As the train pulls away from Cardiff Central and soon enough the Bristol countryside whizzes into view, I use this time to kick back and reflect on a busy day. A newly assigned client is buzzing with ideas on how to improve on-boarding, as well as boosting their...

We see this one all of the time. ‘Joe is absolutely fantastic at Marketing! Now we’re growing, let’s make him our Marketing Manager and put him in charge of a team!’. ‘Julie is a phenomenal Developer. So good in fact that I think we should make her our Lead...

Do we live to work or work to live? It’s an aged old question. And the belief in the latter, ‘we work to live’ forms the basis for many a well-intentioned token of advice offered to those struggling through hard times at work. Stress and pressure from work is not...

#MeToo derived from the wave of sexual assault and harassment allegations to hit show business. The massive publicity has brought a new recognition to issues that may have been previously isolated. Recent research by The Equality & Human Rights Commission in March...

What differentiates the winners from the losers? Sales? Profit? Market share? Well, if you live for now only, then maybe. But the true marker of what makes a company great is innovation. Let’s not kid ourselves that merely improving an existing product or process...

Gone are the days when it was taboo to talk about illnesses in work, be they mental or physical. More accepting is society these days that everyone faces emotional battles of varying degrees throughout their lives. Battles that will, as hard as people try to avoid...

This week’s myth-buster is all about culture. And, specifically, the myth that you can only create and sustain a great culture if everyone in your team is under the same roof. For starters, come on, this is 2018, not 1958! We have phones. And computers. And hundreds...

Another week, another couple of gloomy stories from the world of established brands. Debenham’s announced that they were taking advice on a number of potential routes they can explore to strengthen their finances to avoid collapsing. Across the high street, John Lewis...

In an industry where candidates rule the roost, and the skills gap just keeps getting larger and larger, it can often seem like a necessary evil that you need to budget for large recruitment costs to recruit good people as you grow. But that doesn’t have to be the...

The traits of entrepreneurs are widely recognised as things like focus, having a critical eye or an optimistic nature. Entrepreneurs have the determination and tenacity to move ideas from table talk to sellable products or services. The energy and willpower to see...

Employer brand describes an employer’s reputation as a place to work, and their employee value proposition (ie their USP as an employer). In today’s tight recruitment market employer branding applies to all companies, especially SME’s. In fact, you could argue...

If you make a habit of picking up and reading the wrong publications, or taking some of the internet scare-mongering seriously, you’d be forgiven for concluding that the digital age spells only trouble for the average employee. And as the people’s function, it’s only...

Remote working has grown in popularity and is set to increase in a candidate led recruitment market, where people demand the freedom to work anywhere they choose. Several studies have shown remote working boosts happiness and productivity (Stanford University 2013,...

Amazingly HR is still often seen as the fire fighters, who help out when things aren’t going well with performance or absence for example. This perception often comes from previous interactions with HR departments and the media doesn’t help! I was watching the film...

‘The bozo what?!’ you’d be justified in asking. A term coined by some of the earliest Engineers that worked for an ambitious start up called ‘Apple’ in Cupertino in the late 1970s, the term ‘bozo period’ referred to the arrival, en masse, of a huge number of new...

Often businesses rely on incentives like bonuses, and perks, while all the science suggests those don’t work. In fact, scientific research has shown extrinsic rewards (eg bonus payments) to be ineffective for sustainable motivation. Daniel Pink advocates...

One of the latest (but not necessarily new) trends sweeping the digital scene at the moment is the embracement of OKRs, or ‘objective key results’, as a means to drive performance and progress through teams. But what are OKRs all about? And why are they any different...

You don’t need a 100 page staff handbook! There’s often confusion about compliance and staff handbooks. We frequently get presented with a 100 page document to review and amend in line with the culture of the company. Our approach? Keep it simple! Once you go the...

Glass door is playing an increasingly dominant role in shaping employer branding. It used to be predominantly US centric, but now is widely used in the UK and it includes SME’s. In a tight labour market (e.g. digital), prospective employees can be a lot choosier about...

This month’s ‘star partner’ is Bristol based ‘Pillar AI’, an exciting, high potential firm who are looking to take chat bots mainstream! Pillar AI, co-run by CEO Chris Booth and CFO Matt Goss, are a incredibly personable (and very clever!) team who designed and built...

May saw Wales’ largest digital event take place in Cardiff’s Millennium Centre. In what was a fantastic couple of days, with some brilliant speeches and debates, and huge amounts of networking, Wales really did showcase the ambition and potential it has to become a...

The latest Tech Nation report was released in May, providing the digital sector with probably the most comprehensive set of data and insight in to the UKs most promising industry. Here at Mango, we pride ourselves as being at the forefront of people innovations, and...

The word ‘disruption’ must, by now, be one of the most overused in the English language. It’s commonly used by any firm within Tech or Digital, and in a broader sense when considering the impact of technological advancement on society, on our economy, on our...

In May we officially launched our 2 new services, Recruit2Retain and Revolution. Complimenting the core part of our business, HR4Tech, we are now able to seamlessly and efficiently help growing Digital firms of all sizes and types with all things people. A point of...

Mind the win …d’oh!! Back with Apple again after last month’s phone battery scandal, this time a more transparent (if you’ll pardon the pun!) issue. Apparently, Apple staff are struggling to get used to its new $427m space-ship style Cupertino office due to it’s...

It’s an odd suggestion to make isn’t it? That culture can be seen as a task? Surely, we all know that culture cannot be placed in the same bucket as product development? Or distribution? Or marketing? That’s true. The majority of culture believers (yes there are still...

The end of work as we know it? The robots are coming to get you! As part of our innovation research, Alison from Mango HR attended the ‘HR TechWorld’ event in Amsterdam to gain some insight into the future of work and find out what Tech advances leading...

London is the hub of UK tech and experiences the pains of the skills shortage every day.  The arrival of Facebook and Google risk making things worse. The last month saw two of the FANG group of large tech companies announce plans to firmly set up shop in London, with...

The Oxford Dictionary definition of ‘disruption’ is ‘disturbance or problems which interrupt an event, activity or process’. The word ‘disruption’ is widely used in Tech, and in a broader sense when we talk about the momentum hurtling us at pace in to the 4th...

Digital transformation is becoming essential to stay ahead of the curve. The HR technology landscape has been transformed in a few short years with the advancement ATS, cloud-based systems and gamification increasingly influencing platforms. AI is the most recent...

Growing pains.  Are they just a temporary issue associated with the expansion of a body (or a business) that we all have to cope with?  Or are they a symptom of something more serious, something that could be problematic or even more painful later in life?  Something...

Many employees spend almost 40 hours every single week in their workplaces, and that means there’s a lot to be said for making your offices as fun, inspiring and unusual as possible. Whether you’re a cutting-edge technology start-up looking to change your...

We had such a good time at Digital 17 that we wanted to share some of the insights from industry experts as well news of the emerging tech from exciting new start-ups and innovators. There were so many highlights it’s tough to pick our best moments. Here were a few of...

Retaining your top talent is tricky due to the job hopping nature of our current workforce. Tech companies know they have their work cut out to retain their talent. Facebook currently leads the way with an average retention rate of 2.02 years (data: Paysa) but what...

Tech giants continue to work on pay transparency technologies Pay process transparency is becoming the norm, with many Silicon Valley companies adopting this approach.   What is pay process transparency? It’s when a company makes the process for calculating salaries...

The ramifications of Brexit on the labour market and beyond are yet to be fully felt. While the UK’s decision to leave the EU was made over a year ago, ongoing negotiations with the European Commission mean that it is unclear as to precisely when the country will be...

What’s your current holiday allowance? Six weeks? Four weeks? A few extra days as a long service bonus? On Sarah’s recent trip to Silicon Valley, she came across a concept which definitely hasn’t made it across the pond in such a big way – unlimited holiday. Yes,...

The upcoming Digital Festival is taking place from Monday 18th to Tuesday 19th September at Cardiff’s new Tramshed Tech venue and here at Mango HR we can’t wait. The event will bring together movers and shakers in innovation, investment and industry, and...

As of 25 May, 2018, the European Commission’s General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR, will come into effect. This new legislation relates to how personal data is collected and processed by businesses, and it will affect around 508 million EU citizens. UK...

Here at Mango HR Group, we’re passionate about helping fast-growing tech companies with their HR needs. So we figured there was nowhere better to go on a summer trip than the world’s capital of technology, California’s Silicon Valley! While the...

Guest post, written by Chris Booth from Pillar. The short answer is almost. But not quite. Chatbots have been getting a lot of traction recently, proving to be useful in many ways. Whether this is through collecting customer details in a conversational manner, like...

What is flexible working, and how is it defined differently? In some organisations, flexible working might mean the option to work from home for one Friday a month. For others, it could be a commitment to allowing remote working for employees who prefer it. And then...

Guest post, written by Diane Douglas from Vigiles Group. Disruptive technology is an innovation that displaces current technology, shaking up the marketplace and industry. The technology once tried and tested then becomes a main stream technology. Can you think of...

It is widely accepted that the incoming General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is the biggest change to data privacy law in the last two decades. Negotiations have taken years, but now the GDPR is set to unify the different laws of 28 EU member states with one...

In psychology, the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator ENTJ is used as an abbreviation for the qualities of extraversion, intuition, thinking and judgment – in other words, the skills that a strong leader is expected to embody. Natural leaders are charismatic and confident,...

What’s wrong with everyone? Sometimes, just sometimes – it may be you! Sorry to be the bearer of bad news and all that… One of my heroes is the legendary, late, great Zig Ziglar. Zig was a top class motivational speaker, inspirational leader and had the most amazing...

Some 4.79 million people in the UK are now self-employed, as many seek the benefits of flexible working and being their own boss. The global gig economy was born out of this flexibility, with freelancers and contractors able to take on individual jobs and projects to...

January is a time of the year for new beginnings, and at Mango HR Group, we’re all over it. 2017 will be about a refined focus and an updated brand – refreshing it will see us place even more emphasis on helping tech and creative businesses with their HR...

“Oh Grandma, what big teeth you have” – Not all customers are what they seem… Congratulations on getting your company up and running. I know how hard it is to do, having set-up and grown a software reseller through the recent tough economic years. If I were to give...