This week's top stories in brief

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With many workplaces currently 'ghost towns', employers have to rethink the on-site experience and how they'll entice people back from remote working, Unispace's Ian Worthy says. He recommends a 'propeller' framework, which skews the physical workplace away from process-based work so it can become a "place of purpose", with more focus on collaboration and socialisation.

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COVID-19 is highlighting a big gap between what employees want from their employers and what organisations are prioritising, new research shows. Randstad CEO Nick Pesch says internal employer branding needs urgent attention, as people are increasingly looking for organisations that provide for more control through good work-life balance and more transparency through a strong company culture.

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Seven 'levels' of leadership correlate to how leaders are perceived by their peers, but five of them belong to "yesterday", according to Quality Mind founder Richard Maloney. More than ever, leaders need to be self-aware and offer more than just expertise, and this requires stress-free and intuitive leadership, he says.

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The anomalies underpinning employee/contractor classifications are a dilemma for all employers, and it's time to introduce a third concept to bridge the gap, Kingston Reid partner Christa Lenard says. Recognising "quasi-independent" workers would go some way to better reflecting the practical realities of the situations workers and employers find themselves in.

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An employee with a history of "wilful misconduct" incidents has failed to argue he was unfairly dismissed. In the absence of a single incident of "serious" misconduct, the employer nonetheless had a defensible reason for termination because the employee had "repeatedly engaged in misconduct, and continually snubbed expectations", the Fair Work Commission ruled.

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A development program that helps high performers gain new knowledge and skills without trying to turn them into leaders is improving project management, stakeholder relationships and engagement at Aon. APAC head of organisation development Kim Johnson says talent review processes in many organisations remain so focused on the people leadership stream that opportunities to grow and expand the capabilities of technical experts are missed.

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Certain types of leaders have really stepped up to the pandemic's challenges and, with HR's support, will help teams thrive during the next crisis phases, according to Change Meridian founder Michelle Gibbings. These leaders understand their own behaviours and their impact on others, and are "really thriving" in the current environment.

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