Peter Cheese

The way the world works

2013-06-18T00:01:00Z

This week, the leaders of the G8 countries – the UK, the USA, Canada, Germany, France, Italy, Russia and Japan – are meeting in Northern Ireland for their annual summit. As host nation, the UK has set the priorities for the discussion: the assembled leaders will focus on Tax, Trade and Transparency. These are, of course, important issues that are worthy of consideration at the highest level. But we think there’s something missing from the agenda – something that needs to be considered alongside these weighty issues: Talent.

The three core themes of the summit – Tax, Trade and Transparency – all acknowledge the extent to which the world now operates as a single marketplace.Globalisation is a defining feature of our era, and it touches every aspect of our lives: the ease with which businesses and goods can be moved around the world has had, and will have, profound impacts on the way we structure our tax regimes and our trade agreements. The focus this year on transparency in governments and business is, partly, an effort to ensure that developing countries can be welcomed into this global community on fair and reasonable terms.

As we wrestle with these grand themes of globalisation, though, it’s easy to forget that, beneath and alongside the trade routes and tax regimes are real people – people doing jobs and going about their working lives all round the world. Globalisation might be the product of technological change, but its impacts are felt on a very human scale.

At the CIPD we’ve taken the opportunity of the G8 summit to look at the world and how the people in it go about their working lives: we’ve collected and compared data on wealth, working hours, education levels, gender equality and much more. We’ve looked at the G8 countries, but we’ve also included the BRICS – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – because the world is, evidently, changing and because including these economies brings a vital fresh perspective.. The data that we’ve drawn out reminds us just how diverse the world is, and how easy it can be to assume that everyone does things how we do them: the many surprising human stories, comparisons and contradictions that we’ve found illustrate sharply how our ways of thinking about and measuring our working lives don’t necessarily apply in other countries.

We found, for instance, that India has the lowest level of female participation in the workforce of the countries we studied – and you’re more likely to be satisfied with life if you’re unemployed than employed in India. We also found that it’s usual for Chinese employers to offer holiday when a couple get married – and that the holiday is longer if the couple are of ‘mature age’, which is classified as over 25 for the groom or 23 for the bride. We learned that there’s a strong correlation between the ease of starting a business in a country and that country’s GDP per head of population. South Africa and Italy have the highest levels of youth unemployment, while workers in Russia work the longest hours.

What’s clear is that there are as many ways of thinking about, valuing and measuring work and working lives around the world as there are countries we studied. It’s more important now than ever that we’re alive to these differences: we need to look carefully at what we might be able to learn from other countries and think about how we can adapt our workforce and economy to fit into the new global jigsaw. Should we make it easier to start new businesses? Should we give more holiday, or work longer hours? Should we and our government be prioritising GDP, or happiness, or gender equality – and what helps to achieve these priorities?

We also need to understand the way the globalised world works to know what we, in Britain or any other country, can usefully and productively contribute to a global economy. What skills will we need to develop in our workforce and in which industries should we focus our efforts? How should we trade and interact with the rest of the world? This goes much deeper than understanding local customs and cultures in order to do business effectively – important though that is. This is about assessing our place in a global economy where businesses and their people can move location ever more easily, and about asking what impact that has on the way we think about our working lives.

The world is changing quickly, and our work, workforces and workplaces will – and must – change too. By recognising the crucial importance of real people and real working lives –as well as grand themes of Tax, Trade and Transparency – we better equip ourselves to understand the forces that shape the modern world and to achieve David Cameron’s stated goals for the G8 of growth, prosperity and economic development across the world. As Britain competes in a global market, we need to ask honest questions of ourselves and expand our horizons – with one eye always on the Talent that fuels success.

Communicating and engaging on our strategic direction

2013-02-01T11:15:00Z

I hope most of you will have seen the New Year update email I sent round on the changes we're working on at the CIPD, and the new strategic direction we're charting.

Communication is always vital, particularly in times of change. But, as George Bernard Shaw commented, 'the single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place'.

I see communicating a clear vision and direction for the CIPD as an essential part of my job. I've been using various channels to do the 'broadcast' part of that - telling you all what I've seen and heard, and what we're working on. The recent email was just one part of this. But the easiest way to fall foul of the trap Shaw identifies is to believe that communication stops when you've finished talking. I'm absolutely determined to also keep listening, and adapting to what I hear. It has been interesting to read through the wide variety of responses to my email, both those sent directly to me, and those that have been appearing through posts on LinkedIn and other social media.

The replies emphasize how you can't communicate to everyone in the same way and expect everyone to hear the same thing. We all have our filters and our points of view that provide frames of reference to what we hear.

I'm heartened by the large number of positive and supportive responses - and by the number of people who freely volunteer to help in some way with our journey of change. I'm also pleased to receive so much constructive critique and a good many responses seeking further clarification, asking what I might have meant by certain things, or challenging on points that I haven't directly called out.

There are some strong common themes in the responses I've received: A definite sense that elements of the L&D community have felt under-served by the CIPD in recent years, and want reassurance that I really mean what I say about addressing this; similar feedback from independent consultants and people working in SMEs, who feel we could do more to support their specific needs; some particular concerns about the flexibility of our standards and membership structures, and about the effectiveness and rigour of our CPD arrangements; and a number of queries from people based outside of the UK about how we can bring to life our commitment to better serve the increasingly international nature of our profession. These are just some of the most common themes, but I've also read many more helpful and thought-provoking comments on other issues.

I have a real passion and belief for what we can and need to do, both as the CIPD and as a profession. There is much we need to change or challenge, but also much we have achieved and can be proud of. I have been describing, at a high level, what some of the specific areas of change need to be for the CIPD, but we are on a journey and some things will take time. We won't get it all right, and I'm sure there will be many course corrections along the way. But I can assure you all that each of the issues I've listed above are on our agenda, and I am determined that we will meaningfully and tangibly address them.

I will be communicating on a regular basis on progress of ideas, strategic imperatives and change, so there will be more to come, and I want to encourage debate and dialogue.

However, mindful of Shaw's challenge I highlighted above, I'm also keen to find ways to explore some of the themes that I've heard in your feedback in greater depth with you. For those of you from the L&D community who are thinking of attending the exhibition at HRD, I've already scheduled an open access slot on the exhibition floor to hear your feedback on how we've done since the ITD and IPM came together nearly 20 years ago, and whether there is more that we can do. But I'll only reach those in the room with that.

I'm also looking at ways in which we can use social media to create some clearly signposted and focused opportunities to explore some of the strategic challenges we're wrestling with 'live' and in a truly inclusive way - and I'd be keen to hear suggestions on how best to do this, too. In the meantime, I'll keep getting out and about as much as I can and being as visible as possible. I talk regularly at branch events, on various conferences and platforms, with HR leadership teams, as well as sharing my thoughts through PM magazine and other trade or mainstream media interviews and articles.

I hope to see many of you on my travels. But if not, please keep your comments coming. Wherever I can, I'll respond directly. But I'll also continue to use this blog to share my thoughts on common themes that I see and hear.

New directions for CIPD, new opportunities for the profession

2013-01-24T12:01:00Z

Hello, and best wishes for the New Year.

As the CIPD marches towards its centenary in June, we’re in a celebratory mood, looking back with pride, and a dash of nostalgia, but also firmly focused on the future.

I’ve been in post here at the CIPD for six months. It’s been fascinating getting to know the organisation, and meeting and hearing views from a wide range of people, from HR Directors, members and branch volunteers to Government ministers and civil servants, agencies and institutes, academics and thought leaders.

Now, with the beginning of the New Year, I thought it would be a good time to share with you my thinking about our strategy and future direction.

Faster responses to a changing world

It has been striking to me the level of goodwill and trust that exists towards the CIPD. There’s a widespread pride and sense of collective ownership of our professional body. At the same time, it is clear there are things we need to work on to continue to earn that trust and goodwill, and we have to respond faster to the changing world around us.

I hear positive recognition of the progress of recent years – for example in our standards, driven by the HR Profession Map, new routes to membership, and in the way our research has been driving thinking about the future of the profession.

But I also get a strong sense of ambition for us to do more to respond to the many changes in the world of work and the opportunity for our profession. To engage with business and other leaders to ensure HR and learning and development are playing their part in shaping and building the businesses and organisations of the future. And of course to help define, develop and sustain the professional capabilities needed, with clearer routes to progression to encourage people into the profession and to build their careers.

There are also things we need to change in how we work. We need to become more open, more responsive, and to better recognise and engage with the many different groups and communities we serve – for example learning and training professionals, the consulting community, and being better connected and more relevant to small to medium-sized businesses.

We must also provide more clarity on the strategic themes and challenges which are facing us all and the organisations we serve, and help turn insight into action. This, in turn, will position us better with the leaders of our profession, as well as with business leaders and policy makers.

Defining our purpose

The first step in reviewing any strategy is clarity of purpose. We've re-evaluated the purpose that drives the CIPD, and redefined it as:

"To champion better work and working lives, through improving people management and development practices to build greater value for individuals and orgnaisations, benefiting economies and society."

This reflects much of what we do already - but sets out a broader ambition that recognises the importance of the roles we all play, and the wider impact we can have.

Our focus and commitments for the future

We’ve reviewed our business and activities, listening closely to the many members, branches, and external stakeholders we’ve spoken to along the way. We’ve focused on improving our core business and support to our membership today, but also looked at how we maintain and grow our relevance, reach and impact in the future. A number of key strategic imperatives have become clear:

Extending impact and voice – being clear in our research and policy agendas, and open and collaborative to ensure we’re maximising our influence and impact on behalf of the profession, and making better use of the learnings and insights gained
More flexible standards and means of recognition – including clearer direction for different specialisms, roles and career paths
New ways of thinking about membership – segmenting our membership offer to recognise the different interests, skills and experience, seniority, and roles that current and potential members have, and better definition of the different professional levels
Extending our reach and relevance – such as connecting to and supporting small to medium-sized enterprises, building better relationships with consultants who support and influence our profession, and extending our capacity and capability to support organisations as well as individuals
Strengthening branch networks and outreach – building a regional structure in the UK that can help share best practices, support branches, and bring together broader groups to better interact with local and regional communities and partners
Clarifying and extending our international presence – responding with a clear strategy and framework to the increasing demand for support internationally, the growing of best practices, and HR and learning skills development and recognition.

This is a broad overview of the main areas we’re working on. I’ll share more of the details over the weeks and months to come. We can’t change everything overnight, but I hope this gives a sense of the breadth of our ambition, and our commitment to deliver real change.

We’re already moving at pace on some critical projects – such as the development of a regional structure in the UK, defining our international strategy, and investing in new systems and infrastructure to improve our processes and responsiveness.

I’ll also have more to say soon on some exciting collaborations – with high profile individuals and organisations – which we’re developing to add extra weight, depth and relevance to a revised framework of research and policy priorities for the CIPD.

As I have said before, I believe there has never been a more interesting or important time for all of us in and around our profession, and I am determined that the CIPD will respond and play its part in shaping the future.

If you have thoughts to add or questions to ask, please comment below or email me at chiefexecutive@cipd.co.uk

What’s going to happen in 2013?

2013-01-09T16:00:00Z

One thing's for certain and that is that nothing's for certain. Whether it's the economy, the next big thing in technology, the next corporate or media scandal, or even the weather.

The economic outlook for 2013 is for most commentators pretty dismal. Growth in the UK is predicted to be flat (OBR and the OECD anticipating around 1% growth), and there is not much optimism about growth elsewhere (the OECD are projecting overall negative growth for the Eurozone in 2013). However, various recruitment surveys (eg Reed, REC, KPMG) are more positive about job prospects. A positive mindset is definitely a good thing!

So uncertainty, unsteady economic growth and high pace of change are the new normal and businesses everywhere have to be able to rapidly adapt and change. Big strategies that lay out detailed plans and ideas for the next 5 years based on deep analysis of the markets and trends that we believe are driving our business, may not be worth the paper they are written on.

>We have to allow our organisations to respond and rapidly adapt as circumstances change, often quickly

Of course we need strategies, but they should be directional and 'lean' and we have to allow our organisations to respond and rapidly adapt as circumstances change, often quickly. So how to create agile organisations? This has to be one of the major themes for business and HR, and it has many dimensions.

For those of you who were at the Annual Conference in Manchester last November you will have heard Gary Hamel talk about this, and about his views of the need to dramatically change the way we manage and organise work - is management as we have been practising it a 'busted flush'? How do we engage and empower our people to decide and act within broader 'mission' parameters, and create organisational units that have the wherewithal to respond quickly to market and customer changes and needs? This drives a very different management philosophy about hierarchy and power - think of turning the org chart on its head and recognizing that management's role is to best enable the front line employees to deliver great service. Vineet Nayar, the CEO of HCL Technologies, in his book 'Employees First, Customers Second' made this point very well.

For the CIPD, 2013 is a milestone year as it is the centenary of our original founding as the Workers Welfare Association. With this great history as a profession, I think we are now at a real inflection point. The world is now very different and we cant just assume things will revert in some way back to how they were during the last 20 years of relatively benign and steady growth. The agenda for HR is very strategic and I am determined that the CIPD will step up and help shape the future and point the way.

As a key part of our strategy we are planning to strengthen further our research and thought leadership, with stronger collaborations with key influencers and thinkers such as Gary Hamel, to help provide more insight in to action. So watch this space!

Loud and clear : Employers to take the lead

2012-12-06T12:30:00Z

The last few weeks have seen some welcome and much needed progress in the skills world. The Richard Review on apprenticeships was a timely follow up to news from the Skills Minister, Matthew Hancock, that a further £150m pot of funding has been made available to enable employers to create the training schemes they need to grow their companies and develop the skills of their workforces. The message from both of these announcements was loud and clear:

'Employers must take more ownership of the skills debate if there is any hope of aligning workplace training and skills development with long term business strategies and overall economic success'

It's crucial to give employers more opportunities to lead when it comes to skills investment and setting the standards for quality outcomes, and to ensure the debate about skills and training does not exist in its own "bubble", but forms an integral part of discussions about long term business planning and growth strategies. Of course, there needs to be accountability as well - if funding is going to be channelled through employers, they should be required to improve their human capital reporting to show how they've invested in learning and development and, crucially what the outcomes have been... Read the rest of this article here on the UKCES website.

Link: http://blogs.bis.gov.uk/ukces/2012/12/05/loud-clear-employers-to-take-the-lead/

This year's conference - my view

2012-11-12T10:00:00Z

Just back from this year's Annual Conference and Exhibition in Manchester. What a great event and experience! I enjoyed every moment and met so many people from so many places. Lots of great content and thanks to the many speakers who gave up their time. Numbers were up on last year and it felt like there was a real energy and buzz around the whole event.

>This is the time for HR. It's never been more important or had a greater opportunity to make a difference

It started with a hugely well received keynote by Gary Hamel - voted worlds best business thinker by the Wall Street Journal - challenging all our conceptions about management and organization. Quotable quotes such as 'management is a busted flush', bureaucracy must die', and 'innovation is the only way to stop becoming irrelevant'. His view, which of course I share, is that this is the time for HR - it's never been more important or had a greater opportunity to make a difference.

A real highlight was chairing the final panel on 'Learning from the Olympics' with David 'the Weirwolf' Weir who had with him his 4 gold medals - such a legend but such a nice modest guy, Jean Tomlin the Head of HR at LOCOG who pulled off the extraordinary feat of assembling almost 200,000 people to deliver the Games, and Andy Hunt the head of Team GB and CEO of the British Olympic Association who oversaw such an incredible performance from our Olympic team.

They all talked of the critical importance of common purpose and values as a uniting force across all of the GB teams and the thousands of volunteer Games Makers, employees and contractors. This was the starting point and guiding light, and something we can all learn from at a time when so often we see organisations that seem to have lost sight of their purpose and values entirely.

Indeed our newly released Employee Outlook survey highlighted this with fully 40% of respondents indicating they didn't believe their espoused corporate values were worth the paper they were written on.

What a sad indictment at a time when trust in leaders of all kinds is so low following relentless scandals in banking, media, politics, and sport as well. If we as a profession want to stand up and make a difference, as we should, then now is the time. Are your corporate values clear and understood by all? Are they embedded in how people behave and think and the language they use, and reinforced by your performance and reward systems? Does your enterprise have a clear and inspiring purpose, or is it mundane and unknown?

With all this talk of failures of corporate culture, we must have the courage to challenge where we see behaviours that aren't aligned to values, and to properly understand and assess our corporate cultures. It doesn't have to be that complex - start by just asking your employees what they see going on.

Thoughts on the CIPD - a framework for change

2012-10-29T10:00:00Z

Time has flown by and I am now through my first 100 days as CEO and have been working on the strategic framework and priorities for us in the coming months and years.

The CIPD has a lot to be proud of and there has been a lot of progress in recent years in improving standards, developing thought leadership and research, and connecting with senior HR leaders, policy makers, and other key stakeholders.

I have said before that I don't think there has ever been a more interesting time to be in HR and I think in many ways we are at an inflection point for our profession. The changing nature of work, the workforce and even the workplace, with high levels of market and economic uncertainty and accelerating pace of change, are all requiring us to think differently and develop new practices and approaches.

We all have a compelling agenda ahead of us, and business leaders, policy makers and even community leaders are looking to us to help, to provide the insights and understanding on how to build better work and working lives, creating more sustainable organisations and making a positive impact economically as well as socially.

I want the CIPD to be able to step up as well, to help lead the profession and to be a positive voice for change. We need to engage with these strategic issues, to help understand the changing context in which we are operating and to have a coherent vision and support for HR in to the future. We need to do more to support and be relevant to all communities and groups within HR, from the most senior leaders to those starting their career or thinking about a career in HR. We need to support and engage better with L&D professionals, and to work effectively with other bodies and institutions including the finance and accounting community, and with consultants who work in the HR area and are themselves a significant driver of change. We also need to be relevant to smaller enterprises and be able to help them manage and develop people better, and to ensure we have relevance internationally.

At the heart of what we do will be to continue to provide clear standards and assessment of skills and competencies, and entry points in to the profession and professional membership, but we also need to show clearer progression routes including continuing professional development opportunities, and a more differentiated membership offer for different membership groups. As part of this, I believe we should have better outreach to members, strengthen our branch networks and support more activities at a regional level.

This all adds up to a full agenda and set of changes that I hope will position the CIPD for the future and most importantly to ensure we are keeping ahead of the issues and trends and providing value and insight to the HR profession and people managers everywhere.

Is trading employee rights for share ownership really a way forwards?

2012-10-09T09:01:00Z

I have been attending the Conservative Party conference this week - a first for me to attend any of these sorts of events, but important in helping to engage and get some of our messages out. We have had lots of positive discussion for example about our Learning to Work campaign, and many fringe meetings on the topic of skills and youth employment.

Party conferences are a bit different from business conferences. Firstly, there is a huge range of people representing various bodies, think tanks or interest groups, all of whom are trying to get their voice heard alongside politicians which is quite a challenge. Employers are here, but in relatively small numbers. It does make for lively discussions though. Also lots of bright young things - policy advisors, researchers, chaperones and others which add to the colour!

The main topic of wider debate today for us has been reactions to George Osborne's announcement about allowing employers to offer employees share options in return for giving up most of their employee rights.

This is an outcome from the Beecroft report that asserted too much employment regulation was holding back small business from hiring and growing. Our view has consistently been that there is scant evidence that regulation of this kind is holding back small businesses, and indeed the OECD points to the UK as being one of the least regulated labour markets in the world. So is this proposal addressing a real problem and what anyway would be the likely uptake from either employers or employees?

Employees would potentially be risking a lot by waiving their rights for uncertain outcomes in notional share performance of their employer. How does the market for shares work in these circumstances and what controls might be needed? As new employees come on board, does that mean that existing employees are continuously diluted? How would employees be managed fairly where some have opted for this and others haven't?

There are many ways in which employees can more directly participate in the performance of the company, in particular profit share and performance related bonus schemes. A critical part of strong and sustained business performance is working with your employees, engaging them effectively, building their skills in line with your needs and strategy. Will the right of an employer to almost do what they want with their employees, firing at will and so on, really make for better business? It certainly is big ask for employees to want to take the risk and I think can detract from a focus on helping smaller enterprises to manage their people more effectively and to get the most out of them.

Scepticism about the level of uptake is the most common reaction from commentators so far. But obviously some do view this as positive and will cite examples of fast growth tech startups and the like as benefiting. Lets see what happens.

UK Productivity Stats – Are we really falling behind?

2012-09-26T09:37:00Z

Although not widely reported, there were some concerning figures published by the ONS last week on UK national productivity and comparison with the G7 nations. To quote "Output per hour in the UK was 15 percentage points below the average for the rest of the G7 industrialised nations in 2011, the widest productivity gap since 1995".

Not only that, on an output per worker basis, UK productivity was 20 percentage points lower than the rest of the G7 in 2011. Whilst this productivity measure grew for the other G7 countries last year, it remained flat for the UK.

What is happening to our workforce that apparently makes it relatively so behind the productivity of the other major world economies?

One explanation of course is that we genuinely work less hard or produce less efficiently than the rest, but whilst that might make a good tabloid headline, I don't think it tells the story. The CIPD has been noting for a while that there is some evidence of labour hoarding. That is companies holding on to people with vital skills and experience even if there isn't all the work available for them. Having gone through the fat, we're down to the muscle.

Another view is that we have quite a lot of people working part-time, either voluntarily or more importantly for the productivity numbers, involuntarily. There is evidence of self-employed people only having enough work to work part-time, but also stories of companies keeping people on full pay but not requiring them to come in to work every day if there isn't enough demand. The Vauxhall plant at Ellesmere Port was applauded by many for doing this and implementing a kind of payback system whereby in effect a negative overtime balance is built up and when the demand returns, workers would be expected to work off this paid hours debt.

It is notable how the US appears as the standout nation in the G7 for its productivity numbers. Easy access to finance to fund small businesses and help them grow is a factor that many economists will point to, but what the statistics and some underlying causes also clearly point to is the need to increase demand. That needs businesses to innovate and grow, and a Government with a clear industrial strategy for growth and support to the business community.

So, a subject worthy of further debate and exploration. If it's really true that we are 15 or 20% less productive than the other large global economies, then we should be worried.

Summer’s lease hath all too short a date

2012-09-11T09:21:00Z

Sadly, Shakespeare in his famous sonnet was never more on the money than when talking about this summer. Last weekend's final blast of sunny weather and the closing of the Paralympics felt like the end to an incredible summer of sport and celebration. Media commentators are talking of the hangover, whilst politicians are thinking about how to carry on the collective sense of bonhomie.

I think we have all learned a lot about ourselves and as a nation, and there are many lessons and parallels to be drawn with the world of work

People have been engaged and often to their own surprise. Uniting behind a common purpose is perhaps lesson number 1 in the engagement manual. In the context of business, understanding and connecting to the common purpose of the enterprise is vital, and sometimes we need to reflect whether our purpose is properly understood, engaging, and reflective of what we really want to be.

We have also learned a lot about respect for the individual. The Paralympics in particular showed us so clearly that everyone is different, with different abilities and challenges, not all of which are visible. Treating and managing employees as individuals is critical to getting the most out of people, and that also means being able to tailor our talent management propositions.

High performance teams were in copious evidence, and how to get different people to work harmoniously together with common goals and recognition of each others areas of knowledge and expertise.

I think also the idea of practice and mastery, underpinned by measurement of progress and recognition of achievement were good reminders for us of motivating and improving outcomes. PBs can be just as fulfilling as winning.

I am delighted we have secured several people involved with running the Olympics, and our teams, for the CIPD annual conference in November, so we can hear the stories first hand.

To find out more about the CIPD Annual Conference 2012 programme, click here.

4G Superfast Broadband is coming your way

2012-08-24T13:43:00Z

According to Ofcom, 4G mobile broadband will be rolled out to at least 98% of the UK population by 2017. TMobile and Orange, now united as Everything Everywhere (keep up!), were just given approval to run 4G services from next month, which has upset the other Service Providers who will have to wait until the industry wide auction happens next year. 4G broadband networks will be 10x faster than existing 3G with speeds up to 20Mbps.

What does all this mean! When the bids were held for 3G around 2000, I struggled to understand what it was for – surely all we wanted from a mobile phone was for it to be a phone. Now of course, it’s a ubiquitous computing device and tool for life.

People as well as organisations are struggling to keep up, and even Facebook’s more recent troubles are about how to grow their revenues in this smartphone-centric environment. The once dominant Japanese tech companies had bet on the TV as the dominant device of our age, but that is now all so last year.

We in HR are experimenting in how to use these different channels to communicate with our present and potential employees. This sort of technology infrastructure also enables more flexible working with more opportunity for mobile and remote working. This in turn allows us to access and give opportunity to a larger and more diverse workforce, such as homeworkers, and to retain people we might otherwise lose.

However, we will have to be able to adapt working practices, and understand our obligations and liabilities for a more remote workforce. For example, how we communicate with and align our people, fairly assess performance, and even compensation and reward practices.

It should all start with taking a broader look at workforce planning and thinking about how the business can benefit in exploiting these opportunities in a more strategic way.

The good news is help is at hand. Just ask your Gen-Y employees for their ideas and they’ll be happy to oblige – time for some reverse mentoring.

Inspire a generation in to work

2012-08-06T08:59:00Z

I'm sure like most of you, I have been totally caught up in Olympo-mania as Boris Johnson has christened it! Not only is it the excitement of the competition, but also we have seen such incredible role models for young people.

I particularly love the slogan and idea of inspiring a generation, and have been reflecting on the parallels to business and the challenges of youth employment.

According to the UK Commission for Employment and Skills (UKCES), only about 1 in 10 business directly recruit 16-18 year olds from school, and less than a quarter of employers recruit anyone under 24 directly from education. Rising youth unemployment or under employment has huge long term economic and social consequences.

We want young people when we employ them to have work experience, but we have to start by giving them the chance. We need to be able to inspire young people in to the world of work and give them opportunity.

This includes providing good work experience, supporting apprenticeships and learning at work programs, to ensuring our recruitment practices are diverse enough to attract different cohorts of young people, and even how we design jobs.

This is not just about corporate social responsibility; It's about creating positive business value and helping to build long term sustainable businesses.

At the CIPD, we have some great research and knowledge of best practices on engaging and developing young people which I am keen to promote. We are campaigning together with a wide group of employers and other institutions via our Learning to Work initiative, developing a program to encourage mentoring of young people in our local communities, as well as providing access to a wide body of knowledge.

Let's all see what we can do to inspire young people in to inspiring work opportunities.

Remembering Jackie – and building on her legacy

2012-07-27T09:38:00Z

It’s been a challenging week as you might imagine following the very sad passing of Jackie. We have all been affected by it but it is wonderful to see all the messages and huge support that Jackie had, the impact she made, and the many friendships she had developed across the profession.

Our thoughts have been turning towards a fitting longer term memorial to her, for example in the form of an award or possibly an annual lecture and we will be discussing this with Jackie’s family before making an announcement in the coming weeks.

For my own part I have been getting to know the organisation better and I am struck by the breadth of what we do from research, public policy, marketing, events, training, qualifications, membership, advice and consulting, branch support, international growth and so on. I think all of this does reflect our purpose in helping to build HR capabilities, understanding, and impact, but it does also present some interesting challenges in keeping everything connected!

I have also been getting out and about and meeting a number of interesting people, and talking on a few platforms on current themes, such as engagement, leadership and management challenges, youth employment and understanding corporate culture – on all of which it’s been good to be able to draw on the wealth of CIPD research and information available to me here.

These are all fascinating topics and impacting all of us, and I think it is important that we as the CIPD can provide distinctive insight through to practical guidance and support aligned to the big themes. We need to ensure this is relevant to you as HR professionals at all levels, but also to line managers who are so critical in the people management processes. We also want to influence business leaders and policy makers both directly, but also by working with others where we can align our thinking and increase our impact.

Peter Cheese - An Introduction

2012-07-17T10:01:00Z

Hello, and welcome to my blog.

Having done my first two weeks as CEO here at the CIPD, I think I'm ready to enter the blogosphere!

I plan to use the blogs to talk about some of the key issues and challenges we're all dealing with as a profession, and things that catch my eye, and hopefully to engage in a bit of dialogue with you all. We're in times of a lot of uncertainty and change, and that drives the opportunity, and indeed the need, to think differently. As I said in my People Management interview [Read here], I don't think there's ever been a more interesting time to be in HR.

There is much for us to engage with as a profession that impacts our own organisations as well as the broader economic and social context. Issues such as skills shortfalls and changes in employment, increasing diversity in the workforce and in ways of working, sustainability, and trust and corporate cultures, are important to us all.

We need to share our perspectives and experiences to help each other, but also to confidently engage with the leaders who have responsibility for the enterprises we work in, and beyond to the policy makers and opinion formers who are trying to shape the future, to make a positive impact and have our voice heard. But we must think strategically, and be able to offer solid analytical and systematic insight to ideas and solutions which will resonate with leaders at all levels.

I'll be coming back to those themes and more in the days and weeks to come. But I think this'll work better as a dialogue than a monologue.

So tell me, what's on your agenda?