Amicus has produced a report on working conditions and job satisfaction in the UK workforce.
ePolitix.com asked the union to tell us a bit more about their report and invited key Stakeholders to respond.
Stakeholder Response: Amicus
Work matters. And the importance of work is not just about having a job.
With relatively full employment in the UK there is a need to look at what happens when we get to work.
Levels of job satisfaction are declining and some clear themes stand out. Workers feel they have less control over their working experience, they say they are having to work harder, and they also feel insecure in their jobs.
Fulfilling employment has a major part to play in the quality of our lives, the effectiveness of our organisations and the economic performance of the nation.
Work is likely to become more central to people’s lives. And ‘good work’ needs to be at the centre of the policy and negotiating agendas.
What is ‘good work’? ‘Good work’ is rewarding, fulfilling and in balance with the rest of our lives.
For employees it can improve overall well-being and performance. For employers it can increase productivity and attract and retain talent.
For government it has a vital role to play in key policy agendas such as ‘high performance workplaces’ and ‘health, work and well-being’.
The Amicus Agenda for Better Jobs presents five key elements that need to be considered in the pursuit of improving the quality of people’s working lives.
They are: a safe and healthy workplace,
control over the working environment, secure and interesting work (including support for skills and learning), fairness and dignity at work, and a trade union voice.
These are explored in more detail in a report entitled Good Work available on the Amicus website.
This is an aspirational agenda for workers, employers and government. Can we meet these aspirations?
Stakeholder Response: CIPD
The new report from Amicus reaches similar conclusions to recent CIPD research, which focused on poor UK productivity and the policy measures needed to tackle the problem.
While we share the broad thrust of Amicus's research, our research shows that more specific and targeted measures are needed to improve the UK's productivity levels.
Despite the stated objectives of successive governments, UK productivity continues to persistently lag behind our international competitors.
The latest productivity figures made sober reading for the Gordon Brown.
The UK has fallen further behind the US on both GDP per worker and GDP per hour worked measures of productivity.
Not only is the gap with the US getting wider, but if the as yet unpublished figures for 2005 included, it is likely that they would show the UK lagging further behind the US than when he took charge at the Treasury in 1997.
The CIPD’s own ‘Smart Work’ research reported that only around half the UK’s productivity gap with the US is explained by lower investment in capital or skills – the ‘resource gap’ which the Chancellor has focused on with his incentives measures and training initiatives.
The remainder, the ‘efficiency gap’, is due in large part to inferior UK management practice, especially people management.
This needs to be addressed by a joined-up Smart Work policy, targeted at laggard private sector business and public sector organisations, the latter in particular still struggling to boost productivity and performance – notwithstanding the Gershon efficiency drive.
The ‘Smart Work’ report highlights shortcomings in government policy and outlines the key elements of a Smart Work agenda, including:
• Making improved people management and working practices central to the government’s policy agenda, rather than treating it as subsidiary to what the Treasury and DTI consider the main drivers of productivity growth (investment, innovation, skills, enterprise, and competitive product and labour markets).
• Improved national and international benchmarking of the adoption of people management practices, in particular the degree to which staff are multi-skilled and given discretion and autonomy over their work.
• Active promotion of the value of these practices to employers, focused especially at small and medium sized businesses, couched in the kind of positive performance focused language organisations can relate to and act upon.
• Increased policy emphasis on work-related training and work-based learning, rather than simply the acquisition of formal academic or vocational qualifications.
• A sensible limit on working hours to encourage employers to focus on enabling staff to achieve more in each hour worked, but with sufficient flexibility to allow people to work longer hours at certain times if this suits their needs and preferences.
• Support for two-way involvement and engagement between employers and staff at an individual as well as collective level.
• A minimum standard of external reporting by organisations of their people (or ‘human capital’) management practices and the measured impact of these practices.
Dr John Philpott, the CIPD’s chief economist and author of the ‘Smart Work’ report, said: "'Work smarter, not harder' has become a modern management mantra.
"The trouble is too few UK organisations practice what they preach, while the government struggles to develop a coherent policy approach to improving workplace productivity – exemplified by the still born effort at re-branding the Department of Trade and Industry after last year’s general election which would have given it an overt productivity focus.
"It’s vital that an effective Smart Work strategy is constructed – and high time government, in partnership with employers and other relevant stakeholders, made a start."
The CIPD’s ‘Smart Work’ report can be found at: www.cipd.co.uk/perspectives
Stakeholder Response: Chartered Management Institute
The Chartered Management Institute welcomes the forward-looking agenda from Amicus and supports its argument that ‘work matters’.
The Institute’s recent research report in partnership with Workplace Health Connect, The Quality of Working Life, investigated the impact of organisational changes on the business environment.
It reveals a worrying picture of health and well-being in UK organisations across all sectors.
Some 60 per cent of managers claimed that illness rates in their organisation have increased over the past 12 months.
As Amicus recognises, quality of work issues affect employees at all levels, with 92 per cent of managers reported that they regularly work over their contracted hours.
Managers also report strong negative effects of organisational change on motivation, employee well-being and morale.
Many (21 per cent) even have difficulty making decisions due to ill health.
However, the research also shows that managers take the health and well-being agenda increasingly seriously.
The research found that 61 per cent of managers agreed that the senior management team in their organisation considered health and safety to be important and almost half (48 per cent) suggested that the issues were becoming more important.
It reflects the need for continued investment to improve the management skills of those responsible for the work environment.
The Institute agrees on the importance of the skills agenda.
Petra Cook, head of public affairs, said: "The final report of the Leitch review of skills this summer will be an important test of the government’s commitment to support the development of a truly high-skilled workforce to drive future productivity and performance.
"The Chartered Management Institute will continue to work with government, employers and unions to achieve the step-change that is required.
"We will continue to develop better management skills to achieve high-quality job design and improve workplace environments.
