CIPD Blogs

Blogging about the issues that matter to people professionals and the world of work

Blog - Post List

Flexible working is here to stay: it’s time to start designing jobs and workplaces that truly embrace it

By  25 May, 2016 10:20

Flexible working is a fundamental part of the modern workplace. Whether it’s part time working, working remotely, job sharing, or working ‘irregular’ hours, it gives many people the opportunity to fit work around their other commitm...

Robots don't kill jobs, people do

By  28 Apr, 2016 09:12

Technology and the digital world’s influence on work, and almost all aspects of our lives, is growing all the time. It’s disrupting businesses and sectors, facilitating the emergence of new kinds of business models, enabling new ways of w...

Best way to predict the future is to help shape it

By  29 Mar, 2016 12:24

Public policy and regulation have a big impact on labour markets and employment, on businesses, and what we have to pay attention to. But by their nature, they are a somewhat blunt instrument of change and can have unintended consequences due to the ...

It’s time to work smarter

By  25 Feb, 2016 15:47

Peter Cheese, Chief Executive, CIPD: Recent weeks have again shown that we can take little for granted in the economy and, for the public sector, budget cuts remain the order of the day. It’s not surprising that cost-cutting is topping the agen...

The pursuit of happiness

By  29 Jan, 2016 15:55

A deep understanding of the business and wider economic context we operate in is crucial to a successful career in HR or L&D, and our ability to add value to the organisations we work in. But businesses need to become much more people savvy too. ...

HR’s image challenge

By  12 Jan, 2016 11:40

A new year is an opportunity to look back as well as look forward. In a way, People Management’s poll of more than 1,100 UK employees regarding their perceptions of their HR departments offers a bit of both. Many of the findings of the survey a...

How do you define professionalism in HR?

By  11 Dec, 2015 10:45

By Louisa Baczor, CIPD Research Associate The evolving world of work means HR’s role in organisations is changing, and coming under increasing scrutiny. One memorable headline in the last couple of years was the BBC’s executive pay-out sc...

A year of change and continued progress for the HR profession

By  4 Dec, 2015 09:54

This year has been a remarkable one – politically, culturally and economically. There was the unexpected result of the UK elections in May and the continuing debate on the future of the EU, as well as growing geopolitical challenges. At one lev...

Putting principle before profit

By  28 Oct, 2015 15:30

The Volkswagen scandal may be one of the most systemic and damaging examples yet of a business focusing on financial return whilst compromising or deceiving all its other stakeholders. Once more it is bringing business ethics and behaviours to the fo...

The power of employee voice

By  30 Sep, 2015 13:59

Today’s workforce is more diverse than ever before – generationally, aspirationally, educationally and culturally, as well as in terms of the more obvious and visible aspects of diversity we still wrestle with. We are also working in incr...

Putting the human into HR

By  26 Aug, 2015 15:19

We’re seeing significant shifts in thinking about some long-held policies and practices in HR. First we were hearing about firms like Netflix abandoning policies on things such as holiday allowances, and now a number of major organisations are ...

Voice and value: power, influence and institutions

By  28 Mar, 2014 08:00

At today's annual Voice and Value Conference, which we are delighted to be hosting again jointly with the London School of Economics, we’ll hear a wide range of perspectives from both employer representatives as well as employee represent...

Developing leaders at all levels

By  31 Oct, 2013 09:30

At a recent launch of the CIPD and Tomorrow's Company initiative - Tomorrow's Leaders - once again we debated the challenges behind the development of effective leaders at all levels in the modern workplace. Too often we are critical of the l...

Championing better work and working lives - a progress report from the CIPD

By  18 Jul, 2013 10:11

These are exciting times at the CIPD and for our profession. I’ve been here a year now. We have a renewed sense of purpose and a clear strategic agenda for change – working with real energy to increase our impact and voice and the support...

Agile working requires culture change

By  25 Jun, 2013 12:43

To see the chairmen and chief executives of 22 of the UK’s biggest companies making such a strong case for more flexible working yesterday is great news, and perhaps unsurprising to us at the CIPD, given our long track record of championing the...

The way the world works

By  18 Jun, 2013 02:01

This week, the leaders of the G8 countries – the UK, the USA, Canada, Germany, France, Italy, Russia and Japan – are meeting in Northern Ireland for their annual summit. As host nation, the UK has set the priorities for the discussion: ...

Communicating and engaging on our strategic direction

By  1 Feb, 2013 11:15

I hope most of you will have seen the New Year update email I sent round on the changes we're working on at the CIPD, and the new strategic direction we're charting. Communication is always vital, particularly in times of change. But, as Geo...

New directions for CIPD, new opportunities for the profession

By  24 Jan, 2013 12:01

Hello, and best wishes for the New Year. As the CIPD marches towards its centenary in June, we’re in a celebratory mood, looking back with pride, and a dash of nostalgia, but also firmly focused on the future. I’ve been in post here at ...

What’s going to happen in 2013?

By  9 Jan, 2013 16:00

One thing's for certain and that is that nothing's for certain. Whether it's the economy, the next big thing in technology, the next corporate or media scandal, or even the weather. The economic outlook for 2013 is for most commentato...

Loud and clear : Employers to take the lead

By  6 Dec, 2012 12:30

The last few weeks have seen some welcome and much needed progress in the skills world. The Richard Review on apprenticeships was a timely follow up to news from the Skills Minister, Matthew Hancock, that a further £150m pot of fu...

This year's conference - my view

By  12 Nov, 2012 10:00

Just back from this year's Annual Conference and Exhibition in Manchester. What a great event and experience! I enjoyed every moment and met so many people from so many places. Lots of great content and thanks to the many speakers who gave up t...

Thoughts on the CIPD - a framework for change

By  29 Oct, 2012 10:00

Time has flown by and I am now through my first 100 days as CEO and have been working on the strategic framework and priorities for us in the coming months and years. The CIPD has a lot to be proud of and there has been a lot of progress in recent y...

Is trading employee rights for share ownership really a way forwards?

By  9 Oct, 2012 12:01

I have been attending the Conservative Party conference this week - a first for me to attend any of these sorts of events, but important in helping to engage and get some of our messages out. We have had lots of positive discussion for example about ...

UK Productivity Stats – Are we really falling behind?

By  26 Sep, 2012 11:37

Although not widely reported, there were some concerning figures published by the ONS last week on UK national productivity and comparison with the G7 nations. To quote "Output per hour in the UK was 15 percentage points below the average ...

Summer’s lease hath all too short a date

By  11 Sep, 2012 11:21

Sadly, Shakespeare in his famous sonnet was never more on the money than when talking about this summer. Last weekend's final blast of sunny weather and the closing of the Paralympics felt like the end to an incredible summer of sport and celebra...