We author and publish a range of resources to keep you up to date with the latest developments in employment, education and skills, labour market and human resource policy and practice. All our pdf publications are free to access.
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JobsPlus is a voluntary community-led, hyperlocal employment support programme designed to help people in social housing communities find work. This partnership paper presents the findings from the JobsPlus pilot evaluation which relate to working with local partners, summarising the wide-spread benefits of this approach.
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These top tips have been developed as part of the Labour Market Evidence programme, a partnership with Learning and Work institute. They share practical lessons on designing, delivering and evaluating local work and health programmes. They are designed for local and regional policy, delivery, data and evaluation teams, and senior decision makers.
This publication was authored by Tony Wilson before he joined IES.
This publication was authored by Tony Wilson before he joined IES.
Resilience helps people bounce back from adversity and stress and is generally seen as a positive characteristic. But it can be difficult to define, as the way an individual responds to pressure will depend on their strengths and personal style. Also, it may not be clear to what degree employers can create resilient organisations.
This research report seeks to enhance our understanding of how these roles are being developed and currently used within Wales. It also aims to provide insights into how these roles can be better and more widely adopted to maximise their potential impact.
Flexible contracts, which include zero hours, temporary, freelance and seasonal working, are used across industries and by many different types of workers. However, the survey of workers also shows that a greater proportion of people on flexible contracts are having to pay for their own training than workers on permanent contracts. This may mean they are missing out on skills development and opportunities to progress in their career. If these types of contracts are used as stepping stones in a career (particularly by young people), are employers storing up skills problems for the future?
There is a constant drip drip of stories in the press announcing the march of outsourcing. The suggestion is that if you are not doing it then you are old fashioned, off the ball. One reason for the publicity is the stream of consultants’ reports that describe either new outsourcing deals done or surveys of future intentions. Words, however, do not always live up to deeds.
2014 saw the continuation of the heated zero-hours debate. The House of Commons heard the second reading of a Private Members' Bill to limit zero-hours employment contracts. The findings from the government consultation, launched by Business Secretary Vince Cable, on zero-hours contracts were also due to be made available. Mr Cable had suggested that one possible outcome from the consultation would be a code of conduct for employers - which would mean that developments in this area should be on the watch list for all HR practitioners and employers
If you have half an eye on the latest hot topics in business it has become hard to miss the phrases ‘big data’, ‘data science’ and ‘analytics’. Indeed in their 2011 report McKinsey & Co described big data as ‘The next frontier for innovation, competition, and productivity.’ But does it have anything to do with HR; after all people are unique and unpredictable and so can’t be quantified, can they?
