FedEE Blog

Comment: Thermodynamics of the workplace

In trying to understand the world, we all seek shortcuts. The most intellectual of these is called a ‘conjoncture’ – a set of benchmarks against which all events can be compared, ordered and contrasted. The holy grail for HR, for

Comment: The fallacy of talent

There are few subjects that attract bigger audiences to HR conferences than talent management. In many ways, the modern HR professional defines their reason for existence by the acquisition, development and retention of highly talented individuals – because that is

Comment: The new political morality

What modern US Presidents have learnt from the social media age is that both well-drafted laws and brute force have less political clout than fighting moral turpitude – and that moral life is not built on the continuum of right

Comment: False fraud

When posting workers to another EU country employers should beware of failures on behalf of the social security authority in the posting country, as this will allow the host country authorities to declare that E101 social security certificates are fraudulent

Comment: A legal qualification for HR

Why is it that even though companies invest heavily in HR systems they still find themselves suffering from legal compliance or HR standards problems? Surely, having an ERP or HR Service Delivery system in place and using its powerful, easy

Comment: Why politics matter

The two subjects people are most commonly advised to avoid talking about at work are politics and religion.  Yet for multinational organisations both subjects cannot be totally ignored – especially the political situation in countries where they operate.

The conventional

Comment: Masks of normality

Although concern about disability is now well within the radar of most HR professionals, mental health problems remain an often neglected dot on the screen. One reason for this is that many psychological conditions are difficult to detect and the

Dealing with AWOL

What happens when an employee does not turn up to work and no message is received from them? Do employers have the right immediately to dismiss them?

The answer for most jurisdictions around the world is “no”. In the US,

Comment: When things fall apart

Although many employers give time off for employees to get married or form a civil partnership few have in place policies to deal with the often emotionally devastating experience when marriages and partnerships fall apart.

The collapse of relationships can

Comment: Lost certainties

This year’s Fortune Global 500 features a whole tranche of new entries. Companies like Chubb and Medtronic that have gone over the US$20bn threshold to become a truly major multinational corporation (MNC). The top 500 companies turnover $27.7 trillion and

Comment: Fishing with click bait

There is an interesting contrast between the methods used in the two ‘cousin’ fields of public relations (PR) and employee relations (ER). Whilst PR has become increasingly sophisticated in its use of technology, ER remains largely back in an era

Comment: Are you ISO compliant?

It is now 12 months since the International Organisation for Standardisation published its standards for human resource management (ISO 30408) and recruitment (ISO 30405). They were certainly a long time coming and now they are here it would be interesting

Comment: Why strikes decline

There was a period, back in the 1970s, when ongoing strikes seldom fell below 300 a month. I was working at the time as a journalist for the UK’s leading IR journal. It was my habit to take quotes from

Comment: Disturbing trend lines

A phenomenon little known outside the realms of psychologists is the “Flynn effect”. This concerns the constant increase in IQ test scores over time. The average rate observed is about 3 points per decade. This does not sound much, but

Comment: LDTs, TAD – and after

In my last comment column I pointed out how labour displacing technologies (LDTs) were already an inexorable force throughout the advanced economies. But where will this trend take us? For instance, repeated warnings by Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX and