Michael Hocking
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HRD Connect is a publication for senior HR leaders from the producers of the HR Directors Summit & the publisher of Financial Director.
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Articles by Michael Hocking
People-centric performance management is shaping the future of work
The days of rigid performance reviews solely focused on metrics are fading in the rearview mirror. A more holistic, people-centric approach recognizes that the heart of any organization is its people, and their performance is intrinsically tied to their engagement, satisfaction, and growth within the company. People-centric performance management goes beyond simply assessing outputs; it understands that when employees thrive, the business prospers.
UK's Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves advocates for overhauling childcare to empower women in the workforce
Author: HRD Connect Categories The UK’s Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves has called for childcare reform to support women in the workplace. Speaking at a Labour business networking event on Monday evening, Reeves said she wants to close the gender pay gap once and for all if she becomes the UK’s first female Chancellor after the General Election.
UK recruitment agency insolvencies jump 14%
Author: HRD Connect Categories Insolvencies of UK recruitment agencies have increased by 14% in the last year from 363 in 2022/23 to 413 in 2023/24, the third consecutive year of increases, says Mazars, the international audit, tax and advisory firm. A recent slowdown in hiring across the UK has made it tough for some recruiters to stay in business.
Fiona Young, Hive Learning: Why inclusion matters and how to make it work
Building an inclusive culture is essential for every people leader on the planet. How can you equip yourself with the right tools to champion inclusion, and make this shared dream a reality? In this week’s episode of the HRD Live Podcast, Fiona Young, Head of Diversity & Inclusion and Content Director, Hive Learning, discusses how Hive Learning is striving to build the greatest diversity and inclusion toolkit in the world.
New study reveals how much UK spends on pets
A new report from MORE TH>N, based on a study of 10,000 cat and dog owners, reveals how much British pet owners are spending on their beloved companions. The study found that British dog owners are spending an average of £240 on their pooch each month, with costs incurred including food, treats, professional grooming, pet insurance and vets fees. Cat owners meanwhile are spending £100 on similar items in comparison.
How The Most Innovative Leaders Improve Company Culture: HRD Live Podcast with Arianna Huffington
Author Michael Hocking Date published February 10, 2020 Categories In this week’s episode of the HRD Live Podcast, Michael Hocking is joined by Arianna Huffington. Businesswoman, author, founder of The Huffington Post and founder and CEO of Thrive Global, Arianna has been listed as one of Time’s 100 Most Influential People and one of Forbes Most Powerful Women.
HRD Tech Roundup - January 20th 2020
Author Michael Hocking Date published January 17, 2020 Categories Welcome to the HRD Tech Roundup – your one-stop update of everything happening in the world of HR Technology. Talent comes first this week, as SHL partner with IBM to improve talent assessments, Jobvite reinvigorate its suite of HR products, Kununu lend a hand to job seekers, and more. So, what’s been happening?
HRD Tech Roundup - January 13th 2020
Author Michael Hocking Date published January 10, 2020 Categories Welcome to the HRD Tech Roundup – your one-stop update of everything happening in the world of HR Technology. HR Tech solutions combine their strengths to empower business this week, as Talview partners with LinkedIn, Bullhorn acquires Herefish, and more. So, what’s been happening? Key Players Announcements: Talview has announced a strategic partnership with LinkedIn’s Applicant Tracking System (ATS), Talent Hub.
How self-awareness can transform your organisation: HRD Live Podcast with John Hackston, The Myers-Briggs Company
Author Michael Hocking Date published September 12, 2019 Categories A million initiatives might not make as much difference to your workplace as one simple step – improving your self-awareness, and the self-awareness of your colleagues. The Myers-Briggs Company, famous for the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, is one of the world’s largest business psychology providers.
How to use predictive analytics for tangible business insights: Hani Nabeel, Founder, iPsychTec
What is the true potential of HR and how can technology help us to achieve it? In this installment of our Tech Founders series, Hani Nabeel, Founder, iPsychTec, tells HRD Connect how predictive analytics and advanced diagnostics can provide powerful insights with tangible results for any business. What is iPsychTec? iPsychTec is the leading people analytics and behavioural science company.
Watch: Erica Keswin, Author, Bring Your Human to Work
Author Michael Hocking Date published July 8, 2019 Categories The HRD Summit Europe, now in its ninth year, played host to the biggest names in HR and business transformation at the RAI Amsterdam, June 19th-20th. If you weren’t lucky enough to attend, fear not – HRD Connect spoke to the big thinkers and HR gurus appearing at the Summit to get a flavour of their sessions for the HRD Community.
HRD Live: Erica Keswin, Founder, The Spaghetti Project
Author Michael Hocking Date published April 18, 2019 Categories In this episode of the HRD Live Podcast, Michael Hocking speaks to Erica Keswin, Author, Workplace Strategist and Founder of The Spaghetti Project, ahead of her keynote presentation at this year’s HRD Summit EU, taking place at the RAI Amsterdam, June 19th-20th.
“Passporting can continue, but it’s getting so much more complicated”
Passporting for payments providers and banks operating across the European Union is to become much more complex, according to Paul Anning, partner, Osborne Clarke, LLP, as the payments sector could be in for fundamental change. “Passporting can continue but it’s getting more complicated in terms of PSD2, but also with Brexit.
The institutionalization of cryptocurrencies
Blockchain technology is now nearing its tenth year in existence. And what a decade it’s been. From government-agnostic means of trustlessly exchanging wealth, to the creation of platforms allowing for self-enforcing smart contracts, the blockchain space has been an unrelenting juggernaut of innovation.
SWIFT reacts: fintech endorsement proves value of gpi
As Ebury becomes first fintech to go live on gpi, Vikesh Patel, head of SWIFT UK, Ireland and Nordics, has his say SWIFT has been the partner of choice for the world’s largest banks, it has received criticism in recent years for . But Ebury – the established cross-border fintech solutions provider – endorsed the firm by becoming the first fintech to go live with SWIFT’s global payments innovation (gpi) product.
How payments performance can help FDs to increase revenue and drive margin
Payments is one of the most dynamic areas of technology, and the pace of change and innovation gets ever greater. Businesses across all sectors are continually looking for the next big disruptor within payments, offering consumers ever-greater numbers of alternative payment methods (APMs), as part of their endless quest to optimise the customer experience and drive both loyalty and growth.
South American payment providers flock to cryptos
Cryptocurrencies might be a relatively new economic development, but they’ve already experienced some tumultuous boom and bust periods in key markets over the course of the last few years. Merchant uptake has varied wildly in developed economies, leading plenty of financial institutions to doubt the long-term viability of digital currencies. Yet all those in doubt would do well to take a look at the phenomenal ground cryptos are making in the South American republic of Chile.
Breached systems: lessons from the past
As technology continues to evolve, businesses across the globe are becoming increasingly reliant on new developments in payment processing systems and dynamic point-of-sale (POS) terminals. Yet with increased reliance come data security risks. According to Gemalto’s 2017 Breach Level Index, 2.5bn records were stolen from consumers and businesses last year.
Ingenico on Google POS and the the future of payments collaboration
Ingenico Group recently announced their partnership with Google to produce the remarkable Axium D7 – a smart terminal that allows the user to access the Google Play Store, including: Chrome, YouTube and Google Maps – with a similar user experience to an Android smartphone or tablet. The Axium D7 acheived both Google Mobile Services and PCI-PTS v5 certifications – the world’s first POS terminal to do so.
Hannah Fitzsimmons, Elavon, on women in payments
A conversation with Hannah Fitzsimmons, European Executive Vice President and General Manager Europe, Elavon, Inc, on the state of the industry and the challenges facing women in payments and financial services. What is your career background? What attracted you to the payments and financial services industry? I had no intention of entering a career in financial services – it was purely opportunistic during a work experience placement for NatWest while studying economics and politics at university.
Taking stock of the digital payments landscape
The EU Payment Services Directive II (PSD2) took effect in January, starting a trend towards increased competition by opening up the payments market to a new wave of payment service providers (PSPs) and fintechs. To help navigate this evolving landscape we’ve compiled a list of some of the top mobile payment apps and digital payment services platforms. Adyen Netherlands-based online payments processor Adyen was founded back in 2006.
The Competitors for the Crown in China’s Cashless Future
Considering it represents a fifth of the world’s population, and boasts a mobile payment market worth $16.7 trillion and growing, China is remarkably overlooked in western discourse. Perhaps the difficulty western firms face in competing with China’s enormous monopolies on their home turf explains the reluctance to discuss them at much length, but China is worth talking about.
How can merchants tackle mobile payments fraud?
The mobile channel is growing ever more central to merchants’ strategies as an essential pathway for commerce. However, the growing prominence of mobile begs one important question: how can merchants tackle fraudsters in this new environment? Kount’s latest whitepaper, Mobile Payments and Fraud: 2018 Report, explores the challenges facing merchants in the mobile channel and the best solutions available.
The Integration of Banks and Fintech is Imperative for Healthy Business Finance
In workplaces around the world, employees are still trudging through excel sheets, searching high and low for missing receipts, reluctantly covering costs in advance out of their own pocket and waiting too long to be reimbursed. This strained and inefficient picture was recently researched by Soldo in a study of 4,000 businesses in the UK in partnership with YouGov.
Mobile payment systems: making the right choice
There are plenty of mobile payment services and solutions in the market. Luckily, systems tend to fall one of several key categories, so we’ve outlined each one to find the mobile payment technology that best suits the needs of your business.
What the FCA really wants from e-money and payments institutions
With the vast majority of e-money and payment institutions successfully re-authorised, let’s take a look at how the FCA intends to monitor this growing population of firms. Traditionally, e-money and payment institutions came under most scrutiny by the FCA at the application stage.
Biometrics: Banking, fraud and financial inclusion
Why should the retail and banking sectors put identity first to ensure a user-friendly customer experience? Payment cards have been in use since the 1950s. For decades we relied on signatures as a form of security, until 2006 when chip and PIN cards were introduced to the UK. Yet PINs are notoriously vulnerable, with many people using obvious numbers or even writing them down.
Report: Fintech startups need to up their game in increasingly turbulent funding rounds
A new report has found that only one in 10 fintech startups succeed with seed/angel investment dropping by 57% between 2010 and 2017. In 2010 average seed funding was $6.84m, a figure that fell to just $3m despite total funding rising from $205.3m to $851m, reinforcing the growing competition in the fintech market.
An Internet of Things-connected future in prospect
The future is even closer than we think. The increasing pace of technological change means concepts formerly considered only abstract theories on a distant horizon are already nearly upon us. In particular, the Internet of Things (IoT) means the type and number of devices connected to the internet is proliferating at an astonishing rate.
Is it time for retailers to adopt the WeChat Pay model?
“WeChat Pay has transformed the digital world”, Ashley Guo, Regional Director of WeChat Pay, Tencent Holdings, said onstage at Money 20/20, Amsterdam. “We continue to shape the future of payments and commerce, bringing the new age of smart retail.” WeChat Pay have seen enormous adoption of their platform across China and continue to find innovative new ways to further integrate their solutions into the lives of Chinese consumers.
Can the UK remain a hotbed for Fintech innovation?
The UK has long been at the forefront of the fintech (r)evolution, and Philip Hammond’s statement in March put even more emphasis on helping the sector to “grow and flourish”. Couple this with the implementation of the Second Payments Services Directive (PSD2) – driving new players into the mix – and the news that investment by venture capitalists hit a record high in the UK last year, the future certainly looks bright. But this should come as no surprise.
PPRO Podcast: Are American Merchants Leaving Cash on the Table? American Cross-Border Analyses with PPRO’s Steve Villegas
In the inaugural episode of the PPRO Podcast, Niall Conn sits down with Steve Villegas, Vice President of Partner Management Atlanta, to discuss the American e-commerce market and cross-border growth with an eye towards APMs. For a more detailed look at the American cross-border e-commerce market look here. If you’d like to explore more countries with high e-commerce growth rates look here If you have any questions or comments, please send your emails to podcast@ppro.com
Liberis CEO talks Open Banking and the future of SME funding
This week alternative finance provider Liberis achieved an Open Banking milestone, using the technology to process a full funding application for the first time. We spoke to CEO Rob Straathof about the potential of Open Banking and how it could represent a break with the past. One of the major challenges facing small businesses can be finding the financing necessary to get off the ground and achieve growth.
The power of collaboration in fintech
According to a global fintech survey from London Stock Exchange and TheCityUK, UK-based fintech companies expect 88% growth over the next three years. Achievement of this forecast however will not come without challenge as 43% of UK companies surveyed cite competition as the largest barrier to expansion.
It’s coming home - but how should retailers respond?
Whatever your favourite iteration of the now ubiquitous (and undeniably catchy) meme, there’s no denying that World Cup Fever has truly taken hold of the nation.
Interview: Ripple’s chief cryptographer on bitcoin and the company’s changing strategy
San Francisco-based Ripple has had meteoric success, many would argue off the back of the crypto hype but few can deny the possibilities of what the company was bringing to market: Remittance and international settlement in seconds – not hours or days. It has the correspondent banking world looking on in interest.
Ingenico’s Axium D7 world’s first GMS and PCI-PTS v5 certified payment device
Following the news that you may soon be making payments via Instagram, there’s even more payments and tech giant crossover news this week. Ingenico Group recently announced their partnership with Google to produce the remarkable Axium D7 – a smart terminal that allows the user to access the Google Play Store, including: Chrome, YouTube and Google Maps – with a similar user experience to an Android smartphone or tablet.
Optimizing the in-store experience in the age of unified commerce
It seems like not a week goes by without a story in the papers about another high street stalwart facing a dip in customers and sales. Yet in the same breath, online retailers are seemingly doing better than ever, expanding internationally and setting their sights on bigger targets or acquisitions. For example, menswear retailer Bonobos, or even French fashion brand Sézane, Sonos, Made.com all started their life online and have now moved to their own purpose-built stores.
Modernizing ACH for a real-time world | webinar
NACHA and FIS sat down with bobsguide to discuss the rising need to modernise the Automated Clearing House (ACH) network in a webinar hosted on June 28. “In 2017, ACH processed more than $46.8 trillion from 21 billion electronic financial transactions, double the GDP of the US,” said Amy Morris, director at NACHA.
IXOPAY on Smart-Routing of transactions and why it matters to merchants
An interview with Rene Siegl, Founder of IXOPAY. What are the foremost challenges affecting merchants operating on a worldwide scale? It’s essential for Enterprise Merchants to maximize their profit and save money on transaction fees. That’s why our gateway provides an in-depth overview of all transactions of all webshops in real-time.
Would you pay by Instagram?
In a recent interview with PaymentEye, Open Future guru Louise Beaumont described the power that brand elasticity will hold in the future of financial services. “If your brand can stretch to service more people in more ways – you’re called Amazon,” Beaumont said. “Try that with Barclays, for example – it just doesn’t stretch. You might have a portfolio of brands, which is what Facebook are doing.” Social media has already begun its spread into financial services, and vice versa.
ICOs could reach $40 billion by 2020
New research, compiled by London Fintech Week 2018, has revealed that if present trends continue, the year 2020 could see an ICO ecosystem of $30bn-$40bn value of tokens issued with around 2,000 token projects. To put this into context, traditional fintech investment in 2017 globally totalled circa $30billion. This is against a backdrop of an ever-growing number of ICOs being launched in 2018, following a surge in popularity in the new form of fundraising.
Podcast with Wealthify CEO: fintech propositions must remain “distinct”
A new wave of fintech is taking full advantage of the collaborative ecosystem, powered by advances in APIs and encouraged by Open Banking regulation. At the fore front are the challenger banks seeking to forge partnerships and leverage technology to provide innovative and unique avenues that traditional banks have failed to produce.
More ATM closures predicted following fee reduction
Yesterday (Sunday, July 1st), ATM fees in the UK were reduced from 25p to 20p – the first of several fee reductions scheduled to take place annually until 2021. While this might not seem like a dramatic reduction at first glance, the move is expected to prompt further closures of ATMs across the country. Providers view ATMs as an additional expense to maintain, one which might not be necessary in an increasingly cashless society. Research from Which?
Payments are increasingly contactless, but ‘contact’ is still in demand
By Oscar Nieboer, CMO, Paysafe. Psychologists broadly agree that it takes up to 254 days to form habitual behaviour. It is impressive, therefore, that a near doubling in the use of contactless cards led to debit cards overtaking cash transactions at the end of 2017, according to UK Finance.
Ingenico warns retailers of “growing consumer discount scepticism”
Retailers will soon be preparing for what’s tipped to be the UK’s biggest ever online spending splurge: Black Friday 2018. In 2017, consumers spent a huge 515% more online on Black Friday than the average Friday, according to payment data from Ingenico, with the Wednesday through to Monday recorded as the six busiest shopping days of the year. But despite its evident popularity, a survey of 600+ UK consumers has revealed a deep-rooted scepticism of how much shoppers really save.
Alipay partners with major tourist sites across the UK
Alipay today announced that it is partnering with Merlin Entertainments to enable Chinese tourists to use their Alipay app across all of Merlin’s London attractions, including the Coca-Cola London Eye, London Eye River Cruise, Madame Tussauds London, SEA LIFE London and the London Dungeon. This will include making payments in their home currency to purchase both tickets and souvenirs.
Exploring new frontiers: how payment certainty propels businesses across borders
In today’s competitive and globalised business landscape, companies are increasingly seeking new frontiers for expansion. In a recent piece of Accuity research, 69% of business leaders revealed that their companies will be branching into new geographies within the next year.* While the aspiration of international expansion may be compelling, it is important to take into consideration that doing it successfully requires more than just ambition and a popular product.
Consumer Payments: Will ‘Request for Payment’ be the next ‘big thing’?
NatWest recently announced that it has teamed up with British mobile phone retailer, Carphone Warehouse, to trial a new online shopping system that lets customers pay directly through without using a debit or credit card. When checking out on the Carphone Warehouse site, shoppers are presented with a NatWest button that they can press to be taken to the bank’s app, where they log in and complete the payment.
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