The Chubb Group of insurance companies and Bear Stearns security company are among the large corporations that have, over the last decade, been gradually liberating their internal labor markets. The traditional system of management determining the employee’s career path has been replaced by a...

Giving junior team members a significant role in hiring decisions and encouraging employee feedback on customer‐comment forms are just two of the unconventional human‐resource management practices that have helped to make Pret A Manger one of the most admired brands in Britain. McDonald’s...

A UK accountancy firm which is “founded on its people and earns its licence to operate through them” allows any of its employees to take half a day each month in work time for regular volunteering. More than 2,000 employees, from all levels of seniority, take part in KPMG’s Community...

Few executives hit the ground running in a new role, yet there is currently more and more pressure to do so. Dr Adrian Atkinson, managing director of business‐psychology organization Human Factors International, talks to David Pollitt, Human Resource Management International Digest editor,...

It is not every company that would think to provide kayak racks for employees wishing to travel to work by boat, but that is precisely what Capital One did when it opened a new canal‐side building at its European headquarters site in Nottingham, UK. The move reflects an important philosophy at...

Intrawest’s Whistler and Blackcomb skiing resort needs 5,000 employees in the winter and only 400 throughout the rest of the year. Effective HR practices, however, help to ensure that a large percentage of the winter workforce is made up of returning hourly employees and volunteers. Moreover,...

Having a job where there are no set hours, days or places of work may sound too good to be true, but that is exactly what happens at a UK training and development company. All 30 employees of the Training Exchange operate on the principle that they are there for the customer – and it works.

UK conglomerate Centrica has successfully recruited carers, long‐term unemployed, lone parents and people with disabilities to contact‐center jobs – and tackled assumptions and prejudices head on. Centrica touches the lives of millions of Britons through its well‐known consumer brands...

UK people living in areas where there is a large ethnic population are often struck by the lack of non‐white faces when they move to areas which are less culturally diverse. The population of the UK classed as ethnic minority is around 7 percent. In the South East, the Midlands and the North...