Blogs

Duncan Brown reflects on the latest SHRM research and discovers that the ‘heart and soul’ is very much alive in the world of people management.

Dan Lucy argues that talent shortages will be the greatest challenge for HR professionals and employers this year, though this will encourage greater innovation in HR and a stronger focus on 'good work'.

What role should HR take in preventing or mitigating an ethical crisis? Stephen Bevan considers what HR has learned from the 2008 financial crash and whether HR should act as the moral compass of an organisation.

Writing on the publication of our 2017 Perspectives on HR report, Peter Reilly considers the need for HR functions to prioritise their efforts and resources as teams report the challenge of having too much demanded of them.

In the landscape of uncertainty following the Brexit vote, Stephen Bevan considers the need for HR and employers to focus on employee engagement.

Duncan Brown revisits the debate on the role of HR business partners and where they fit in today's organisation structures.

Now that it's September, coming back to work after summer distractions and in particular visiting the Edinburgh book festival, I started thinking about what have I (re)learned? One thing I've been thinking over is how do you understand the past?

The 2014 edition of our annual "Perspectives" report has now been published. Rather than focus on a specific theme, this year the report covers a wide range of topics. Some could be regarded as hardy perennials, like talent or diversity, but positioned in a new context. Others (eg outsourcing and zero-hours contracts) report on current areas of preoccupation for the HR function that have important antecedents. Then there are the new(er) kids on the block, like big data and crowdsourcing: novel concepts that again, it could be argued, have long-standing roots in business management.