After Brexit, Britain needs to have access to workers overseas. From 2021, a brand-new immigration system is going to be starting in Britain and it really is going to alter the workforce in the UK. It may even affect how many overseas workers are going to be coming into the UK as well. The details of this system have not been finished yet, but the UK government are going to be consulting via the white paper on various ways that they can control the flow of workers in the EU. A portion of the many proposals have emerged so far, and they have actually been welcomed by employers. Others however have raised a lot of concerns as there are other things that need to be addressed as soon as possible. Those who work in labour recruitment or even labour jobs will know more than anyone how reliant the UK is on overseas workers.

The CIPD Survey

The CIPD survey has been conducted and they are covering a huge range of sectors. They are trying to find out how feasible the white paper proposals are. The report is also processing a huge range of key alternatives as well as looking into the challenges that are being faced by members and employers as well. Some of the challenges that are being faced by employers are the fact that only a small portion of them are aware of the proposals that are present right now and even less have begun preparing for them. This actually leaves employers somewhat vulnerable and it also means that they are not going to be prepared for a supply shock either.
Of course, this isn't good news, but if the right measures are put in place early on, then there is no reason why businesses can't turn things around.

When you look at the last few years, you will soon find that there has been a major focus on increasing diversity and even inclusion as well. This is especially the case when you look at the public policy or even the people profession. The Government have published the anticipated Race Disparity Audit as well. This was introduced along with the reporting of the gender pay gap as well. One valuable tool that is designed to improve the overall workplace equality is actually flexible working. It's designed to help parents get back into work while also making sure that the gender pay gap is reduced. It's also designed to help those who have fluctuating health conditions as well. If you work in the industry of labour recruitment or if you are seeking labour jobs, then you will know what a huge step forward this can be.

What is Flexible Working?

Flexible working is often described as being a working arrangement that gives any employee the chance to try and vary their timing or even the location of their work. It's often designed to benefit both the organisation and the individual. This can usually cover a huge range of working arrangements and it includes job sharing, annual hours, term-only work and so much more. Of course, it's important to understand that a lot of businesses do offer some kind of informal flexibility, but they don't realise it. The problem here is that they won't be able to gain the full potential if they don't' implement practices in a strategical way.

Who's Flexible Working For?

87% of people would like to work flexibly if they could, and this just goes to show that it can really benefit anyone in any industry.

This week, the Westminster Business School and the CIPD have launched a brand-new report. They are going to discuss the findings and what it actually means for the practice. The research maps out the current evidence for diversity in organisations as well as using scientific research to find out what works. The launch event picked up on various themes as well as using a wide-ranging discussion panel on either side of the research to give an accurate result.

The Focus

If you work in labour recruitment or if you have experience in labour jobs, then you will know how important it is to make sure that there is somewhat diversity in training. A lot of organisations are choosing not to record or even evaluate the quality of their training initiatives and for this reason, it's becoming very difficult to evaluate how effective they are. Practitioners are giving their own insight and they are also talking from their personal experience as well. They are trying to further their diversity practice and they are also putting the work in to improve things overall.

The debate also explored which steps still have to be taken in order to push things forward in terms of UK organisations. One theme that actually did emerge was the fact that flexible working hours were boosted. This is designed to try and support people of every background so that they can enter the labour market and thrive there.

Other Steps

Other steps that were mentioned include the fact that more diversity needs to be brought into the HR profession and that there needs to be much more of an intersectional approach. Overlapping identities need to be considered as well and this is going to make a huge difference overall.

New evidence has been released by the CIPD and they highlight the need to have a real improvement in the overall fairness of pay. The reward management survey has suggested that some employers may be relying far too much on line managers to try and talk to their teams about outcomes and about pay processes too. The report shows that 75% of HR respondents feel like the majority of the people who work in their organisation are actually paid fairly. The truth is that only 33% of workers are inclined to agree with them. HR respondents are way more likely to agree that their executive is paid the right amount.

Half of the respondents have stated that line managers often have a moderate level of involvement when it comes to communicating with staff about the amount that they are paid. More than 3/5ths of employees have stated that they have never been given an explanation from their manager in regards to why they are being paid what they are.

Those who work in labour jobs or even labour recruitment will know more than anyone how important it is to get a fair wage because at the end of the day, they do try hard. That being said, 60% of people believe that their manager has done a poor job in communicating with them as well. Managers do play a role in making decisions and this is especially the case when you look at employee pay overall. Only 38% of people assess the effectiveness in their given role, so this could imply that there is a gap in the industry overall.
This could lead to even more problems if the issue is not dealt with soon and some even believe that it could go on to cause a divide in the workplace too.