Publications

This paper examines the main routes towards HR reform, pointing out potential pitfalls and how to avoid them. The paper examines the different routes towards HR transformation: structural reform; outsourcing; process modernisation; and technological innovation.

From fortune-tellers to football managers and from homeopaths to home secretaries, all practitioners tend to believe quite strongly that what they do is based on evidence. This paper explores these issues in order to make the case that while HR has made great progress in starting to engage with evidence it still has some way to go, as a profession and practice, before it can truly claim to be evidence-based.

In this paper we provide empirical evidence concerning the nature of loan commitment contracts and the extent to which individual loan parameters interact with each other. Specifically, we consider how the quantitative allocation of credit, the loan amount, is affected or altered by changes to other components of the total loan package. By doing so we shed some more light on the type of real world trade-offs that credit constrained firms might face when approaching banks for funds, using the UK governments loan guarantee programme.

This paper focuses on the application of ICT (Information and Communications Technology) in helping disabled people enter and remain in employment in the UK, and in particular on the nature and extent of any national ICT and/or disability strategies in this area. The paper is based on a review of the limited academic literature and relevant policy documents available in this area, together with semi-structured expert interviews with a small number of key informants in the ICT field, in disability organisations and government.

This paper looks at some aspects of the potential role of self-employment in transitional labour markets (TLM), building on previous work by the author (Meager and Bates, 2002). The question we were concerned with was whether self-employment transitions operate as positive or negative contributions to labour market dynamics.

The Working Neighbourhoods Pilot (WNP) was introduced by the Department for Work and Pensions in April 2004 to test a new approach to offering intensive support to help people to gain work. This report presents the findings of the evaluation of the WNP. The evaluation comprised four main elements: a literature review; analysis of secondary and administrative data, undertaken by DWP analysts, to compare trends in benefit flows over time and against 12 selected comparison sites; detailed case study work with stakeholders in each of the pilot sites, and their matched comparison sites; and an eligible residents' survey of 1,200 residents across the 12 pilot sites looking at attitudes and motivations towards employment, and their experiences of employment, unemployment and the pilot.

This report looks behind the aggregate responses to the National Minimum Wage (NMW) to establish if there are specific regional and sector impacts. The hypothesis is that the nature of the NMW (a minimum rate that prevails in any part of the country) could have different effects on regions and sectors with very different wage distributions.

This report reviews the literature on mental health issues at work and the interventions available to tackle them, in order to provide some guidance to help employers deal with the issues within their own companies. This report outlines the benefits of taking a more positive approach to tackling mental health issues, going beyond complying with legislation, towards promoting mental well-being at work.

This paper examines how to handle reward systems through periods of business change and looks at what issues need to be tackled and how. Case studies from recently merged companies illustrate different approaches to handling reward strategy, pay and benefits.

To what extent is it employers' responsibility to look after their employees? What is the best approach to take and what benefits are they likely to see? This report seeks to answer these questions by presenting a case study of one organisation currently involved in health promotion activities. British Gas Business, part of Centrica, has been running a series of activities to promote health and well-being amongst its workforce for a number of years.