What the SAS can teach even the hardest of City workers December 10, 2015 Matthew Ollerton and Jason Fox give examples from their life in the Special Forces "Team away day” normally puts the fear into people. Hotel function rooms, bizarre motivational speakers and the compulsory bonding football match. But what if the experience was completely different? As former members of the Special Forces, we’ve undertaken some [...]
The year in Facebook: The UK general election, Labour leadership elections, and the Paris attacks December 9, 2015 NULL
Christmas ‘tis the season to… sort out your finances: Use the holidays to prepare for a more financially savvy New Year in 2016 December 9, 2015 Christmas is a time of abundance, of eating, drinking and throwing money around like there’s no tomorrow. But the combination of profligate spending and time off work can make the festive period a good time to take stock of your finances. While cautioning readers about the pitfalls of over-spending at Christmas may make me [...]
Can robots be the victims of harassment in the workplace? The law will have to be revised to deal with more automation December 9, 2015 In November, the Bank of England warned that up to 15m British jobs are under threat from automation. And whether you work on the factory or the trading floor, the probability is high that you’ll have to get used to more machines in the workplace. But as the speed of technological change accelerates, law-makers [...]
World Bank: East Asia needs ‘womb-to-tomb’ policies to deal with ageing population and shrinking workforce December 8, 2015 NULL
Brazil’s pain has no end in sight as impeachment proceedings against President Dilma Rousseff kick off December 8, 2015 The soap opera of Brazilian politics continues as impeachment proceedings against President Dilma Rousseff kicked off last week. After months of lobbying, petitions to have the President impeached were accepted by the speaker of the lower house, Eduardo Cunha, one of the most powerful sitting politicians. The charges (which she denies) are that [...]
Your new must-have gadget is already in your attic – CNBC Comment December 8, 2015 It’s finally happened. As well as my ever-expanding waistline and retreating hairline, there’s been an important development in my life. In the last few weeks, a sizeable chunk of wall space in my living room has been taken up by a collection of 12-inch LPs, and a rather weighty hi-fidelity music system complete with a [...]
The case for keeping performance evaluations: Dispensing with ratings will make it harder to issue bonuses December 8, 2015 In July, Accenture announced that it would be scrapping performance evaluations in favour of continuous feedback. “Imagine, for a company of 330,000 people, changing the performance management process — it’s huge,” chief executive Pierre Nanterme told the Washington Post. Accenture’s change in policy is representative of a wider corporate shift away from expensive and [...]
Why the dollar-Canadian dollar should rally higher December 7, 2015 With euro-dollar short positions blown out of the water on the back of the European Central Bank meeting last week, which pair can we work with to express dollar strength? Yesterday’s dollar-Canadian dollar high was the loftiest since September. This should not come as a complete surprise, as the pair is merely catching up [...]
Draghi has a major eurosceptic headache – eToro Tips & Picks December 7, 2015 The markets’ main focus is currently the likelihood of the first US rate rise since 2006 and the divergence of US and European monetary policy. Janet Yellen announced last week that the US economy has “recovered substantially” from recession. Friday’s figures showed 211,000 new jobs created in November. Yellen, Stanley Fischer and other FOMC [...]