Are people at the heart of your organisation? Do you think you're a good employer? If you're sure that you are and you're based in the UK, then why not enter Best Companies Accreditation or The Sunday Times Best Companies to Work For Competition.

The Best Companies Accreditation is widely regarded as a leading benchmark of workplace engagement and the prestigious Sunday Times Best Companies to Work For Competition is now an Institution in its own right.

Organisations interested in taking part can register immediately by visiting www.bestcompanies.co.uk or call Best Companies on 01978 856 222. Registration closes on October 31st 2008.

Announcements of Accreditation successes will be made in January 2009 and The Sunday Times Best Companies to Work For competition winners will be announced next March.

One of Toyota's senior car engineers died from working too many hours, a Japanese labour bureau has found.

According to the BBC, in the two months leading up to his death, the man averaged more than 80 hours of overtime per month, regularly worked nights and weekends and was frequently sent abroad.

Little wonder that the Japanese Fukuoka Heart Study Group has found that working over 60 hours a week and missing out on sleep can as much as double the chances of a heart attack for the 40+ age group, with sleep deprivation and lack of rest in the very recent past acting as triggers.

The same researchers argue that the optimal working week is a maximum of 40 hours, as both long hours and lack of sleep on their own are enough to increase the risks of heart attack.

In the latest podcast for graduate job-seekers from workplace engagement specialists, Best Companies, Wayne Turmel talks to Paul Farrer, Chairman of the Graduate Recruitment Company, about the possibilities and pitfalls around applying for that all-important first post-university job.

The key, he says, is to create a positive first impression. Understand that job-hunting is a process that must be planned for. If you've identified the organisations and roles you want to apply for, make sure customise your application to that job rather than firing off a generic application.

The most common mistake graduates make, Paul says, is not knowing their own CV. Oh, and leave your mother at home.

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The complete set of graduate podcasts are now available online here.

If, like me, the phrase "Our people are our most important asset..." makes you cringe because you know just how empty, meaningless and normally downright untrue it is, then bookmark (or frame) this post from Roberta Matuson's excellent new(ish) blog, Generation Integration.

She lists five reasons why she hates the phrase, but I'm sure we can all think of a few more.

Companies are willing to spend whatever it takes to market their products and services but are unwilling to make similar investments in their people.
1. The blame for discontented employees is always placed on the employee.
2. Everyone is replaceable.
3. We value your opinion, as long as it agrees with ours.
4. You have a place in our company as long as you don't make more than "X."

Can you even name 10 companies where this is actually true? she asks. Well, I probably can – but none of them with more than 10 employees or partners, and none what you might call "conventional" businesses.

Last week we talked about this podcast from workplace engagement specialists, Best Companies, which explained some ways that new graduates can find companies that fit their goals and offer real career development opportunities.

But finding that first job is only the beginning. The next challenge is to make that job a success – those vital first 100 days. So what are the things new employees can do to help - or hinder- their careers just as they are getting started?

That's the big question our own Wayne Turmel asks in this podacst with Penny De Valk, CEO of the UK's Institute of Leadership and Management.

They explore some of the reasons graduates have trouble fitting in at their first job and how they can develop those oh-so-important "soft skills" which might not have emerged during the formal education process. Well worth a listen.

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If you spend eight hour a day or more chained to your desk, beware. Because a study by researchers in the UK and New Zealand has found that people who sit at their desks for more than three hours at a time without stretching double their risk of developing potentially-fatal deep vein thrombosis (DVT).

questioned 200 patients who were admitted to hospital for either blood clots or heart problems and compared how long each group had remained sitting, both in total and in one period without getting up.

Prof Richard Beasley, from Wellington Hospital, New Zealand, told the Daily Telegraph that the risk of developing blood clots through prolonged seated immobility was largely unrecognised. But the study suggested that it is at least as important a factor as long-distance air travel.

"It is similar to the situation with the risk of blood clots with long-distance air travel – it was not until there was research into its role that the real extent of the problem was appreciated.

"Both the maximum time seated at work during a 24-hour period and the maximum time seated without getting up were associated with an increased risk of VTE."

He added that anyone who sits at their computer for most of the day should do the same leg and foot exercises, such as flexing the ankles, that are recommended during long-haul flights. They should also take regular breaks away from their desk to walk around.

Nothing is more important to the new graduate than finding that first position and using it as a launching pad for a fulfilling professional life. With all the changes taking place in business, finding a company that offers opportunities for ongoing development is crucial.

Which is why this podcast from workplace engagement specialists, Best Companies, is so useful. In it, Wayne Turmel talks to Jo Causon, Director of Marketing and Corporate Affairs for the UK-based Chartered Management Institute about how to find companies that fit your goals and how to identify those development opportunities.

The podcast looks at what do new graduates need to consider in finding the perfect cultural fit and how they can use professional development strategically to further their career, even at this early stage.

So how do you spot companies that will offer these opportunities? Listen to find out.

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Fewer than half of all new Graduates last two years at their first job out of college. So how can you ensure you find an employer that is a good fit with your personal and professional objectives?

This podcast, hosted by our own Wayne Turmel, has some great advice.

In this podcast for Best Companies,Wayne talks to Steve Huxham, Chairman of The UK's Recruitment Society, about the key to finding the right fit. The secret? Ask lots of questions.

According to Steve, the biggest mistake newly-minted graduates make when seeking that critical first job is to forget that interviewing is more than simply answering questions. It's also a chance to ask them as well.

So how do you determine whether a company is a good fit? On way is to ask the company to describe the culture, ask your interviewer about their personal experience at the company. For other specific questions to ask, check out this.

Finally, Steve says, its important that graduates do their research before going for an interview. They need to look like they're prepared and remember that they've got one goal for the interview now that they've gotten this far - to land that job.

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Listen to it using the player here

With British Airways reeling from one of the biggest corporate PR disasters in history, it's worth mentioning just how much impact social media had on the Terminal 5 catastrophe.

So if you still think that your organisation can ignore You Tube and the like, perhaps it's time to think again...

Here's an example from the 28 or so Terminal 5 videos posted on YouTube

Here's a wonderful life-and death story with a difference which underlines that however hard you try to achieve something, it can often be impossible without good communication.

And luckily for the protagonists involved, Moko the dolphin obviously speaks whale.

Malcolm Smith, a conservation office in New Zealand, had been working for over an hour and a half to save the two pygmy sperm whales which had repeatedly become stranded despite his attempts to push them back out to sea.

Just as his thoughts turned to a tragic outcome, a bottlenose dolphin, named Moko by locals, appeared on the scene…..

Smith said Moko arrived on the scene and he could hear the whales and the dolphin making noises, apparently to one another.

"The whales made contact with the dolphin and she basically escorted them about 200 metres (yards) parallel with the beach to the edge of the sandbar.

"Then she did a right-angle turn through quite a narrow channel and escorted them out to sea.

"There's been no sign of the whales since Monday, they haven't restranded."

"What the communication was I do not know, and I was not aware dolphins could communicate with pygmy sperm whales, but something happened that allowed Moko to guide those two whales to safety."

Join us for the first ever Management Issues Webinar, on Friday March 14th, 3PM GMT (UK), 10AM Central time (US).

Women make up half the workforce in the developed world and more than half of those with tertiary education. They dominate consumer spending decisions. Yet at senior levels, you would be forgiven for thinking that little had changed over the past fifty years. Women may hold the keys but men still control the locks.

Join authors Alison Maitland and Avivah Wittenberg-Cox in a lively discussion of their exciting new book, Why Women Mean Business: Understanding the Emergence of our next Economic Revolution.

This is a book that will challenge your assumptions about what's changed - and hasn't - for everyone in the modern workplace - as well as helping you find out what your organization can do about it.

You'll hear surprising new research and have the opportunity to ask questions of the authors.

Hosted by Management Issues columnist Wayne Turmel, this will be an hour well spent. Simply click the link here to register. Space is limited, so reserve your seat now using this form.

Because of the international nature of our audience, we will be streaming all audio over the web, so you won't need a telephone - or have to pay telephone charges. To attend you simply need a flash-enabled computer and audio. If you can stream video, you can be part of the discussion.

If you're serious about getting to the top of the corporate ladder, the chances are that somewhere along the way you're going to need the services of a head-hunter.

Between them, the top talent brokers control access to the boardrooms of many of the world's largest corporations, not to mention plenty of smaller and up-and-coming ones.

So who are these powerful individuals? BusinessWeek has sought to find out with its list of the world's top 50 most influential headhunters.

More than half (31 out of 50) of the big hitters in the head-hunting world are from North America, but the number based in Asia is rising quickly.

A few big name-firms dominate the list. Korn Ferry has seven representatives in the top 50), while CTPartners and Spencer Stuart both have five.

But look for the substance behind BusinessWeek's list and you'll be looking for a long time. They say that they "considered a number of factors in selecting these 50 executive recruiters, including their individual reputations; their years of headhunting experience; the global scope of their recruiting practices; their accessibility and responsiveness; their high visibility within the client markets they serve; the recognition they enjoy within their firms and/or global executive search communities."

All of which is very mysterious and head-hunterish, but it's not exactly the most scientific of evaluations, is it? You might be one of the biggest names in the business, but there's no way of knowing whether that's because you doing a great job for your clients or just a great job at managing your own profile.

Still, at least the list mirrors the veil of slightly "cloak-and-dagger" secrecy that head-hunters seem to love wrapping themselves in.

Which makes it is all the more surprising to find that one of the top three firms on BusinessWeek's list, CTPartners, is so confident that it recruits the best candidates for the job rather than simply the most available that it publishes an annual audited candidate "stick rate" which measures whether a candidate placed by the firm has remained with the client they were placed with.

Its rate for the 18 months between January 2006 and July 2007 was 92 per cent. A pretty impressive figure, you might think – but then, given the percentages head-hunters charge, so it should be. Engage any executive search firm and at the very least employers should have every right to expect that they're going to end up with the right person for the job as well as one who is planning to stick around.

But without this sort of transparency, how can employers know they're retaining the right firms for their search? Or is that the real reason most head-hunters love the smoke-and-mirrors stuff?

If you live in the UK, chances are you're fed up with the cost of living, appalling congestion, dreadful public transport, dire education system and, of course, the weather.

So the prospect of moving somewhere with "fine weather, fine wine, fine houses, fine jobs, fine beaches and fine universities" might seem pretty appealing.

That's what the South Australian government is betting on as it launches a series of cheeky ads in British newspapers in the hope of attracting 5,000 skilled workers such as plumbers and electricians.

Among the slogans being tried out in the campaign is "Sod London House Prices", "Screw Working in Staines", "Stuff London Traffic" and "Bugger it, I'm off to Adelaide ".

Bill Muirhead, who masterminded the campaign for M & C Saatchi, told The Times that "it might appear we are being rude, but a lot of things in Britain aren't good."

As a spokesman for the South Australian government put it, "it's a stand-off challenge for people to stick two fingers up to the UK and reach out for better business prospects, better health care, higher-quality education, warmer weather, lower house prices - overall a far superior way of life."

We've heard of some downright bizarre initiatives adopted by some companies in an attempt to motivate their staff, but being nailed into a coffin as part of a mock funeral ritual has to take every prize going.

As CNN reports, mock funerals are part of a trend sweeping South Korea called "well-dying" - a deeply peculiar take on the concept of well-being.

As part of this movement, mock funerals are supposed to help participants map out a better future by reflecting on their past before being "reborn".

Presumably the 15 minutes they spend trapped in a wooden box with dirt being sprinkled on top of them has a suitably salutary effect . . . .

Meanwhile, Samsung Electronics, South Korea's largest firm, has treated 900 of its workers to mock funerals of their own, saying that the experience makes workers more efficient - which compared to the dirge-like experience delivered by most corporate motivation events, it probably does.

Traditional management theory treats workers like any other input. Get as much out of them as possible and pay them as little as you can get away with. Unfortunately, like so much management theory, it is largely garbage.

While treating human beings like pieces of machinery – or "productive units" – might have made some sense during the industrial revolution, common sense alone ought to tell us that in post-industrial knowledge-based economies, organisations whose staff are well-treated and happy are likely to perform better than those where they are miserable.

Sadly, however, legions of dinosaur managers the world have yet to grasp this, perhaps because they remain obsessed with short-term financial results (and the personal gain this can bring).

Enter Wharton finance professor Alex Edmans with an analysis that ought to be powerful enough to make even the most unreconstructed dinosaur take notice. Namely that firms recognised as good places to work earn returns that are more than double those of the overall market.

As explained in this piece on Knowledge@Wharton, Edmans demonstrates that companies on Fortune magazine's annual list of the "100 Best Companies to Work for in America" between 1998 and 2005 returned 14% per year, compared to 6% a year for the overall market.

"This paper documents statistically and economically significant long-horizon returns to portfolios containing companies with high employee satisfaction," Edmans writes in his paper, memorably entitled Blockholders, Market Efficiency, and Managerial Myopia.

"These findings imply that the market fails to incorporate intangible assets fully into stock valuations -- even if the existence of such assets is verified by a widely respected survey."

What's more, he risks accusation of heresy from corporate America when he dares suggest that as long as managers are compensated largely on short-term share price, their decisions about investing in employee satisfaction or other intangibles will not change.

"What's needed is not just for the manager to know employee satisfaction matters, but also to have the incentive to act on this," he writes.

Well, halleluiah! This may not be the most earth-shattering paper ever written – you might even think it a statement of the obvious – but anything that helps to chip away at the obsession with quarterly numbers and short-term gain gets a big thumbs-up from us.

If you want to find performance in an organization, follow the joy! That's the starting point for Dawna Jones' latest Evolutionary Provocateur Podcast, a discussion with Nick Zeniuk, a former Ford executive who is now best known for his work on organizational performance and learning.

Nick argues that traditional management structures – which are all about control – are now redundant because the way that things really get done is via informal, self-organizing social networks - the antithesis of the sort of hierarchical order beloved by old-school managers.

So the role of the "new manager" must be far more to listen, understand and tap the power of these network rather than seek to impose structure on them.

As a senior executive of Ford Motor Company, Nick Zenuik directed up to $5 billion of luxury car business and investment worldwide. His work in building the 1995-1998 Lincoln Continental, which set company performance records in multiple measures of quality, timing, and cost savings, was the subject of an MIT case study and subsequent book, Car Launch: The Human Side of Managing Change.

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It's thought-provoking stuff, so have a listen! If you like it, head on over to the Podcast page to sign up for the Evolutionary Provocateur RSS feed.

Why do so many business leaders find it difficult to hand over the baton to their successor? That's the issue best-selling author and renowned executive coach, Marshall Goldsmith, explores with us as he joins Wayne Turmel for the first Working Week podcast of 2008.

As a recent article here on Management-Issues highlighted, this is an issue that is rapidly growing in importance, with fully three-quarters of C-Suite executives in the U.S. now viewing succession planning as their most significant challenge for the future.

Coincidentally, the problem of succession planning and the challenges of letting go and hading over the reins to new people also happens to be the subject of Marshall's next book, Passing the Baton.

And as he explains, there are a host of emotional and personal issues surrounding succession planning which makes so many incumbents disinclined to let go.

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Listen to it using the player here, or head on over to the Podcast page to download it or sign up for the Working Week RSS feed.

What do you do when a dollar means nothing?

As the Herald Tribune reports, that's the dilemma facing U.S. expats based in Europe whose pensions or incomes are paid in increasingly devalued dollars.

The past six months have been anxious for expatriates, with the dollar sinking against the euro, the pound and currencies from the Czech koruna to the Costa Rican colón. Those declines are accelerating the flight of expatriates in Europe, according to tax attorneys who listen to the woes of clients who are giving up because they see no relief in sight.

And little wonder, when a bottle of mineral water costs the equivalent of $5 and a €159 iPod is $230.

Many large corporations have responded by paying their U.S> staff in local currency or risk losing them altogether. As one London-based executive put it, "I wouldn't be working for this company if I was paid in dollars."

But what if the dollar stays low – or falls even further?

The annual Christmas quiz in UK lawyers' magazine Legal Business has raised eyebrows with questions such as "which female partner at a top City law firm was sent to Asia after she was caught having a threesome with two trainees – in the office?"

Other gems include asking the name of the firm where one secretary hospitalised another after hitting her with a champagne bottle in a fight at a party and which firm fired a trainee after they were sick on a partner at a Christmas dinner.

Intriguingly, the magazine says that it has never been threatened with legal action over the salacious quiz, despite featuring similar tales of misbehaviour for 14 years running.

As the magazine's editor, James Baxter, told the Evening Standard: "morality levels in the legal profession are directly linked to earnings, with one decreasing as the other increases."

It's a depressing fact that we receive more questions to our Advice Clinic about how to deal with bad, bullying or just plain psychotic bosses than we do about any other single issue.

The latest real-life dilemma we address concerns someone whose boss is entertaining, persuasive and talented - but he is also a self-serving sociopath who deals ruthlessly with anyone who he perceives to be a threat.

So how can you deal with someone like this without becoming just another name on the list of ex-employees who tried to deal with the bully but failed? Dan Bobinski has a great solution for anyone who finds themselves in this unpleasant situation. Essentially, he advocates a low-key mass mutiny - but one based on obsessive documentation and rigid objectivity.

It's tough advice to follow – but we've yet to hear better.