Event writeup: IES Mini-Conference 2014: Really Big Headlines
Written by Luke Fletcher, Research Officer, IES
Future directions for employment policy and the labour market in the UK
Nigel Meager, Director, IES
Nigel Meager opened the mini-conference by outlining recent trends within the UK labour market and how these may impact on HR policy and practice over the next few years. He began by discussing the general decline of economic productivity; inefficiencies are not being forced out because there has been a shift towards less productive activities and reduced investment in new technologies. Nigel then went on to outline the stagnation of real wages: inflation has outstripped average weekly wages for several years, which has resulted in pay for most people, in real terms, being around 90% of what it was before the recession. Another trend he identified was that although self employment has risen sharply, the indicators suggest that this group are more vulnerable than before the recession. A final trend that Nigel discussed was the growing number of unemployed people being pushed into low-skilled or badly matched (in terms of skills) jobs. All of these trends have implications for HR management, particularly in the areas of pay and reward, talent management, and performance management.
HR transformation: Where it is and where is it going?
Peter Reilly, Director, HR Research and Consultancy
Peter kicked off the keynote presentations by looking at the current priorities and issues that HR functions face and how these may change in the near future. He began by outlining the need to examine one’s own context: each organisation may have different needs and circumstances that alter which courses of action the HR function takes.
One of the key issues that still pervades is the need to be agile and flexible, yet also efficient and lean. With the impact of the recession and of public sector cuts, the reality for many HR functions is that they are faced with a dual, yet conflicting focus on ‘strategic’ aims such as investing in leadership development as well as on ‘operational’ cost-saving and efficiency targets. HR could respond by focusing on fixing business problems (not HR ones), coaching senior managers on the cultural implications of change, acting as a critical friend and having the right skillset to deal with uncertainty, political sensitivities and communication issues. Peter ended his presentation by outlining the many different roles that the HR function plays: regulator, strategist, change agent and professional.
A number of interesting questions were raised by the audience. Some noted Peter’s point that HR functions should do more to understand how they can re-design jobs to leverage higher productivity and performance from workers without damaging their long-term morale and well-being. Others picked up from this by discussing how performance appraisals and reviews may be a key way for the HR function to better understand and change what performance means within their organisation.
The future of OD: Revolution and evolution
Valerie Garrow, Principal Associate, IES
Valerie presented organisational development (OD) as a way to change the organisation for the better through challenging the constructions that organisations hold of themselves. By critically examining the organisation’s values and assumptions about itself, Valerie argued that one can uncover the ‘hidden’ agendas, issues and dysfunctional cultural aspects that senior managers have become blinded to.
In order to do so, the OD practitioner must utilise a range of skills and tools. In particular, senior managers often need a ‘thought partner’ to help them realise and solve problems, and to navigate the difficulties of managing change within an organisation. In this sense, organisational development becomes an emergent process that is co-created between the practitioner and the organisation.
Valerie ended her presentation by discussing the important trends for the future of OD. She declared that managing change through opening up good quality dialogue and communication exchanges would become even more important in coming years. Other key trends for OD would be an increasing focus on fostering organisational innovation, creativity and competitive advantage; as well as on identifying and managing unexpected or new risks, particularly from new technologies and organisational systems.
Questions were raised by the audience with regards to how practical or ideal an emergent approach is, considering time constraints and resource implications. Valerie reasoned that trust and authenticity between practitioner and management as well as between management and employees was the key to success for any OD activity, and so a long-term, partnership approach is often necessary.
Engagement: The next decade
Dilys Robinson, Principal Research Fellow, IES
Dilys presented an overview of the work and outputs of the Engage for Success ‘future of engagement’ special interest group. An edited thought piece collection of articles has been published by Engage for Success that includes contributions by well-renowned academics such as Professor John Purcell and Professor Katie Truss, HR Directors such as David Smith and Richard Crouch, and consultants such as Martin Reddington and Linda Holbeche. Dilys summarised that the collection emphasised the importance of trust in management and employee voice for fostering high levels of engagement. She also discussed how contributors highlighted the advantage of assessing and monitoring engagement in innovative ways through social media and interactive technologies. However, it seems that the traditional survey is still important, yet may be enhanced with such activities.
The rest of the presentation discussed the future for engagement considering the push to do ‘more with less’ and the pressure to increase the productivity and performance of the workforce. Dilys highlighted the growing need for engagement practitioners to consider the long-term well-being and resilience of employees, the link between engagement and ‘doing the right thing’ socially, and the big question of ‘why should your employees engage with you?’. These considerations sparked the audience’s interest and many questions were asked. Some focused on the extent to which organisations should tailor and flex their approach to engagement. Dilys argued that although there are some common factors that seem to drive engagement, each organisation will have different contextual elements that will alter how these drivers may influence engagement, and that occupational groups or departments may differ in their foci of engagement. Others discussed the importance of embedding the approach across the whole organisation: even though HR should initially lead it, the consensus from the audience was that all levels and areas of the organisation should take responsibility for the engagement agenda.
Is work getting harder?
Penny Tamkin, Associate Director, IES
Penny sought to answer a difficult question in her presentation: is work getting harder? The organisational environment has become more diverse, flexible and competitive as well as less predictable, separate from home life, and fixed in time and location. These changes have occurred for a number of reasons, including the move towards flatter structures, continuous change processes, and virtual working. For individuals, this has meant increased processing of information, use of social skills, and abilities to adapt quickly to change. But has this actually created a situation where people are indeed working harder?
Penny presented a range of evidence from a number of studies and surveys carried out across the UK and Europe. It seems that personal discretion and job autonomy are declining, yet at same time job quality is increasing. Jobs are becoming more varied and challenging, but they are also getting more restrictive and controlled by management. This issue of control and power is also indicated by the trend that the meaning and purpose of one’s work is being lost or eroded, and employees are less trusting of their leaders. Another trend seems to be that jobs are becoming more stressful and people are experiencing more harassment at work. However, working time quality has been steadily improving due to European legislation and initiatives around working hours and occupational safety. Therefore, there seems to be a good safety net for employees in terms of protecting their health and well-being, yet more needs to be done to address the more psychological and emotional demands that employees face. Although the evidence is somewhat mixed, the overall trends suggest that work is getting harder, particularly for those who are more vulnerable and have less power within the labour market.
Reward: Coming out of recession
Duncan Brown, Principal Associate, IES
Duncan began by outlining how much the business situation has changed since the recession and how employee engagement has dramatically fallen as a consequence. Despite the economy and job market recovering well, the employee experience is not looking so rosy. Many issues of pay and reward, such as the gender pay gap and inequalities between dramatic increases in executive remuneration alongside organisation-wide pay freezes for employees, have become more problematic. As a consequence, employees are less engaged with their organisations, and more disconnected from their leaders.
In order to address these issues, Duncan argued that a holistic approach to pay and rewards should be taken that addresses fairness and equality as well as performance and career incentives. He suggested that traditional approaches should be avoided and that more transparent, innovative and egalitarian ways of rewarding good performance should be encouraged that also include non-financial means. However, he emphasised that cultural alignment is important – if the organisation and its employees feel that the rewards are not suitable, motivational or fair then the approach will likely fail. Understanding the organisational culture and environment as well as employee perceptions of what motivates them are crucial for designing the right total rewards package. Lastly, Duncan highlighted the importance of clear processes, line management competencies, and the link between training and performance management when designing a rewards system.