Projects

IES will work with the Inclusive Economy Partnership (IEP) to develop guidance for employers on good practice to manage performance and support employee wellbeing. This will involve document review, content development and testing, and various types of stakeholder liason with resources focussed on running a series of workshops. The IEP will convene a group of 8-10 pathfinder employers to work on this with CIPD, ACAS, Mind and legal experts. IES will draft and test the guidance which will be available in different formats corresponding to different professional roles and employer types (eg SMEs).

Working in partership with Ipsos MORI, IES will conduct independent process, impact and economic evaluation of the National Leadership Centre (NLC). The NLC was launched by the Chancellor in 2018 as a threee year pilot and seeks to transform the leadership of public services.

We conducted four case studies with NHS Trusts in North-East England, selected from volunteer trusts by NHS Employers. The focus of the case studies was on the relationship between human resource management interventions, staff satisfaction and patient satisfaction. The method will be mainly interviews with senior people, particularly HR directors, although evidence will also be sought from other sources such as staff and patient surveys and key performance indicators.

IES carried out a review of how organisations elicit and consider requests for flexible working from those returning to work, and how they then manage the careers of those that work flexibly.

IES is collaborating with the University of Brighton to conduct some original research into the links between HR practices and employee performance and well-being. The research study will be led by Dr Luke Fletcher of Brighton Business School, and will involve a survey, to be administered twice at an interval of six months, of at least 300 employees across a minimum of two organisations. The results will be disseminated at an event (planned for January 2017) to be hosted by the University of Brighton.

We are contributing to an MSc Human Resource Management programme delivered by the Edinburgh Institute of Leadership and Management Practice to KPMG consultants. We have provided content for online units, and are delivering masterclasses in the areas of reward, performance management and HR transformation.

In 2010, a government department decided to give consideration to redeveloping its performance appraisal process and the link to performance related pay. IES was asked to help. The aim was to ensure these systems reflected ‘best practice’ and supported the aim of building a high performance culture. It was necessary to ensure that any changes were affordable, sustainable, non discriminatory and supportive of departmental and civil service values. IES undertook a number of activities, including: holding focus groups with appraisers and appraisees to obtain views of the process and ideas for improvement meeting trade union representatives to hear their views and ideas for improvement examining the documents that support the process looking at outcomes of the processes, including a survey of performance appraisal forms and the distribution of performance related pay awards reviewing external evidence of good practice. A report was presented to the Departmental Management Board and the Permanent Secretary was briefed on options for change. An internal project manager was appointed to agree on next steps and then implement them.