education system and people who have influence within society. Girls are treated differently in the classroom, it argues, while careers advice should be improved.

In order to bring about meaningful change, the report claims the STEM sector must address the needs and realities of girls and young women.

There also needs to be more collaboration between STEM stakeholders, as there is currently no overarching plan to unify the myriad initiatives and voices trying to bring about change.

The government should integrate research on gender science and equality into public policy and work with public and private STEM sectors to empower individuals, it claims.

Leadership development is now the number one priority for organisations in the UK, a new report says.

Deloitte has published its UK Human Capital Trends 2014 report, examining the patterns shaping the human capital agenda. The study suggests that the new emphasis on leadership development could be attributed to changing leadership needs and the challenge of addressing multiple generations of leaders.

Leadership development scored 74 per cent on the report's importance index. It is followed by reskilling the human resource (HR) function (70 per cent), retention and engagement (70 per cent), global HR and talent management (68 per cent) and, finally, talent analytics (68 per cent).

While leadership development is ranked as most important, companies' readiness to address the issue is relatively low – it scored just 43 per cent on the readiness index.

David Parry, head of Deloitte UK's human capital practice, said: "There is a ticking time bomb aspect to this trend, as there is strong evidence to suggest that Millennials are not being sufficiently engaged and developed as future leaders and pathways to leadership for all employees aren't clearly defined."

According to the study, UK organisations face larger capability gaps when it comes to the top five talent and leadership priority issues and their readiness to respond to them.

Specifically, the UK lags behind other countries when it comes to addressing the issues of reskilling the HR function and implementing talent analytics.

Mr Parry said there had been a lack of investment in developing the HR function in recent years and this has contributed to the skills gap.

Several emerging trends are identified in the report. HR is increasingly seen as a "business contribution" function, which demands deeper skills in data and analytics and broader consulting capabilities.

Organisations will need to focus on retention, which is likely to become a concern due to several years of reduced investment, cost cutting, and stagnating opportunities, careers and wages. Novel methods are thus needed to re-engage the workforce, the report says.

In addition, as the UK lags behind on HR analytics, organisations will have to up their game when it comes to using big data, as many firms have yet to make the most of this technology.