The world of work is changing at a rapid pace and with so many economic and political factors challenging schools, businesses and organisations, staying up to date with the key changes affecting your people, is critical to success. Here’s our lowdown on what you need to know.
1. Pay reporting and transparency
2018 saw a 233% increase on claims brought against the likes of Local Authorities, Asda, Tesco, BBC and Next. None seem to have got to grips with equal pay. There is a growing expectation to provide gender pay gap/CEO pay information and ethnicity pay gap reports. As we move into the second year of reporting for businesses with 250 or more employees, comparisons will also be made on how well any issues identified a year ago have been tackled with sanctions likely for those who have made little progress.Pay decisions should be compliant, ethical, fair, competitive and relevant to the value of the job and market. Incorrect handling can lead to grievances, legal challenges and can de-motivated staff. Quoted companies with more than 250 employees must also reveal the ratio between their CEO pay and the pay of their “average” employees. It is entirely possible that this requirement will be extended to unquoted companies in the next few years.
Are you prepared? Things to consider…
• Carry out an equal pay audit as part of your company’s general risk management.
• Do you have an up to date pay policy and is it being implemented?
• Is there a clear system for evaluating job roles, pay benchmarking and performance management systems?
• Analyse and monitor your pay differentials and create and action plan with the support of a HR consultant if something needs to change.
2. Attracting and retaining talent
Attracting and retaining the best talent is consistently on the agenda and can be a distracting and resource-draining challenge, taking you away from other important day-to-day matters.Things to consider…
• Do have a cost-effective recruitment strategy in place? And do you know where to go to find the best candidates?
• Think about your company or organisations career pathways. Can you identify internal successors for leadership roles, and can you identify potential external candidates to backfill?
• Does your current benefits package align with the expectation of key staff and is it helping retain them? With the support of a HR consultant, look at the most cost-effective ways to retain staff over and above what your competitors are offering.
3. Shifting the focus from diversity to inclusion
Diversity changes the way an organisation, school or trust looks, thinks, behaves and feels, making it more relevant to its customers or clients. Having a clear focus on diversity and inclusion will make sure you attract and retain a mix of people and skills and embed a positive culture, raising productivity, morale and your reputation. As we shift towards inclusion, the ‘how’ of diversity, there will be more emphasis on the how workplaces will welcome and embrace difference and offer the same opportunities to everyone.Ethnicity pay reporting was also the subject of a recent government consultation, to identify and tackle barriers to create a truly diverse workforce.
Things to consider…
• Do you openly talk about diversity and inclusion in your public facing communications and internally with staff and stakeholders?
• What do you do on a daily, weekly, monthly basis to welcome, celebrate and enable those with differences or from diverse backgrounds have a voice and the same opportunities as everyone else in your workplace community?
• Do you need an Inclusion Officer? Or a team of people to champion diversity and inclusion across your workplace?
4. Employee wellbeing and workplace culture
A big topic and a big focus for 2020! Millennials and Generation Z grew up or were born during a time of fast-paced digital growth. Throughout their working lives they’ve always been ‘on’, contactable and many can do their jobs from anywhere. They also have strong social views, aligning themselves with companies and organisations with values that match their own. They want more flexible working to increase their freedoms and are shifting to prioritising work with social impact. Surveys indicate an overwhelming increase in the number of millennials who priorities experiences and social value over making money.Things to consider…
• Are your staff bought into your values and are they meaningful to the work that you and your workforce actually does?
• Have you carved our time and devised initiatives which support and prioritise your workforce’s wellbeing? Whether that be physical health, mental health or enabling them to create more social value outside of their jobs?
5. The Gig Economy
The gig economy is here to stay, benefitting both employees and employers who don’t want the commitment of permanent employment. This form of working provides people with flexibility and control as they juggle various commitments in their lives and allows businesses to more easily manage the changing demands of their clients. Whether someone is an independent contractor, or an employee is important and can be more complex than you realise. There are rights applicable to workers, but not to contractors such as minimum wage, holiday pay and working time. But recent cases have largely favoured a wide interpretation of “worker” with Deliveroo, Uber and Pimlico Plumbers all facing challenges to the classification of their people as “independent contractors”. The prediction is that this trend will continue, and companies and their HR teams will need to tighten up their criteria for categorising someone as an independent contractor.Things to consider…
• Are you aware of the status and situation of each of your contractors?
• Work with a HR consultant to understand whether there are any gaps or issues with your contractor employment and create an action plan to de-risk yourself.
6. Good Work Plan
It’s estimated that there are five million self-employed people in the UK and this is likely to increase. The government has moved to regulate this area more tightly and has published its plan for new legislation called the Good Work Plan. The plan is designed to embrace the benefits of new technology as well as changing societal trends and generally enhances rights of agency workers, those on zero hours contracts and others with atypical working patterns. Legislation is planned for April 2020 impacting the calculation of holiday pay and extension of the right to written particulars to all workers (not just employees).Make sure you’re in the know…
• Read a copy of the plan here
• Read up on details for how to prepare here
• Stay tuned to BIRCH-HR updates as we’ll be talking about this at upcoming events.
7. Artificial Intelligence (AI)
This needs to be on your long-term strategic agenda. It might sound a long way off, but AI has already made its way into our workplaces with more automation, chatbots and virtual assistants, apps that can transcribe phone calls or meeting notes or respond to social media.Things to consider…
• Think about what an AI-ready workforce will provide your company, organisation or school with?
• Will it bring a competitive advantage and may even be critical into the future?
• Can a teacher be replaced by a virtual teacher?
8. Brexit the “B” word
Whatever happens with B, we will need to be well prepared with up-to-date policies, robust engagement practices and transparent incentives.Stay in the know and join us at the Birmingham Business Managers conference in March, where we will be talking about post Brexit employment and what it means for you.