Sliced Cheese: 11/13

It’s been a busy month for Peter Cheese, bastion of CIPD, champion of all things HR.

Firstly, Peter’s won an award. He’s officially the top UK Thinker for 2013, in HR magazine’s annual rankings. Many congratulations, Peter.

So, what has HR’s best brain actually been thinking? Here are a few slices of wisdom, straight from the award-winning mind of Cheese.

Blacklisting is a bad thing

There have been some explosive revelations about blacklisting in the construction industry recently. This is a story that’s been developing over the last few months, but has only just found its way into the mainstream news.

Back in May, Peter, who spoke to a committee of MPs about the subject at the beginning of September, was already encouraging debate, saying that although HR must protect organisations “from recruiting a bad apple” he does not condone blacklisting, and calling for more clarity on such matters.

Employers should go back to school

Elsewhere, MP Neil Carmichael (Conservative MP for Stroud and a member of the Education Select Committee) spoke at a CIPD fringe event at the Conservative conference in Manchester recently.

He argued the case for employers having more say in schools and careers advice systems, to tackle the growing skills gap.

Our man Cheese chaired the discussion, agreeing that policy changes relating to employer involvement in education and careers services needed to happen at both a local and national level.

Tweets of Cheese

Meanwhile, over in the Twittersphere, @Cheese_Peter has been tweeting some excellent points.

Topics he’s been talking about include the need for larger industrial organisations to help solve the problem of skill shortages and help young people develop their talents.

Occupiers Journal (@occupiers) asked whether physical workplaces and facilities will ever be seen as part of the employee proposition and followed up with a tweet asking how the added value of a workplace can be measured.

@Cheese_Peter replied that it’s quite a challenging question, pointing out that some employers already do track such things, via employee surveys and productivity measures, but added that it’s not done regularly, as yet.

The conversation was joined by several interested parties and a round table discussion has been suggested. Watch this space. (And take note, this is a great example of how Twitter can be useful. It’s not all ranting mobs and pictures of psychotic looking cats twerking in funny hats.)

Finally, on the subject of happiness, @Cheese_Peter tweeted praise about his discussion with positive thinking expert @shawnachor. They’d been discussing insights into “happiness and engagement at [a] profound level” and its potential implications in business. Think happy thoughts, @Cheese_Peter, think happy, happy thoughts.

CIPD CEO Peter Cheese can be followed on Twitter @Cheese_Peter. If you’re unsure of what any of that last sentence even means (or this whole section, for that matter), there’s a chance you’re doing HR wrong. You might even be doing modern living wrong, #smh.

About the author

Kirsty Willis

Kirsty plays the ukulele and climbs hills. Sometimes at the same time. If she types enough words, eventually recruitment and HR comms appear. Kirsty once kissed one of The Pogues. He tasted of whisky and cigarettes.