Publications

Train to Gain was designed as a national service for businesses that provided help to identify and source training that would improve their business performance and the skills of their workforce. It aimed to encourage employers to invest in the development of the skills and qualifications of their employees. This report presents the findings from the third wave of the Train to Gain learner evaluation, and is based on a telephone survey of 8,385 learners, plus qualitative interviews with 100 of those learners.

Global Crisis set to Decimate HR.' This was how one HR magazine headline-writer cheerfully chose to summarise prospects for the new year in late 2008. But though the pundits are universally depressed with their economic prognostications, the implications they draw out for HR and people management are far less uniform and at times seemingly contradictory, in terms of both overall prospects and specific priorities. So just what are the implications and where should we be focusing our under-pressure resources?

This report explores the relationship between financial well-being and employee performance at work. It incorporates one of the first surveys of employee financial well-being in the UK.

The Partners Outreach for Ethnic Minorities (POEM) programme began in March 2007. It supported people of working age who were not in contact with Jobcentre Plus services, were not working or claiming benefits, and were non-working partners in low income families. Pakistani, Bangladeshi and Somali communities were the target groups, with a particular focus on women. The evaluation of the first year of POEM comprised case study work with providers, partners and other stakeholders involved in delivering POEM; 50 face-to-face interviews with POEM clients; and analysis of POEM Management Information.

The Acas Pre-Claim Conciliation Service (PCC) aims to identify workplace disputes between employers and employees which may become employment tribunal claims and resolve them effectively before they enter the tribunal system. The findings of this evaluation show cost and time savings to both employers and employees involved in this pilot and a net financial benefit to the taxpayer.

The term ‘talent management’ is clearly a big hit with HR people, but will the recent talent craze yield real business value? If talent management does help, it will do so by shifting our thinking and/or by helping us to act more effectively.

Talent management has been high on the agenda of HR professionals in the UK over the past few years. This high level of interest is reflected in a number of recent case study based research reports describing a wide range of organisational practice. This paper draws on published research and also on the considerable practical experience of IES in supporting organisations in their own talent management strategies.

These guidelines set out the main ways in which organisations can contribute to the socially-sensitive restructuring of the labour force. The report highlights practical considerations such as: the roles that social dialogue can play at national, sectoral and company level; the role of workforce consultation, beginning with how restructuring plans should be announced to the workforce, how the workforce should be informed and consulted about the restructuring, and how negotiations concerning restructuring should be conducted; the measures that can be put into place to lessen the impact of restructuring; and, if redundancies are inevitable, the range of measures that can be implemented to cushion their impact.

Over the last forty years there has been a transformation in the gender composition of the UK workforce as women are increasingly likely to be in paid employment for the major part of their adult lives. Yet gender imbalances remain with respect to the scale and form of employment and in remuneration. This paper is divided into two sections: patterns and progress; and challenges and make some tentative recommendations by way of conclusion.

This project identified the rural groups that found it most difficult to move into, remain and progress in employment. The project also described and evaluated these groups' pathways into work. The scoping study was designed to inform the development of the Commission for Rural Communities' broader programme of work on Working in 21st Century Rural England.