Category: Opinion

‘Great Recession’? Of course not greater than the Great War 100 years ago but let us not forget the lessons of this lesser skirmish since it arguably affected so many people.

Employee engagement is a journey, not a destination. James Townsend, Partner, Employment, at B P Collins LLP, discusses what employers need to do to get the best from their workforce – whilst also protecting their investment in human capital. The trick is not to stand still.

Back in the 1980s we saw a massive growth in the IT industry. Sales forces thought they were omnipotent. They were selling fantastic products in a burgeoning market; therefore motivation was a natural consequence.

Technology is transforming the world we live in. People expect to be able to access the right information whenever and wherever they need it and with 4G services signalling a faster, more ubiquitous mobile experience, digital demands are only set to increase.

This piece is inspired by a deeply depressing ‘day in the life of’ article that I read the other day. If you’re going to do well in business, you need to have the inner strength and unwavering vision to see the big picture regardless of how stagnant an individual day feels.

Yesterday is interesting but irrelevant. This simple phrase defines a strategy to spark exponential growth and efficiency in any organisation.

When work isn’t working for your employees, the on-going and future success of your whole business could be in precarious balance.

As the main sponsor for the Brit Awards 2014, you’d expect MasterCard to want to maximise its association and investment with a social media strategy wrapped around the #PricelessSurprise hashtag.

“If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got” goes the adage credited to Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Company. Sadly, it’s a truism ignored by too many struggling businesses that carry on regardless in the face of diminishing sales and falling profits.

It’s useful to have employees who are gregarious and well-connected with their peers, but companies that mandate those attributes are making a mistake.

It is a common theory that people tend to leave their bosses rather than a company. According to recent research from Career Builder, one of the UK’s leading online job sites, one in ten workers in Britain are dissatisfied with their current role, and of those people – 73% don’t feel valued in their current position and 36% don’t like their boss.

There’s that project you’ve left on the backburner – the one with the deadline that’s growing uncomfortably near. And there’s the client whose phone call you really should return – the one that does nothing but complain and eat up your valuable time.

As an employer, your staff are your greatest asset. Small businesses went to great lengths to retain jobs throughout the recession, focusing on making cost savings in other parts of the business.

Leadership, like followership, is a continual journey through actions and growth, not merely a journey’s end for a CV. This leadership development conundrum has always been a puzzle.

With the government announcement that both personal and corporate insolvencies fell in the last quarter of 2013, professionals have been questioning whether this shows a true reflection of the economy. David Kirk of Exeter based Kirks Insolvency thinks otherwise.