The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) today calls upon the G20 leaders not only to address the urgent short-run need to boost global job creation but also to open the door to a ‘new world order of work’ when they hold their Summit in London later this week to discuss how to get the global economy growing again.
The CIPD’s Message From Management, released ahead of the Summit, highlights four policy pillars – More in Work, Smart Work, Inclusive Work and Green Work – that form a productive work agenda both meeting the need to increase work opportunities and improving workplace productivity.
• More In Work
The G20 governments should prioritise effective employment creation by carrying out ‘employment potential audits’, through maintaining flexible labour markets, and encouraging the free movement of labour across international borders:
• Each G20 government should conduct an ‘employment potential audit’ (EPA) so that public spending programmes are more carefully targeted to maximise sustainable employment opportunities. As well as providing a cost-benefit analysis of the impact of public spending on jobs, EPAs would help support a coordinated approach to tackling global unemployment, which is set to rise above 200 million by the end of this year.
• Each of the advanced G20 governments should combine flexible labour market policies and welfare to work measures within a ‘flexicurity’ policy framework.
• The G20 should make a collective commitment to encourage the free flow of migrant workers between their countries, subject to strictly limited measures to avoid national labour market distortions created by current global imbalances in employment and income levels.
Dr John Philpott, Public Policy Director, CIPD, says: “The immediate policy requirement is to restore confidence to the global financial system in order to increase the flow of credit to businesses and households. Alongside this, each G20 government should push monetary and fiscal policy levers to the fullest throttle consistent with medium term resource capacity and fiscal constraints, though some will need to act more cautiously than others to reduce the risk of inflation or large fiscal deficits limiting their medium term growth. In addition, governments should act to build open and flexible labour markets to maximise the use of available human resources and talent.”
• Smart Work
G20 governments should do everything they can to support organisations in maintaining investment in work-related training during the recession:
• Public resources should be allocated to vocational education and training, with investment in people management skills promoted as a driver of growth in workplace productivity.
• Existing public investment in training for youths and less skilled adults should be redirected to employers to fund high-quality apprenticeships.
Philpott says: “Skilled managers and leaders are more likely to adopt smart work practices that enable people to achieve more. Our evidence shows that employers recognise this and are doing what they can to ensure skills don’t stagnate despite the tough conditions. The importance of training line managers will also be crucial to building the resilience needed to emerge in good shape for recovery. With training budgets under pressure, line managers will have a big role to play in ensuring on-the-job learning is delivered and in prioritising the training needs of their teams.”
• Inclusive Work
The immediate priority of the G20 during the recession should be to prevent hardship to people at the opposite extremes of the working age spectrum, but most especially the young:
• G20 leaders should compare and co-ordinate national efforts to ensure the recession doesn’t do lasting harm to a global generation of young people, and in turn to the global skills base.
Philpott says: “Evidence suggests young people are the demographic group being hit hardest by this recession across the globe. While action to avoid sowing the seeds of a generation of wasted talent must necessarily come at a national level, global leaders can usefully compare policy solutions and co-ordinate actions. For the sake of the long-term benefit of the global skills base, this should be as much of a priority as freeing the credit markets. Let’s avoid the global credit crunch spawning a global skills crunch.”
• Green Work
The G20 governments should be encouraging a green work movement, where necessary through the use of financial incentives or business reporting requirements:
• Unprecedented fiscal stimulus packages around the world are necessary to protect jobs and avoid depression. But this also provides a unique opportunity to finance a ‘green revolution’ – a new spirit of innovation and a globally co-ordinated investment in green technologies and services.
• Hand in hand with this, global leaders should encourage a ‘green work movement’, driven through financial incentives, business reporting requirements and encouragement of best practice. This green work movement would look at environmentally friendly ways of working, such as tele-commuting, teleconferencing and green transport.
Philpott says: “Trillions of dollars are clearly going to be borrowed and spent by governments around the world in the coming years. The G20 leaders have a unique opportunity to direct this expenditure into environmentally sustainable projects. Governments should in particular be investing in the communications infrastructure and innovation to reduce the need for so much environmentally damaging international business travel.”