Karen Walker, Grace's squeaky voiced assistant in US sitcom Will and Grace, has a blatant approach to the art of doing nothing at work. Most of us are more covert in our tactics. Sly naps in a toilet cubicle on a painful hangover morning, internet 'research' that extends to the celebrity pages of your favourite online magazine, searching for your next holiday destination when you should be finding the perfect venue for your next corporate event and those epic shopping lists you meticulously construct when you should be writing up meeting minutes. (Of course I have never done any of the above. Ahem.)

 Let's face it, doing nothing (and disguising it as work) is a fine art that anyone working in an office learns to master very early on in their career.  

The Afternoon Debate

Given the new coalition government’s intent to revive interest in the Operational and Financial Review (OFR), and its recent Consultation project focusing on narrative reporting – all of which being watched closely by a new Accounting for People 2.0 initiative http://www.accountingforpeople.org/

Accounting for People 2.0

What’s your investment plan for workforce improvement programmes? An Accenture survey of CxO level executives (and a few HR pros) found recognition, incentive and training programmes held steady or actually increased in the last 12 months.

As Incentive magazine reported on the study:

“In the United States, 39 percent of respondents made no changes to their recognition programmes, while 28 percent increased them. … On average, about 24 percent of respondents cut those programmes. International companies showed even more support for retaining or growing recognition, incentive, and training programmes, with just 15 percent and 19 percent cutting recognition and incentive compensation programmes, while about 75 percent maintained or grew them.”

Strategic Employee Recognition: by Derek Irvine

Approximate reading time: 2.6 mins

“The next big evolution for HR is equipping itself to become an insight-driven function...”  

This latest observation from the CIPD and its current thinking will form a roundtable discussion in September where the likely focus will be on the convergence between Organisational Development and HR.

Interesting though this will doubtless be, an even more challenging issue is the extent to which insight can actually be developed.  For many people, it can seem a mystical concept. Where does it come from, how do you encourage it, what gets in the way of acquiring it?

Straight Talking From Andrew Leigh of Maynard Leigh Associates