Can the government’s ‘business compact’ have an effect on unconscious bias?

Nick Clegg has recently announced the launch of the government’s ‘business compact’. This is a drive to end ‘who you know not what you know’ recruitment and eliminate selection bias based on a candidate’s gender, ethnicity or social background.

This is clearly a huge task; we all have stereotypes based on these categories. Clegg’s solution is to ask for ‘blind‘ CVs which do not feature a candidate’s name and educational background. Is this the best way to achieve an unbiased recruitment process?

Those that play together, stay together…

A recent survey carried out by Vodafone UK and YouGov suggested workers feel that some organised team building activities can be a waste of time. The findings show that most would much prefer being able to communicate with each other better in the office rather than being ‘forced’ to build rapport with co-workers through adrenaline rushing experiences. They believe that it would be more valuable to go down the pub together than swing through the trees on ropes.

I’m not an alien, I’m just a senior exec

For anyone who’s ever thought of their boss as a “cold fish” who doesn’t appear to experience any emotions, our new research may be a revelation.

OPP’s 2011 16PF study showed that senior executives are more likely to be cool, calm and collected than other managers, and seem as if they don’t let fluffy things like feelings get in the way of their naked ambition and drive to influence. But this masks the truth.

In fact, the research revealed that senior executives report the highest level of emotional investment in their work, but that they also experience the lowest levels of stress across the managerial workforce. This leads to the hypothesis that senior executives have a distinctive personality profile that enables them to cope more effectively with a highly demanding job, and can give the impression that they are emotionally unflappable.

Looking for love this Valentine’s? What if your date is just not your type?!

Every year, the 14th of February rolls around again, as bewildered husbands duck into the services to pick up a scraggy bunch of petrol station flowers, and singletons everywhere join their fellow Bridget Joneses for anti-Valentine’s dates. Cynics bemoan the commercialised nature of the whole thing, and optimists look for love in quirky places. And now that internet dating has just about shrugged off its “only for weirdos” cachet, there is a plethora of dating sites to choose from – and a whole host of potential dating disasters ready to knock at your door.

This all got us wondering: what can the MBTI® tool tell us about dating? Do birds of a feather stick together, or do opposites attract? And what makes a great date for different types?