Shortage of People and Skills Ahead In recent years the focus has been on apprenticeships and job opportunities for young people, which are both important. However, that has distracted managers from another pressing issue – the skills and ‘corporate glue’ provided by older workers. The number of young people coming into the workforce is shrinking. […]
News broke this week that France will allow companies to re-negotiate a longer working week and overtime rates of pay thus starting to erode the 35 hour week for ‘blue collar’ staff. That report made me smile as I recalled: Advising a French service company on adopting the 35 hour week and reducing employment […]
This is the second article in our series on the puzzle of the UK’s low productivity [1]. As we touched upon in the first article, many factors affect productivity some of which are beyond the control of senior managers e.g. global trading and economic changes. Even now, new pressures are arising which may affect […]
[Note: this article was amended on 29/09/2015 to correct typing errors]. Professional journals and newspapers have been lamenting that rising wage costs are not matched by increases in productivity. Some writers have referred to this dilemma as the Productivity Enigma. Have we taken our eye of the ball? Productivity is a key concern of […]
Deciding by Fact or Fiction Do you have the right mix of temporary workers to meet your seasonal or fluctuating needs? Have you experienced a pressing need for temporary workers but none with the right skills/knowledge are to hand immediately? Over 54% of employers rely upon agency workers (1) for more than 12 week periods […]
Managers have faced the need to contain or reduce costs for many years although the current economic climate has accentuated that for many. The growing interest in innovative ways to reduce costs will be reviewed in this and subsequent articles over the next few months. Many articles describe the ‘new’ approaches but omit to explain […]