The CIPD reaffirmed its ‘good work’ agenda at this year’s Annual Conference and Exhibition (ACE), with CEO Peter Cheese calling on HR professionals to ‘make work work’.
“When we talk about having a high-wage, high-skills economy, we’re not either of those things. We’re a very long way from it,” he said. “We do work hard, but if we’re working hard and not producing what we should then there’s something wrong.”
“HR as a profession can change the world of work,” he added.
Cheese’s comments come just as research from the London School of Economics reveals that one in four UK jobs are ‘bad jobs’, meaning they deprive workers of decent conditions such as predictable hours or stable employment.
In a roundtable discussion on how organisations can ensure they are both productive and equitable, Sarah Blake, HR director of Talk Talk argued that trust is the key building block for good work.
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“Organisations must create a feeling of trust. In Covid times we sent people home and trusted them to keep our businesses running. Now we’re asking them to return to the office four or five days a week,” she said.
“If I feel I’m not trusted I won’t go the extra mile. And telling people you need them back in the office is saying you don’t trust them.”
Blake added that she felt collaboration needed to happen face-to-face, rather than 100% home working, but strong leaders would be able to have conversations with workers about output, rather than expecting them to be in a certain place.
Rick Lee, chief people officer of construction firm Wilmott Dixon, said transparency was crucial to build that sense of trust. The company implemented a pay cut during the pandemic, and by explaining fully the reasons, keeping the period short and the drop in salary modest, managed to bring 99% of employees on board.
“If you employ decent people, if you change something when times get tough, you’ll get a decent response,” he explained. “The human dimension is so important in management, given the proportion of people who leave because they feel they don’t belong.”
Creating that sense of belonging comes through supporting employees to enjoy themselves at work, Blake added. And this does not need to cost the earth – Talk Talk runs a £1 breakfast every day, for example, which helps employees during a tough financial period but also brings staff together, fostering collaboration.
“We spend so much time at work that we should make it enjoyable,” she said. “If it can be a place of belonging, where people feel they have a purpose, they’re more likely to turn up.”
Cheese concluded that different groups and demographics within each organisation all wanted to be enabled to work effectively, and that often came down to flexibility.
On a personal level, HR professionals “have to be able to switch off”, he added, as they’re often dealing with people’s difficult emotional issues. At the same time, they needed to ensure they could demonstrate to leaders when work isn’t working, so they can be the catalysts for improvement.
“If work isn’t working you’ve got to bring the evidence,” he said. “Both the numbers and the qualitative evidence.”
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