I had the privilege of chairing another great IoD People Forum today. We had 11 Leaders around the table with a depth and breadth of experience in managing people – from headhunting them into and exiting them from businesses.

As always, the conversation was wide ranging and always focused on the practical aspects of people management that we can – and need to – get a grip on within the present and near term future. These musings are, obviously, not exhaustive and you really needed to be there to get the full flavour!

Given that navel-gazing is not an option, it was ironic that we briefly looked at the case of the Exotic Dancer and Peter Stringfellow’s  Stringfellows Restaurants Ltd  where an Employment Appeal Tribunal found that the dancer was an ‘employee’ and not a self-employed contractor.   http://www.bailii.org/uk/cases/UKEAT/2012/0289_11_2604.html

For all the talk about employees being almost bullet-proof and bullying employers, Geoff Bignell,  pointed to a Department of Business survey that suggests that only 3% of businesses are actively discouraged from employing people because of regulations and red-tape.

That said, there is a strong suggestion that, through various polls, up to 30% of all staff are actively disengaged from the business of their employers.

The challenge of separating ‘Performance Management’ from ‘Appraisals’ from  ‘Reward and remuneration’ was briefly discussed and, as Fintan O’Toole said  there should be no surprises in the ‘Appraisal if the Performance Management is done well.
Ben Freeman  pointed us to one story from the book  ‘The Leadership Challenge’ by Kouzes and Posner highlighting the importance and impact of the Leader keeping people fully informed on where they are on the journey. The  analogy was a military march.

Carolyn pointed us to recent CIPD work on ‘Engagement’ which found that people who were exposed to big reasons why they were doing what they were employed to do felt more engaged with the business.
Jonathan Richards  pointed us to a book he is currently reading: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Inspiring-Leadership-Jonathan-Perks/dp/1906377200

I promised this link to RSA’s excellent short video on Dan Pink’s excellent TED talk on Drive: The surprising truth about what motivates us:  The full TED presentation is excellent    as is his book – a ‘Must Read’. Many in the room consider TED to be mandatory viewing – it is an excellent resource.

Geoff Bignell pointed us to Lady Hale’s recent comment that ‘We all have a lot to learn about Age Discrimination. Given that she is the only female Supreme Court Judge, we should take note.

On that note we all left to do a day’s work.

Onward and upward! Till next time

Richard