CIPD

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…

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…

By Mary Connaughton, Director, CIPD Ireland

We know most organisations operate an equality and diversity policy. This helps drive legal compliance as well as promoting a safe and inclusive working environment, enhancing organisational performance. And often we hear questions asked about how we measure diversity, assess progress and what sort of targets we should set.

I think the UK debate on the gender pay gap highlights…

By Gerwyn Davies, Senior Labour Market Analyst

The CIPD joined the Home Office’s primary employer forum on post-Brexit immigration policy and obtained an early preview of a vastly streamlined process for status applications from EU nationals.

For the external observer, it can be very difficult to get an informed view of how well the Brexit process is progressing given the polarised and emotive debate that still…

By Gerwyn Davies, Senior Labour Market Analyst

Former UK Prime Minister Harold Wilson once famously said that a week is a long time in politics. After a dramatic week of various twists and turns, Prime Minister Theresa May and Jean Claude Juncker, President of the European Commission, shook hands on a deal in the early hours of 8 December to allow progress to the next stage of Brexit talks. For HR managers, the agreement…

For the past few months, the CIPD has been actively supporting the Royal Foundation’s Heads Together campaign which brings together The Royal Foundation of The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry, in partnership with eight inspiring charities that are tackling stigma, raising awareness, and providing vital help for people with mental health challenges.

The Royal Foundation is funding Mind to deliver a new…

By Sarah Jurado, Head of Brand & Communications, CIPD

It’s an appalling fact that sexual harassment is a pervasive reality in our work places, an area that has garnered an avalanche of media headlines post-Weinstein. Those headlines have been met with compassion, bravery and encouragement to speak out from #MeToo to #WithYou. But they have also led to division and derision, from ‘knee-gate’ and ‘over-zealous huggers…

By Ben Willmott, Head of Policy PR and Public Affairs, CIPD

You can be forgiven if you failed to notice the launch of the latest version of the UK’s industrial strategy last week given it was somewhat overshadowed by coverage of Prince Harry’s forthcoming marriage to Meghan Markle. It is hard to get people excited about industrial strategy at the best of times let alone amid the furore of the next Royal Wedding.…

Today marks International Stress Awareness Day and newly-published HSE statistics show an estimated 0.5 million people were affected by stress in 2016/17.

These statistics are important as they highlight why tackling work-related stress remains a priority health issue for HSE and why it forms a cornerstone of our recently launched Go Home Healthy campaign.

But, while it’s fair to say that many of us will have experienced…

By Katerina Rudiger, Chief Community Officer, Community Investment, CIPD

'So much of the narrative seems to be ‘oh I didn’t know that wasn’t normal’. HR should take a lead on setting clear expectations about what behaviour is and isn’t ok in the workplace, encouraging organisations to have widely known processes about who to speak to about any incidents and a track record for following through, even if the details can…

By Katerina Rudiger, Chief Community Officer, Community Investment, CIPD

“(I feel) true disgust at the director who assaulted me when I was 16 years old and anger at the agents and producer who made me feel silence was a condition of my employment” - Reese Witherspoon is the latest actress speaking out about her experiences of sexual assault at a Hollywood event last week. Over the last couple of weeks we’ve seen what…

By Gerwyn Davies, Labour Market Adviser, CIPD

Having spent three periods studying and working in mainland Europe and having voted remain, it should come as no surprise to hear I was disappointed with the EU referendum result. However, despite my own private views, I have found myself at the heart of recent debates where I have been the one pouring cold water on the popular idea that the Brexit vote has exacerbated existing…

By Ian Brinkley, Chief Economist, CIPD The recent decision to revoke the licence of Uber in London by TfL has attracted both supporters and detractors, some influenced by wider questions and concerns about employment in the gig economy. The TfL deci...