Employment Law Changes Spring 2013

This Spring coincides with various changes in employment law that are likely to affect the day-to-day working practices of many organisations. If you would like expert advice on the current legislation and ensure you have the correct employment law procedures in place, why not join The PEEL Club, an exclusive club for HR professionals?

The PEEL Club is a group of HR professionals who regularly meet up to discuss Employment Law changes, challenges and best practice. In this video we meet, Prof Patricia Leighton, an employment law specialist and the PEEL Club leader, who tells us more about the benefits of attending the PEEL Club...

How To Change Your Company Culture

Barclay’s recent job cuts announcement includes a vow to ‘change the corporate culture’ of the organisation.  How realistic is that as an aim?

Organisational Change

New CEO Anthony Jenkins is wise to say that it will take ‘five to 10 years’ to embed genuine change. Culture is the very essence of an organisation.  There is a debate about whether culture is something an organisation “has” – a characteristic which can be changed in the same way as new equipment can be bought or processes introduced, or whether it is something an organisation “is” – so fundamental to the DNA of the organisation that it permeates all elements of organisational life.

Cultural models reflect this complexity. The well-known cultural web developed by Johnson and Scholes provides one illustration. The web is made up of a number of elements:

• The events and stories that people talk about
• The rituals and routines that show what is important and what‘sanctioned’ behaviour is
• The symbols, from the organisation’s brand and buildings to the language that people use
• Who has real power – to keep the status quo or make improvements
• What controls are in place – both measurement and reward systems
• The formal organisational structure – showing both who and what is important

At the centre of these six elements is what Johnson and Scholes call the ‘paradigm’: those deep unstated assumptions about the organisation that are so taken for granted, people don’t even know they have them.
To make it worse, few organisations have a single culture.   Subcultures proliferate – forming for reasons as varied as the requirement for an R&D division to work in a particular way to make its contribution, to the different basic assumptions that contribute to the world view of people from varying national cultures in a multi-national organisation.

So is change possible?  Yes, but it is important to recognise the limitations and risks.  As well as multifaceted, culture is multi-layered.  Ed Schein, father of organisational cultural theory, paints a picture of the levels of culture: Artifacts– things that can be seen, heard and touched as soon as you walk through an organisation’s doors.  Espoused values and beliefs - what people say is important. And finally – the basic, underlying assumptions that form the beating heart of the organisation. These assumptions build up over an organisation’s lifetime as a result of people finding a way of being that ‘works’ and works repeatedly when tackling challenges. That level of ‘taken for grantedness’ is tough to permeate – which helps explain the anxiety and resistance that can scupper the most well-meaning change efforts.  Though it also means that there are times where it is obvious that ‘the world is shifting’ when cultural change is the most likely – as it becomes increasingly clear that the old ways of being simply just won’t cut it for the future.

Changing culture means being in it for the long haul, taking a holistic approach – and recognising that intended changes often end up having unexpected consequences. No blog post could do justice to the complexity of what is required. A few pointers, in particular from a communication perspective include:

• Clarity. Populate the cultural web to understand where your culture is now, and where you need it to be
• Help people to ‘unlearn’:  use communication to help show why the current way of being just won’t work for the future. Better still, find ways people can find this out for themselves (e.g.: ask groups to conduct their own market research) 
• Support leaders in being tangible and explicit about what is changing (and what isn’t).  Highlight role models to help people ‘reframe’ their thinking.   Engage – providing structured opportunities for people to make their own informed decisions about solutions.
• Provide a safe environment.  Fear of failure or looking stupid is a big stumbling block.  Listen to understand concerns, then communicate the support that is being put in place.
• Recognise the power of the peer group – especially in the digital age.  Nurture and support ‘informal’ leaders
• Publicise and reinforce successes – and encourage people to do the same through internal social media platforms.

Liz Cochrane

Course Director, Masters in Internal Communication Management

Learning and Development: At a Glance

Carol Martin, Senior Consultant and Development Manager, Capita Learning & Development highlights the benefits of training employees - it stops stagnation, it's a great networking opportunity and it generates creativity and innovation.

She also talks about how the recession exposed gaps in the organisational structure of companies and how this has forced companies to train their employees in order to cultivate better performance. Watch the full interview below...

The Future of Learning & Development

What effect has the recession had on the Learning and Development function?

Rob Williams, Sales & Solutions Director at Capita Learning & Development, talks about how the recession has forced businesses to do more with less and to prove that there is a valid business case for investment in learning programmes that improve performance and overall business.

Learning and Development Outsourcing by Capita Learning & Development

In this month’s post we are inviting you to watch a video introducing Rob Williams, Sales & Solutions Director at Capita Learning & Development, who talks about his role in learning and development outsourcing.  Rob has been part of Business Focus Learning, a project on identifying the learning and development needs for businesses and how to deliver the services while demonstrating value for money. 

Does your company outsource learning and development or is the training done internally? What benefits have you seen when outsourcing these needs?

How Health and Safety Conscious is Your Company?

Last week was the European Week for Safety and Health at Work. There were events organised across Europe in support of the ‘Working together for risk prevention’ campaign, which aimed to raise awareness and promote activities to make the workplace safer, healthier and more productive. The focus was on risk prevention, managing risks, encouraging top managers to actively engage in risk reduction and inspiring workers and other stakeholders to work with the managers to reduce risks.

Regardless of the type of the business, there is always the possibility of an accident or damage to someone’s health. The hazards may include manual handling, working with DSE (Display Screen Equipment), dangerous machinery or even stress. In the UK there are still over 600,000 workplace injuries every year and 1.8 million cases of ill health caused by work (Learn HQ 24-7 Press Release, April 2012). So when considering these high numbers, it is not only your social responsibility, but also makes good business sense, to pay attention to the company’s health and safety protocol.

How to raise health and safety (H&S) awareness in your company:

•  Have an H&S policy in place. It doesn't have to be too complicated and should highlight clearly who does what, when and how.
• Encourage a culture of safety by asking employees to speak out about safety issues.
• Use safety signage to keep employees educated about possible hazards, company procedures and general safety tips.
•  Hold regular fire and emergency drills.
• Provide training and information. Perhaps try making your H&S inductions a bit more fun and engaging by showing videos, for example short YouTube clips.

By the Health and Safety at Work Act and the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations, the companies and individuals need to ensure that adequate provisions are made for health and safety at work. Without following the legal requirements, the company is in breach of the Health and Safety Law.  

In addition to following the law, it adds value to the business. The most obvious benefit of implementing health and safety practices is that it provides a safe environment for employees and visiting clients. It should also be a first priority as it helps to reduce accidents and speeds up recovery times should an incident occur. Accident prevention will in return increase employees’ productivity.

Other benefits include:

•  Better working relationships between management and employees – employees feel that management cares about their wellbeing by offering health insurance, time off for sick days, a range of health services etc. Higher morale amongst employees results in fewer ‘duvet days’.
• Employees consider health and safety to be a necessary part of their employment package. An extensive health and safety program can be a motivator to remain with the company, which results in employee retention.
• A health and safety policy works to keep the workplace clear of hazards, e.g. slippery surfaces, blocked hallways, use of chemicals and dangerous machinery. A clean and safe workplace improves the overall health of the company and willingness to learn and develop work knowledge.

Do you have any tips you would like to share on how you have put together a health and safety policy at your company? Also, do you or your staff speak out when you (they) feel they cannot work safely? 

Training Industry Trends

In the current economic climate companies are careful on what they spend money on and often training is at the bottom of the list. However a lot of employers still value investing in their employees, wanting to keep in pace with business demands and changes but also to improve the standard of their work, keep them stimulated and interested, which in turn leads to higher retention of staff. It is important to retain and develop talent within the company as hiring and training new employees prove to be more costly.

Trends show that training programmes have become shorter in length and 90-minute espresso sessions have become quite popular for people with busy schedules, who do not want to (or cannot afford to) spend hours on training courses anymore. Shorter but more intensive courses have become far more effective. The main objective is that employees can discover practical techniques which can be implemented immediately in their workplace. The benefit for the company is maximising investment with this time-efficient training concept.

These days more and more businesses are turning to e-Learning as it offers a versatile and highly effective alternative way to progress skills and also helps to keep training costs low. The biggest advantage is flexibility - people can fit the training into their own schedule and learn at their own pace. This has become increasingly important in our busy lifestyles. 

For more industry trends watch Capita Learning & Development's, UK Delivery Team Manager, Liz Kemp, speaking about the trends and changes in the training industry, bespoke and tailored training solutions and what the future holds for the training industry. 

With the impact of the recession still being felt nationwide, UK employees are increasingly expected to do more with fewer resources. Capita Learning & Development has taken the industry trends and customer feedback into account and identified a full suite of programmes and short courses to tackle the development needs of the UK. They range from Leadership and Management through to Personal Development; and accredited programmes.

We have updated and also added some new courses, for example Talent Management and Succession Planning as the current competitive recruitment and retention climate is creating the need for innovative talent management strategies. Also new is Evaluating Learning Intervention Effectiveness. In order to maximise the impact and return on investment of any learning it is essential to measure the effectiveness. Businesses need to make sure that retained learning is put into practice and its impact should be measured.

To find out more on our training courses, download the 2013 directory below: