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Deconstructing software roles: understanding the jobs of an industry
Written by John Berry on 25th December 2017. Revised 27th December 2017.
7 min read
The job that a software professional does is linked to where on the lifecycle they work and how much of that lifecycle they embrace. It also depends on how much of the technology they cover – user interface or full-stack. And salaries go with those definitions. Here's the structure of the industry.
Performance appraisals: essential whatever you call them
Written by John Berry on 20th November 2017.0
5 min read
Performance appraisals have come in for some serious criticism recently. And yet the books and articles written which criticise simply advocate performance appraisal by another name – or rather a collection of names. Here's an analysis of the issues.
Winning employee commitment by granting idiosyncratic employment deals
Written by John Berry on 21st October 2017. Revised 30th October 2017.
32 min read
Commitment matters. If managers can get all staff to be committed, other management and leadership activities become possible. Without committed staff, there’s little the manager can do to achieve goals and the firm will just drift. This paper describes commitment and outlines research that shows what managers can do to achieve commitment. The research shows that there is correlation between the idiosyncratic granting of developmental opportunities and affective commitment in those benefitting.
This blog takes five HRM tools and links them through one key idea – competence. Competence theory is a way of looking at how management can measure staff contribution to the business. And once measured, management can use the five tools to optimise engagement.
Bad cyber security assumption threatens firms
Written by John Berry on 5th May 2017. Revised 23rd July 2017.
7 min read
A cyber-security practitioner ended a presentation by giving five very practical recommendations. All were technical. They covered authentication, pass-phrases and other features that assumed that the threat was from outside the system. This assumption is dominating current information technology thinking. This bad cyber security assumption threatens firms. Here's why.
Why Are Restrictive Covenants Needed?
Written by John Berry on 9th May 2017. Revised 23rd July 2017.
3 min read
Restrictive covenants (clauses) are used in employment contracts as a means of protecting the employer when an employee leaves. In order to be valid they must only protect assets that are key to the firm.
