This week CIPD Scotland, in partnership with RBS, hosted the first Scottish Senior Employee Relations Network event. This network will share insight and good practice, and discuss and debate the changing employment picture to better inform and advise both the ER and wider HR profession and government on key opportunities and issues faced in the future world of work; particularly the inclusive and productive jobs agenda which is increasingly part of the Scottish workplace.
Dr John McGurk of CIPD outlined some of the rationale for building this network. The employment landscape in Scotland is challenging. Government is focused on fair work and inclusivity while operating issues mean employers often need to pursue more immediate aims. Working together with trade unions and others to connect the new fair work agenda is the big ask for Scotland’s senior employee relations professionals. Debate around the future of work, and the increasingly diverse and changing nature of the workforce mean the focus on good, effective workplace relations has never been greater. As CIPD/The Adecco Group’s recent labour market outlook report indicates, though Scotland has a vibrant enough jobs market there are headwinds such as Brexit and its impacts on labour supply, restructuring and redundancy in some industries, and the challenge of continued squeeze on the public sector. Scotland’s productivity performance is also faltering. Dealing with those challenges are key to Scotland’s skilled future and our focus on fair work is a key aspect.
Professor Patricia Findlay, Professor of Work and Employment Relations University of Strathclyde and the lead academic advisor on the Fair Work Convention, explained that the Fair Work initiative is not a Scottish government one but the product of collaboration between industry leaders, trade unions, business bodies and academics. She set out the promise of fair work, the trends and tensions in the labour market which were acting against it and the promise and potential for Scotland in harnessing that opportunity. Work is getting less secure with about a fifth of Scottish workers in precarious or insecure jobs. Work for those who have permanent jobs is getting harder and more intense she explained. With technology there is a significant spill over into our personal time. She posed the question: Have we got the balance right as an HR profession in terms of promoting good and fair work? If not she challenged ER practitioners to take up the baton. Finally she said that fair work cannot be delivered by chance. It’s a design choice and those choices matter.
One senior leader at the forefront of negotiating change in the Oil & Gas sector, an industry suffering a chronic downturn, shared her perspective. She related her experience of being stranded during strike action on a rig in the North Sea and hearing for the first time and at first hand the complaints of the workforce. She had no choice but to listen- there was nowhere to escape to! But in all seriousness, it was the best thing as it had been the view of the organisation that voice was sorted because of union representation. But the complaints she was hearing were often about the union being too close to the employer, or too ready to negotiate away conditions. They were also about issues which could easily be sorted like internet access and accommodation. It’s common she said to see employee voice as a “smoke alarm”, but for her it was more of a “sat nav”, which gives direction and constant feedback to keep you on track.
But importantly a sat nav doesn’t just connect with one satellite but many so it can triangulate its position. The lesson she learned was that she needed to talk to unions, managers and employees about the driving agendas across the business. With a dispersed workforce she saw structure for encouraging such a diverse employee voice as critical. That said in response to a question about whether unions would see this as a threat she suggested not. Unions are voice with teeth, she argued - an interesting concept!
Other leaders in employee relations and industrial relations presented their role in major restructuring in the financial services sector, and talked about how dealing with unions as partners had helped in a difficult process and that truth, trust and openness were key. They also explained how they put the customer at the centre of the discussion to help everyone focus away from their separate interests. An honest and frank discussion took place on their ten year journey from “bust bank to normal bank” and their closing remarks included three questions to the floor to consider.
Questions one - Without trade unions and their expertise and nothing else in place, could organisations realistically use other employee voice channels to manage the pace of change?
Question two - Have organisations completed their own health check on the various ways they listen to employees to ensure they are working?
Question three - What can we do in our roles to ensure we maximise the effectiveness of different channels of employee voice?
There was lively discussion and contribution from our participants. Lee Panglea, CIPD Head of Scotland and Northern Ireland, closed the session with a commitment from CIPD and our partners RBS and our wider steering group to build this network and invited their thoughts on the ER topics and trends they wanted to discuss in future sessions. CIPD Scotland wants to help build fair work and a productive economy in Scotland. This new network will be key to that endeavour and we resolved to carry on the discussion.
