CIPD

By Gill Dix, Head of Workplace Policy, Acas

As the public debate, the media, and society have opened up to the mental health agenda, workplaces and employers, quite rightly, are gradually becoming more attuned. The Government-commissioned Stevenson and Farmer Review has helped, pointing out the ‘significant mental health challenge at work’ that the UK faces, and the importance of the employer’s role when it comes to creating…

By Gerwyn Davies, Senior Labour Market Adviser.

Whilst the UK has been given a six-month extension to finalise its arrangements for exiting the European Union, the Brexit-related uncertainty that many businesses face remains. However, the extension does offer some reassurance that the prospect of a ‘No-Deal’ outcome has now been reduced, given the retrenchment from the no-deal option on both sides of La Manche. While both…

The gender pay gap reporting deadline was midnight 4 April 2019. I stayed up late and crunched the numbers and this is what I found.

• 10,463 organisations submitted by the deadline which is approximately 99% of organisations[1]. This is an improvement on last year when only 93% of organisation’s made the deadline.
• The absence of gender pay gaps over 100% (which is statistically impossible and was seen in last year…

By Sheila Wild, author of the CIPD gender pay gap reporting guide

The latest dates for filing the past year’s gender pay gap reports have come round again – 30 March for the public sector, and 4 April for private and voluntary sector organisations. I’ll be updating the CIPD guide on gender pay gap reporting ahead of next year’s reporting deadline but, for now, I’m going to take a look at emerging trends…

By Gerwyn Davies, Senior Labour Market Adviser

Amid the political uncertainty surrounding the Brexit process, it remains extremely likely that the government will push ahead with its plans for a new settlement scheme for EU citizens, as well as a new immigration policy. In light of these approaching changes, the HR profession faces two key challenges in the coming years. Firstly, people professionals need to reassure…

By Deborah Garlick, Director of Henpicked: Menopause in the Workplace

The subject of menopause in the workplace is gathering traction and we’re delighted to see the Chartered Institute of Personal Development (CIPD) launch their comprehensive guide.

But why do organisations need to get on board and, crucially, what does this mean for HR professionals?

Menopause is a natural transition in a woman’s life, as her balance…

By Claire McCartney, Diversity and Inclusion Adviser, CIPD

International Women's Day is an annual opportunity to celebrate the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. The theme this year #BalanceforBetter:  the future is exciting and everyone has a part to play in building a gender-balanced world.

At the CIPD we couldn’t agree more. We promote gender balance and equality all through the year by…

By Gill White, Business and Market Development Director, CIPD

I’ve been asked to write a blog for International Women’s Day in my capacity as a woman and as a senior woman at the CIPD. I reflected on why I would not have done it, had I not been asked to. It’s quite simple – I’m not an advocate for separating genders whatever the circumstances – I don’t advocate men only golf clubs as equally as I don’t advocate women only…

CIPD colleagues talk about their daughters’ views on work on International Women’s Day.

‘Over the half term holiday, I took my 10 -year old daughter to Bletchley Park. I was struck again by the critical role that women played during the war. My daughter was less impressed. Don’t get me wrong, she loved the visit and was fascinated by the Bletchley story, but was indignant to hear that (with a few notable exceptions…

By Lizzie Crowley, Skills Policy Adviser at the CIPD

National Careers Week (4–9 March) aims to underscore the importance of quality careers education in schools and colleges across the UK. Careers guidance is crucial for young people as transitioning from education into the labour market can be a daunting prospect. Ensuring they are equipped with the right skills, knowledge and experience to succeed in today’s fast changing…

By Sarah Corney, Head of Customer Experience, CIPD

The CIPD has an interesting and inspiring history. Founded in 1913 as the Welfare Workers Association, it was originally set up to improve the working conditions of female workers in the UK’s factories. Five years before women in the UK won the Vote, many of the founding members of this Institute were women. 

As we know, the journey to female equality in the workplace…

By Jon Boys, Labour Market Economist, CIPD

The quarterly CIPD Labour Market Outlook (LMO) provides a set of forward-looking labour market indicators, highlighting employers’ recruitment, redundancy and pay intentions for the first quarter of 2019. In this blog I pick out some highlights.

Recruitment and retention

Official government statistics show that employment is at its highest rate (75.8%) since records began…

Written by Rachel Suff, Senior Policy Adviser

In a groundbreaking project, the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Local Enterprise Partnership (CIoSLEP) has secured £465,000 of Government funding to help local businesses recruit and retain people with disabilities and long-term health conditions. The Cornwall Work and Health Beacon Project aims to tackle skills shortages and widen the pool of talent available to employers…

By Rachel Suff, Senior Policy Adviser

The CIPD welcomes the Government’s consultation to strengthen the protection for pregnant women and new parents from redundancy. It’s shocking that research commissioned by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) found one in nine women had been fired or made redundant when returning to work after having a child, or were treated so badly they felt…

Minister for Disabled People Sarah Newton discusses the launch of the new Disability Confident guide in collaboration with the CIPD, providing line managers with practical advice on employing disabled people….

November has been an important month for the Disability Confident scheme and disability employment. Not only have we marked the scheme’s anniversary, but I am also proud to say we have now reached 10,000…

The recent work-related stress statistics published by HSE seem to have raised some eyebrows given the higher numbers of days lost to work related stress (57% of all days lost to ill health); but for those of us who have been involved in trying to tackle the problem, it wasn’t such a surprise.

We can try to spin the figures - people are more aware of work related stress and its impact on health. We can talk about…

By Gerwyn Davies, Senior Labour Market Analyst, CIPD

The Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) has produced a largely well-reasoned, evidence-based set of recommendations to government on how a post-Brexit immigration system could work. Many of those are in line with the CIPD’s own policy recommendations, but foremost is the proposal that there should be a less restrictive regime for higher-skilled workers. However…

There has never been a better time for employers to lead from the front on mental health issues, says Business in the Community’s Louise Aston, on the publication of the third annual mental health at work survey in partnership with the CIPD.

It’s an exciting time for mental health. We’ve reached an unprecedented tipping point of public awareness. Although employers have made slow incremental progress, we now need…

By Claire McCartney, Diversity and Inclusion Advisor at the CIPD

It’s National Work-Life Week and the CIPD wants organisations to reinvigorate their approaches to work-life balance and flexible working

The concept of work-life balance is nothing new. I remember researching and speaking about it when I first started my career at Roffey Park, several years ago now (!)  But, unfortunately, it is still somewhat elusive…

There is no doubt that Ireland urgently needs to put in place a system to start to tackle the pensions time bomb that we face. Financing pension spending will fall to a diminishing share of the population as the ratio of people of working age to every person of pensionable age will reduce from its current rate of 4.5 to 1, to just 2.3 to 1 over the next 40 years.

It is good to see that there is Government commitment to…

By Claire McCartney, Diversity and Inclusion Advisor at the CIPD.

A Government-backed national survey, launched in July and released yesterday, shows a worrying level of negativity towards LGBT+ individuals at work. It represents the largest survey of LGBT+ people in the world to date, with more than 108,000 responses from UK participants and sets in place an action plan to tackle discrimination across society.

The LGBT…

Gerwyn Davies, Senior Labour Market Analyst

It is refreshing to see a measure clarity and cause for optimism for employers and EU citizens from the latest Home Office policy announcements — particularly after the tragic Windrush debacle over the preceding months.

Since taking office, new Home Secretary Sajid Javid MP has announced two significant changes that have gone largely in employers’ favour.

‘Settled…

By Ian Brinkley, Chief Economist, CIPD

The latest estimates around zero-hours contracts confirm how difficult it has been to measure the number of people on these or similar contracts, let alone how much that volume has grown in recent years. The reality is that we cannot pin down these numbers with any confident degree of certainty.

In attempting to piece the picture together, we have two measures. The first is from…

By Helen Ablett, Public Relations Manager at the CIPD

In the year that has marked 100 years of suffrage, women’s rights have rarely been out of the headlines. This feels like a pivotal moment for change and gender pay gap reporting has proven to be an unlikely hero in catapulting action on equality to the top of business agendas.

For many organisations it has revealed an uncomfortable truth about their workforce…

With one year to go until the UK officially leaves the European Union, the past week has arguably seen the most progress so far at the Brexit negotiation table. Additionally, the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) has freshly published its interim findings on the design of a post-Brexit immigration policy, which taken together, mean broadly positive news for HR and employers, though there remains some continuing concerns…