Competitive advantage is where a firm enjoys lower costs or greater sales than competitors. This paper builds an argument for a set of HR practices that form the basis of the psychological contract, the set of expectations that both employee and employer hold.

This paper is about how the wider society in which a young person lives, is educated and works affects their career options, decisions and subsequent development. It considers how young people make decisions and what influences those decisions. It then describes the context of the wider society, drawing on sociology. In drawing conclusion this essay suggests that one cannot separate the individual and society in careers management and coaching.

Managers can find it extremely attractive to ‘employ’ foreign staff resident abroad. Engaging workers in foreign countries is complex. In many cases it is better to trade at arms length through business to business agreements, paying against invoice. But that won't suit many firms, particularly where they have constraining upstream contracts. They must employ workers locally. Here are all the issues.

All managers will interview candidates for jobs with their firm. Each interview, as the single selection instrument, must be designed to give evidence against all decision criteria. Interview alone is unable to be that good. Indeed, no single selection instrument is that good. We recommend the use of a number of ‘tools’ to support the interview. Read about those tools here.

The article notes that before promotion, the engineer was an ordinary employee. He or she achieved great things through their own efforts. Now their success comes from causing others to perform. They're still an engineer. But they've added a whole new part to their identity. Now they're a manager of engineers. They're a boss, a leader of men and women. It's the same whatever the discipline.

There’s been a plethora of articles in the management press and in management-oriented social media recently declaring that mental health is a big issue in firms. Here we temper this alarmism and give a practical three point plan comprising knowledge, awareness and sensing and intervention.