By David D'Souza, Membership Director at the CIPD.

About 1 in 10 of our members at the CIPD are independent practitioners. That means we have around 15,000 members who are working outside of organisations doing a range of things – from providing technical employment expertise through to learning and development design and delivery. If there is a need for expertise in people, then our membership will be involved in delivering that in some way. Our Board contains independent practitioners, our Council and branches rely on their support and energy and our online communities benefit from their time and expertise.  

When the extent of the potential impact of the coronavirus pandemic became clear we encouraged the government, through a range of channels, to minimise the impact on people’s income. The first wave of support the government gave was to businesses and their employees – both at SME and traditional corporate level. At that point we called upon the government to recognise the importance of the self-employed and whilst steps were taken at considerable cost in that area we recognise that, depending on how an individual has structured their tax contributions, there are some people that have been left with significantly reduced incomes and a significantly reduced safety net compared to other people.  We specifically asked organisations in a recent survey as to how recent events will impact their appetite for using consultants and, of those companies that normally do make use of their skills, 80% of them said they would be reducing usage. I’ve spoken to many individuals across the profession whose work has rapidly fallen away. We will continue to work through the channels available to us to influence the government to address this gap in provision and support for people – and our members - in this most challenging of times. 

In addition we are examining what more we can do as a professional body in terms of support. We already have strong communities and I would urge you to make use of them for networking and support, but we will also be working on other solutions. Perhaps most importantly, as I mentioned previously, we will continue to work alongside other groups to attempt to get a better solution implemented by the government at policy level.  

Our independent practitioners are some of the best and brightest in the profession so as a final thought I’d like to invite you to celebrate their work and contribution through our new #HRtogether campaign being run in conjunction with People Management. We are inviting nominations for the #HRtogether campaign via Twitter, LinkedIn or Facebook. A selection of the stories will be showcased in the May issue of People Management magazine. 

https://www.cipd.co.uk/news-views/news-articles/cipd-says-thank-you-HR-during-COVID-19-pandemic 

To help supporting organisations to manage their workforces responsibly and effectively during these difficult times, the CIPD’s employment experts are updating the CIPD Coronavirus hub on a daily basis. The hub’s free resources include employment law FAQs, tips for managing remote teams and useful templates for writing plans, policies and letters to employees. 

CIPD members also have free access to a 24/7 employment law helpline and have been supporting each other through the CIPD’s online community.