Publications

Adapting assessment and development to the changing nature of work

This paper highlights the inadequacies of traditional approaches and points to new procedures that meet today's needs, in this important aspect of talent management. It also provides an example of where the proposed new approach has produced startling results which have provided high-quality assessment data at a fraction of the cost of traditional approaches.

Several routes to an HR nirvana: but is it all a mirage?

This paper examines the main routes towards HR reform, pointing out potential pitfalls and how to avoid them. The paper examines the different routes towards HR transformation: structural reform; outsourcing; process modernisation; and technological innovation.

Is HRM evidence-based and does it matter?

From fortune-tellers to football managers and from homeopaths to home secretaries, all practitioners tend to believe quite strongly that what they do is based on evidence. This paper explores these issues in order to make the case that while HR has made great progress in starting to engage with evidence it still has some way to go, as a profession and practice, before it can truly claim to be evidence-based.

The Role of Loan Commitments in Credit Allocation on the UK Small Firms Loan Guarantee Scheme

In this paper we provide empirical evidence concerning the nature of loan commitment contracts and the extent to which individual loan parameters interact with each other. Specifically, we consider how the quantitative allocation of credit, the loan amount, is affected or altered by changes to other components of the total loan package. By doing so we shed some more light on the type of real world trade-offs that credit constrained firms might face when approaching banks for funds, using the UK governments loan guarantee programme.

Self-employment Dynamics and 'Transitional Labour Markets'

Some more UK evidence

This paper looks at some aspects of the potential role of self-employment in transitional labour markets (TLM), building on previous work by the author (Meager and Bates, 2002). The question we were concerned with was whether self-employment transitions operate as positive or negative contributions to labour market dynamics.

Job Matching in the UK

Determinants and Implications of Underskilling and Overskilling

In this paper we consider job-skills mismatches of those individuals fortunate enough to have jobs and question whether firms are failing to utilise the skills of their existing labour force. Further, we also consider whether firms are hiring workers not capable of fulfilling their job requirements without adequate training provision.

ICT Strategy, Disabled People and Employment in the UK

This paper focuses on the application of ICT (Information and Communications Technology) in helping disabled people enter and remain in employment in the UK, and in particular on the nature and extent of any national ICT and/or disability strategies in this area. The paper is based on a review of the limited academic literature and relevant policy documents available in this area, together with semi-structured expert interviews with a small number of key informants in the ICT field, in disability organisations and government.

Evaluation of the Working Neighbourhoods Pilot - Final report

The Working Neighbourhoods Pilot (WNP) was introduced by the Department for Work and Pensions in April 2004 to test a new approach to offering intensive support to help people to gain work. This report presents the findings of the evaluation of the WNP. The evaluation comprised four main elements: a literature review; analysis of secondary and administrative data, undertaken by DWP analysts, to compare trends in benefit flows over time and against 12 selected comparison sites; detailed case study work with stakeholders in each of the pilot sites, and their matched comparison sites; and an eligible residents' survey of 1,200 residents across the 12 pilot sites looking at attitudes and motivations towards employment, and their experiences of employment, unemployment and the pilot.