institute for employment studies

about IES

Penny Tamkin BSc, PhD, CIPD Diploma, Dip Econ

Profile

Penny is an associate director at IES specialising in management and leadership. She initially joined IES in 1993 and for 13 years worked on projects related to race issues in organisations, human capital, management and leadership and the impact of workforce/management development. Penny has published and spoken widely on these subjects, conducted research and evaluation studies and worked with organisations and policy makers to understand better and improve their practice on leadership, people development and workforce capability. In 2007 Penny joined The Work Foundation where for three years she headed up their programme of research and consultancy on leadership and people effectiveness. Penny returned to IES in 2010.

Penny has conducted numerous studies into how organisations train and develop their employees, and what difference development makes to individuals or organisations. She has undertaken major evaluations of development activity within the health sector and for the Clore Social Leadership foundation. Penny led a major investigation into the characteristics of outstanding leadership. This research has explored the differentiating factors between outstanding and good leadership across a range of major employers and resulted in a well-received report. Evaluation of whether the identified characteristics are developable has led to encouraging results.

Penny has conducted a number of studies looking at how human capital investment and high performance working practices contribute to organisational performance. She tested of a range of human capital indicators and their link to business performance and confirmed a subset of indicators that link to performance and the size of that effect. This work has shown that not only do certain people management practices correlate with business performance outcomes but that the intensity of their adoption is an important factor. Penny has also on behalf of UKCES, completed a major project on high performance working and skills utilisation, exploring the factors that influence employers' uptake of relevant practices and how government policy may have an influence.

Currently Penny is evaluating the development of leaders of children's services departments, the role of leadership and safety in constructiion, the benefits of occupational regulation, and innovations in work organisation across Europe.

Penny originally joined IES from a local authority where she was Head of HR.

Education

Career