A number of modern trends, along with the upset of the Covid virus, have put pressure on firms to accept more flexibility in the way their employees work. Arguably, flexibility and working from home can enhance wellbeing. The drivers for lasting change are there. But so are the difficulties. Time will tell if flexibility and home working take hold universally.

This article explores effective staff development showcasing a simple but effective competency framework model that can be used by any firm of any size and complexity to explore their competence gap. To understand competence gap you need to know what competencies you have now, what you need for the future, and how you are going to develop your people to bridge the gap.

The issue is not if a four-day week would be beneficial to the nation and to its people. That argument’s been made and there are plenty of examples of how well it works. The issue is that our firms are incapable of reducing the working week because shareholders aren’t in it for the long term. And our employees aren’t prepared to earn less or invest in themselves either. It's impasse - but here's an action plan.

We know that men and women must be paid equally for jobs of equal value so we can assume that pay discrimination is not the explanation for the recently reported gender pay gaps in most organisations. Our analysis suggests that the cause is something much, much deeper. Deep in society. And no amount of castigating employers will fix it. As a society, universally, women are paid less than men. And we have to fix the attitudes that cause this - in the family, schools and society as a whole.

A series of blogs for 2021, designed to be consumed as podcasts, but using a single overview slide. Each is on a single management topic or everyday event. Each takes less than three minutes to consume. Just click to view the list and get the latest.

Many firms want to contract with foreign workers working in foreign countries. There is much debate about whether it is right for the UK employer to issue a UK employment contract to those foreign workers. We would generally say not and here’s the rationale. We argue that the choice of law in employment contracts should always be local law (unless work is done in many countries).