Saturday February 26, 2011 at 10:40pm
From my experience one of the flaws of most conflict resolution and mediation courses is their inability to deal with the one on one confrontations. They do not train the would be mediator to dealing and handling conflicts.
Yes, the model often gets the mediator or manager to identify issues, develop strenths and weaknesses, apply some pressure but what about giving tips on handling one on one conflict.
Let's face it. Most managers dread conflict.
I believe that mediation is....
Saturday February 26, 2011 at 7:59am
I read that the Government has so far paid more than £20 million in one-off redundancy payments as part of the "bonfire of the quangos", figures have revealed. The statistics, obtained by the BBC under the Freedom of Information Act, showed there have been almost 1,000 redundancies from 29 of the 481 public bodies being wound down in cost cutting measures. One employee from The Crown Prosecution Service was paid £200,000, according to the data. I wonder how much negotiation....
Thursday December 9, 2010 at 10:53am
Public sector organisations around the world face unprecedented pressure to improve service quality while progressively lowering their costs. At the same time, they are expected to become more accountable, customer focused and responsive to stakeholder needs. In the UK the new coalition Government has embarked on an unprecedented public sector funding cull which is already resulting in wide scale change programmes, job losses, fear and anger amongst public sector workers. Let’s not underes....
Wednesday November 24, 2010 at 11:23am
The CIPD have just produced some guidance on performance management where they give the following key recommendations on performance management:
- Communicate clear and measurable standards - Monitor performance - Give feedback for early correction - Investigate fully and create a performance improvement plan - Provide sufficient time to improve and escalate to a formal process if standards are not met - Dismiss the employee if they cannot meet the standard required and no further adjustments c....
Tuesday November 9, 2010 at 1:04pm
A very good post over on the Guardian blog shows some of the employment problems of the public sector. "Is it too difficult to discipline staff in the public sector, as a BBC investigation claimed earlier this week? A former NHS chief executive interviewed on Radio 4's Sack 'Em programme reinforced a widely-held view that public servants are rarely fired: Gary Walker, a former hospital chief executive, told us that moving people sideways instead of sacking them is incredibly common. He clai....
Wednesday November 3, 2010 at 9:36am
An excellent report on Channel 4 which highlights the problem of both sickness and redundancy costs within the public sector.
Here are some of the key extracts."Many of them point to genuine sickness problems – though why the bad weather in Aberdeen and North Wales should affect workers there disproportionately compared to the rest of us (who by the way also had to endure a pretty miserable winter last year) is unclear. It's a reason for some absence, for sure, but for such high numb....
Monday October 25, 2010 at 7:38am
A report by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, shows that a third of all employers reporting an increase in stress-related absence. More than a third noted an increase in mental health problems such as anxiety and depression – a big rise on last year’s survey when one-fifth reported an increase. But only one-fifth of organisations had increased their focus on employee well-being and health promotion, suggesting more could be done. The survey found t....
Saturday October 23, 2010 at 7:34am
Whether we wish to face up to it or not, many organisations in the public and private sector are in crisis as their rasisin etre is missing.
Organisations need an ethical framework, but the vast majority are unbothered.
Within this context, the paper below was published this month and presented in a speech to the Chairmen and CEOs of the UK FTSE350 corporations by Ian Powell, the PwC UK Chairman.http://www.pwc.co.uk/eng/issues/trust.html
A key person involved in the paper....
Friday October 22, 2010 at 3:46pm
As part of the new orthodoxy and with much encouragement from the government, the trend towards merged councils took a significant step today with proposals to create the UK's first "super council" with the the London boroughs of Westminster, Hammersmith & Fulham, and Kensington & Chelsea proposing to merge all their services, from schools and refuse collection to child protection.Andy Sawford, chief executive of the Local Government Information Unit think tank has go....
Thursday October 21, 2010 at 10:24am
In my mediation training seminars, there is a very strong emphasis on the importance of soft skills in managing disputes conflict.
Where managers fall short is often not what they say which can often be totally justified, but rather how they say it.
When human resource staff become mediators as such they need to avoid the perception of pre-judging.
With this in mind, consider Peter Oborne is the Daily Telegraph's analysis on George Osborne's speech yesterday announcing the CSR....
Wednesday October 20, 2010 at 9:45am
The Comprehensive Spending Review is being presented to Parliament and we now have a better picture of what is involved with the public sector cuts.
It is still early days but here are some of the issues which public sector managers and their human resources departments have to communicate.
1 Formulation of vision. Any successful change management and redundancy programme has to give some kind of meaning and healing through the pain. Already some bodies are doing this by f....
Tuesday October 19, 2010 at 9:27am
One of the issues which the public sector has to decide is to what extent they should apply redundancies in order to implement savings.
No doubt redundancies will be announced flowing from Defence cuts today and the Public Sector Spending Review 2010.
What is interesting and an issue we are looking at our White Paper on Redundancies and Change Management is the possibility of costing how much a redundancy is to an organisation.
Yes, you have statutory redundancy costs which is set in a R....
Monday October 18, 2010 at 6:37am
According to a recent article in the Scottish Sun, the Conservatives in Scotland are attacking Scotland's public sector "sick-note" culture - and using a new hotline to cure it. Figures released by the party showed Scots councils' staff were off ill up to three weeks a year on average.
Scottish Tory Finance spokesman Derek Brownlee said the scheme - currently on trial in the NHS in England - would drastically reduce absences. Under it, workers....
Friday October 15, 2010 at 11:17am
I am pleased to inform clients and readers that Human Law Mediation is going to produce a White Paper on how to cope with redundancy and change programmes without staff disputes. This White Paper provides a complete road map for bodies who are going through redundancy programmes and other major change as a result of public sector funding cuts.
It discusses the key steps you can take to a pain free solution to public sector funding cuts. It includes details of how you can set....
Thursday October 14, 2010 at 8:58am
It is being reported that ministers are going to announce today that 200 public sector bodies will be axed . The intention is to save millions of pounds.
Oh, the high minded intentions of a government with a mission.
It is worth reflecting that Tony Blair and Margaret Thatcher had high intentions of cutting quangos. Both failed.
A report published in July by the Institute for Government charity warned that cutting quangos would not save large amounts of public money.
This is precisely my ex....
Monday October 11, 2010 at 8:22am
I have read that health and council jobs in the Borders are at risk through a possible merger of departments to cut costs.
NHS Borders, NHS Lothian, NHS Fife, NHS Tayside and NHS Forth Valley will look at sharing more back-office departments and systems at a meeting later this month. Possibilities are also being explored with the relevant councils and a report on progress is expected to be published before the end of November. Mr Egan pointed out that there were five different HR director....
Sunday October 10, 2010 at 7:08am
Beyond all of the recent headlines in the public sector, it is worth both government and trade unions thinking about some hard facts. Public sector productivity growth is behind behind productivity growth in the private sector. In short, we are paying a lot more but the extra money is buying less.
Efficiency varies widely between providers. The public sector is not one monolith. Performance varies.
Performance management has in most cases been undermined by its lack ....
Friday October 8, 2010 at 2:36pm
According to the Guardian, the government faces a multibillion-pound bill to close up to 180 quangos and in some cases it could be a decade before any savings are felt.
The Cabinet Office is poised to publish a list of the organisations facing closure or merger in its "bonfire of the quangos" next week. But private papers reveal that in several cases the liabilities from pensions, redundancies and rental contracts could outweigh any of the savings being claimed for up to 10 years. The....