Thought leadership
The CIPD is committed to leading the development and promotion of good practice in the field of the management and development of people. We produce research that's relevant to today's and tomorrow's workplaces. We ensure our research is based on evidence, not speculative opinion, and that it's translated into practical advice and guidance for our members and the wider management community.
In the past year, we've produced 47 research and survey reports. Each year, we produce four major annual benchmarking survey reports on:
- reward
- learning and development
- recruitment, retention and turnover
- absence management.
In addition, our quarterly Labour Market Outlook survey report provides the most authoritative set of tracking data for the UK labour market, accurately reporting current trends and predicting future ones.
All these survey reports, available free from our website, provide our members, policy-makers and the wider business community with authoritative information on which to build their actions and future plans.
Research highlights
Our surveys form only a small part of our wider research programme, in which we focus on the key developments, challenges and opportunities facing people management and development professionals. Highlights from last year's research programme included:
- the continuation of our substantial programme of research into the crucial role played by line managers in putting policy into practice in the management and development of people. This work included guidance on the role of line managers in learning and development, reward and the management of stress. Organisations we've worked with in conducting the various research projects and developing guidance have included the John Lewis Partnership and the Ministry of Defence
- a new project examining the ways organisations are wrestling with the challenges of employer branding. Our guide will offer practical advice drawing on the experiences of a variety of organisations, including the Royal Bank of Scotland, Tesco, Deloitte and Touche, Swansea Council and Kings College Hospital
- new research examining in detail the challenges surrounding talent management – an issue fast moving up the priority lists of HR directors and CEOs. Case studies have included Google, Gordon Ramsay Holdings, and the London and Quadrant Housing Trust
- research into the value of learning – examining the alignment of learning with business objectives, and the role of assessment and evaluation of learning. The research draws on the experience of organisations including Christian Aid, Clifford Chance, the Football Association and Dublin City Council.
- a new three-year partnership with MLab, the Management Innovation Lab at the London Business School co-founded by Professors Gary Hamel and Julian Birkinshaw, to explore the whole area of innovation in management. As founding members of the project, we'll benefit from research outputs specifically tailored to the priorities of CIPD members
- our contribution to a major pan-European research report, The Future of HR in Europe, conducted by the Boston Consulting Group on behalf of the European Association for Personnel Management (EAPM) during the time Mike McDonnell of CIPD in Ireland was President of EAPM. A global version of the study is due to be published at the WFPMA Congress in London in April 2008.
Translating knowledge into practice
A key part of our mission is to translate our research findings into practical advice and support for people management and development professionals and their line management colleagues.
This year we’ve added more new factsheets in one year than ever before. We now have an up-to-date library of 135 factsheets, all available free to visitors to our website. We’ve also enhanced our online information resources for members in Ireland, including the addition of more employment law information.
For our members, we also added six new tools to provide thorough practical guidance on issues they face in the workplace and how to deal with them. Topics covered by our new tools include assessing and reporting on the value of learning to your organisation, managing and reducing bullying at work, and the practical role played by reward in supporting diversity. We now have a total of 23 practical tools available free to our members via the website.
We also introduced, for the first time, a regular monthly podcast. Available free to all visitors of the website, each edition examines a topic of current interest in people management and development, based on interviews with leading practitioners and other experts. In the first year, interviewees have included Trevor Phillips, Chair of the new Commission for Equality and Human Rights talking on diversity, Greg Dyke, former Director General of the BBC talking on leadership, and Kevin Green, People and Organisation Development Director at the Royal Mail talking about the management of change. The podcasts have received positive feedback from members and have consistently made the top ten of the iTunes management podcast chart.
Books and subscription services
Our commercial publishing department plays a significant role in delivering on our mission to promote good practice in the management and development of people. We've continued to develop our successful toolkit series, which provides customers with everything they need to design, deliver and evaluate high-quality training courses and organisational development programmes. Five new titles were launched at our HRD conference and included Talent Management and Succession Planning and Competencies.
Our textbooks continue to do well, with new titles supporting CIPD qualifications and broader Masters, MBA and undergraduate programmes in people management and development related areas. New titles included Human Resource Management in an International Context and Cross-Cultural Management.
Our subscription-based portfolio continues to grow, offering blended paper-based and online updating information services on employment law, managing reward, and policies and procedures. We launched new products in learning and development and practical HR administration to continue to ensure that people management and development professionals are kept up to date and well informed.
We now have over 148 titles in print, selling to over 12,000 individual customers. In the past year, we saw a significant increase in the licensing of digitised content to customers for use in virtual learning environments and other learning software.
We continue to sell translation and territorial rights for our publications across the world. This year we’ve concluded agreements that will see our works published in Spain, India, Poland, Romania, China and Turkey.
People Management
Our own magazine, People Management, is one of the most substantial and valued member benefits we provide. With an audited circulation of more than twice its nearest rival, the publication is by far the biggest magazine covering people management and development issues. It provides a fortnightly update on the latest news relevant to our members and their work and also contains consistently high-quality features, advice and guidance. Over the year, People Management tackled issues ranging from HR career paths, managing innovation, new strategic thinking and the latest forms of business partnering to leadership development, making change happen and the psychological contract. People Management is also the leading forum for advertising of jobs in HR, with nearly 2,500 jobs advertised in the past 12 months. Independent research confirms that it is highly valued and widely read – readers include not only our members but many of their colleagues and others with an interest in the field of people management and development. We're currently working to increase even further the quantity and accessibility of news and information available through the People Management website.
We also publish Coaching at Work, which keeps subscribers updated with the latest news and developments in workplace coaching. It is highly regarded in the coaching community and among the people using coaching to raise the performance of their organisations. The magazine picked up an award in Canada as the most outstanding publication in workplace coaching.
Profile raising
Through the newspaper and broadcast media, we work to promote better understanding of people management and development issues among the wider business community and the general public. In the past year, CIPD research, comments and opinion secured an average of 300 mentions in the media every month. We appeared in the national newspapers an average of 23 times each month. Over the course of the year, we appeared on radio and television 155 times, up by more than 20% on the previous year. Issues that captured the media's interest included labour market trends and their impact on the wider economy; CIPD research into graduate attitudes to the workplace and reflections on the value of their degrees; the causes and effects of sickness absence and the effectiveness of line managers in supporting learning and development.
We're committed to using our research, expertise and the input of our members to ensure that people management and development issues are raised and taken seriously in the corridors of power.
In the past year, highlights of our work in this area have included:
- CIPD Employee Relations Adviser Mike Emmott participating in the UK Government commissioned Gibbons Review of employment dispute resolution, which foreshadowed the Government's abolition of the much-criticised Dispute Resolution Regulations
- meeting with Jim Murphy MP, then Minister of State for Employment and Welfare Reform, to discuss CIPD research findings on the labour market and to provide input from CIPD Chief Economist John Philpott into the minister's deliberations
- Alastair Darling MP, then Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, appearing on the platform of a joint CIPD/TUC event to launch new guidance on age discrimination. Mr Darling also used the platform to announce that the alternative dispute resolution regulations would be scrapped following a review of the impact they had had on business and employment relations
- George Osborne MP, Shadow Chancellor, speaking at an event to launch a new CIPD guide to flexible working in small firms. Later the same week, David Cameron MP, Leader of the Opposition, referred to the 'powerful messages' contained in our report as he announced new Conservative policy to extend the right to request flexible working to all parents
- the CIPD giving evidence before the House of Commons Employment and Skills Select Committee as part of its inquiry into the Leitch Review of Skills
- CIPD Chief Economist John Philpott being asked to be special adviser to the House of Lords European Union Select Committee on its inquiry into the EU Green Paper on Modernising Labour Law. He played a central role in drafting the committee's final report, Modernising European Union Labour Law: Has the UK anything to gain?