130,000 children will wake up homeless this Christmas and 1,000,000 older people will feel lonelier. It can be hard enough to find help and even tougher during the Christmas period. Whether it’s support with being a lone parent, homeless or just not wanting to spend Christmas alone this year we hope you can take something from this blog.

Below are 10 simple tips that will help you make the whole experience run as smoothly and effortlessly as possible

Motivated - the term used by HR and business leaders when they explain how to keep their best employees and get the best work out of them. Keeping staff motivated isn’t always easy it would seem much easier to de-motivate them. So here are the top ten common mistakes to de-motivate employees.

Appraisals bring a mixed reaction from staff. Some love them, others dread them and some it seems never have them at all! According to recent research by Enterprise Study a fifth of new employees did not receive an appraisal in their first year. It also found that of those people who had had one, 43 per cent had to request one, of which 27 per cent had to wait 6 months for it. 

These figures would suggest that organisations do not feel the value of an appraisal, so do they really bring value to your business? Are they worth the effort?

It’s January, one of the dreariest months. You are back at work after the festive period and it’s ages until you get paid. But don’t fear, there is something to cheer you up from the gloom. On 28 January it is National Fun at Work Day!

How often do we hear that there is a skills shortage, pretty much every month, but as the saying goes there is no smoke without fire, so what can we do to improve the situation?

We would like to know your thoughts on training and Apprenticeships, especially as recent PWC research shows that 84% of UK employers think that the biggest headache for UK business is skills shortages. This is a rise from 64% the previous year. Complete the 2015 Apprenticeship Survey here.

There are not many people who are born leaders. In the words of Shakespeare “some are born great, some achieve greatness and some have greatness thrust upon them."  A lot of people in management fall into this last category. If your managers are not natural leaders then how can you spot if they need additional support?

Poor leaders can set a business back, they can damage profits, cause the moral of staff to plummet and bring about high staff turn-over. None of these things are good for business. These managers aren’t doing these things on purpose, they could be under pressure at home or work or both, be new to management or lack understanding. Spotting the signs early can prevent future issues, but the signs can be quite varied so… what signs can you look for?

In the work place we hear about efficiency all the time. Efficiency will save the company money by making things quicker, more accurate able to work better together. When people think of bringing in more efficient ways of working, they automatically think technology.

The Football World Cup has just kicked off. The Brazilian team are the bookies favourites, a team full of individual talent, but in the past the team with the most flair hasn’t always been the winners. The country that lifts the world cup often has a group of players that work together, for each other and have a team mind set. In business, as in football, team work is crucial to success, so what does make a winning team?