Employees from EU countries, now working in the UK, are letting their managers know that they intend to return home. Somehow, the UK’s not such a nice place today. And the problem nation they left all those years ago looks quite attractive now with significant economic growth and jobs. So, when your employees say “We intend moving back to our home”, here are your options.

The gig economy describes the present state where workers need not necessarily be employed by a firm. They can be engaged for the duration of a ‘gig’, after which they stand down until needed again some time later. There can be advantages for managers to employ workers or the self-employed instead of employees. Read how.

Designing a sales commission policy and associated commission operating system to remunerate staff for sales performance is complex. The scheme must incentivise, and be fair to all. This blog considers some of the thinking that should go into incentive design.

The culture that exists within a firm will in the long run make or break it. This paper analyses culture. It first discusses culture as a concept. It looks at what part culture plays in our working life and how it affects the firm. It researches current thinking on culture. And finally it looks at how one might measure and where necessary change culture in a firm. The aim is to provide practicing managers with a tool: something theoretically sound and something practical.

If a manager can express the traits and abilities of candidates such that search turns up truly viable candidates; if the search itself targets just the right people; and if selection tests for exactly what's needed, then the hiring manager avoids wasting everyone’s time and avoids reducing the firm's turnover and profits. It's deterministic recruitment: getting it right first time. Here's how.

Power is important. Persuading staff to do your bidding means that you must have power over them – to order them, to make them do, particularly since they might otherwise do something else. But how that ‘ordering’ is done is all-important because social managers enjoy greater success. For some, being a social manager comes naturally. For others it can be learned. Here's how.