Short news stories of interest to HR and internal communications profesionals

John Lewis, BT, HSBC and Nationwide are among leading organisations that have called on British Prime Minister Gordon Brown to help carers balance work with their caring responsibilities by giving a tax break for care vouchers.

Shareholders at Marks & Spencer’s (M&S) annual general meeting (AGM) in July this year raised concerns over the gap between the 4.6 per cent pay increases of shop floor staff and the vast bonuses being awarded to board and senior management team members. Stuart Rose, the chief executive, received a package worth in excess of £8m.

 Rolls-Royce is a world-leading provider of power systems and engine services, and attributes much of this success to its frontline employees. By Lisa C. Lange, director of internal communications, Rolls-Royce North America.

Having ‘revolutionised’ the HR function at Standard Chartered, Tim Miller has been described as one of the forty most influential people in HR. But as Jessica Weaver discovers, he is modest about his achievements.

When pharmaceutical giant Novo Nordisk wanted to revitalise its corporate brand, it simply looked inward and built on what people in the organisation were already doing, and had been doing ever since the company was founded more than 80 years ago – changing diabetes.