As the economy keeps improving the recruitment of new candidates becomes more and more important. There is already a scarcity of good candidates as a large section of a generation is missing in Ireland. The candidates between 30 and 35 are scarce. Recently a manager whom I have known for years reminded me of the [...]

Recently I attended a HR seminar where a HR director told us that he had torn up the appraisal handbook and forms in the executive meeting to the delight of all who were present. If you want to be popular with managers then definitely tear up the Management Performance System. Afterwards I was speaking to [...]

NATIONAL MINIMUM WAGE 2017   €9.25 is the legally enforceable minimum rate that applies to adult experienced workers with effect from 1 January 2017.     EMPLOYEE MINIMUM HOURLY RATE of PAY Experienced adult worker €9.25 per working hour Under age 18 €6.48 per working hour (70%)   *In the first year after the date [...]

Paternity Leave is the unpaid leave granted to the male employee on the birth of his child in Ireland. The Paternity Leave is for a maximum of ten (10) days off linked to the birth of the father’s child. The leave should be taken within 26 weeks of the birth of the child.   Please [...]

The Labour Court ruled recently on the first Industrial Relations dispute before them after the new Industrial Relations (Amendment) Act, 2015. The dispute was between Freshways Food Company (employer) and SIPTU (LRC21242) and it was about pay and conditions. The company employs 250 workers of whom 170 are general operatives, the company makes sandwiches. SIPTU [...]

“Could you come in now direct to see us?” That is a question which I am frequently asked by managers, who are not sure what to do in the case of a dismissal and are wise enough to ask for assistance. The legislation regarding a dismissal can be tricky and difficult enough for any individual [...]

I read recently an article which questioned the reason to be positive, to have hope and to be optimistic. I think there are many reasons why being positive works. As we are living in challenging times for employees and companies and very often people are stressed out and look towards HR for advice and inspiration. [...]

There are situations in companies when the behaviour of employees needs to be investigated. This could be for a number of reasons: disciplinary, bullying and harassment or grievance investigation. Whatever the reason for such an investigation it needs to be done with the utmost care and consideration making sure that the constitutional rights of employees [...]

Recently a manager said to me in passing, ‘You say you create effective employees don’t you?’ I replied, ‘Yes I do’. ‘Well’, he said, ‘I need a few of them. Where can I get them?’ I wish that life was only that easy, that I could create effective employees with a stroke of my wand [...]

Recently The Irish Times published an article which predicted a 10 percent wage increase for 2016! Hard to believe but unions will be delighted reading this. However the article was based on the experiences one of the major recruitment agencies in Ireland. Now recruitment agencies have an interested to get wages increased as their fees [...]