Employability and Employers: the missing piece of the jigsaw

Tamkin P, Hillage J | Report 361 | Institute for Employment Studies | Oct 1999

Employers talk a lot about employability, but relatively few go far beyond exhortation. Where they do, policies tend to focus on a few staff groups and not address the workforce as a whole, smack of opportunism or necessity rather than deliberate strategy, and re-package existing career or development practices, rather than addressing the emerging needs of their workforce.

This report pins down the concept of employability into a workable definition. Based on a review of approaches adopted in a series of case study organisations, it develops an emerging framework of appropriate employer responses, and provides a checklist to help employers develop comprehensive policy and practice.