Threat to employers and workforce productivity
Posted on 04/02/2011
A survey by King’s College London and law firm Speechly Bircham reveals that employers are facing a sustained increase in workplace unrest as austerity measures, longer working hours, stress and a genuine skills gap take their toll on the UK workforce.
The State of HR Survey report highlights the full extent of the problems faced by employers, as they struggle to find ways to address gender pay inequality and are unprepared for upcoming changes to the default retirement age. New immigration caps are further hampering their efforts to plug the skills gap: 42 per cent of respondents employing non-EU workers reported that the immigration cap is having a negative impact on their business, with 33 per cent of businesses citing an increasing skills shortage (compared to 22 per cent in the previous year).
Key findings of the survey, based on responses from 550 senior HR professionals with a combined workforce size of more than two million, include:
• Lean workforces damage performance and could lead to a rise in tribunals and industrial action. More than 50 per cent of organisations surveyed reported an increase in staff working hours, while pay rises and bonuses continue to be withheld. Longer working hours were found to be significantly correlated with increased absence, sickness, stress-related problems, and increased employee grievances. HR managers also anticipate that future increases in working hours are linked with higher staff turnover and workplace unrest.
• The Immigration cap deals a blow to employers as skills shortages increase. Nearly half of the businesses surveyed employ non-EU nationals and, of those, more than 42 per cent reported a negative impact on their businesses as a result of the new cap on immigration. To make matters worse, one in three respondents reported a shortage of key staff, compared to just one in five in the previous year’s survey. Where there are skills shortages, it is more likely that staff turnover is increasing and that a greater number of working days are lost due to sickness and absence, further exacerbating the problem.
• Deteriorating employee relations, high stress levels and workforce disputes appear endemic, particularly in relation to bullying, harassment and relationships with line managers. 46 per cent of respondents said that stress-related problems have gone up, while 30 per cent had seen grievances increase over the past year. Organisations that noted higher levels of stress showed a direct correlation with higher levels of sickness absence.
• Employee relations problems, employee stress problems and grievances are all set to rise again in 2011. 40 per cent of respondents anticipate worse employee relations, 42 per cent expect higher stress levels and 29 per cent see rises in employee grievances.
• Gender pay gaps may be being ignored and employers appear unprepared for the Equality Act. 84 per cent of respondents to the survey stated that there was no material gender pay inequality in their organisations – however, only a third said that they had measures in place to monitor equality of pay. These responses show a surprising disconnect: the majority of firms claim to have equality of pay despite not having any structures in place to assess or measure this.
• The majority of businesses are unprepared for the scrapping of the default retirement age. 78 per cent of respondents reported that their organisations have a retirement age of 65; a further 5 per cent operate an alternative compulsory retirement age. Despite compulsory retirement ages being unlawful from April 2011, only a third of organisations thought this was a major issue facing their HR function.
• Downsizing of workforces remains largely unchanged and flexible working continues to increase. 70 per cent of respondents reported having to make compulsory redundancies in 2010, showing hardly any improvement on the 72 per cent who downsized their workforce in 2009. Flexible working continues to be a popular workforce strategy in difficult conditions, with 36 per cent of respondents identifying an increase in the use of these arrangements.
• Leadership and management remain disconnected from staff, creating significant discontent. Tough management continues and poor relations with staff are the single biggest source of grievance for firms, with 40 per cent of organisations reporting formal grievances arising from employee relations with senior/line managers.
• Employee engagement remains the primary HR strategy for 2011. 65 per cent of organisations see maintaining employee engagement as their key HR issue. The most popular approach to try and enhance engagement is through more effective leadership and management. Other initiatives show a more powerful impact, particularly job design, employee participation and procedural fairness.
Stuart Woollard, Managing Director of King’s HRM Learning Board and co-author of the survey report, comments: ‘This year’s results should worry all business leaders and HR directors as the results question the sustainability of current strategies to keep workforces performing at the required level. Organisations must carefully consider the likelihood of erosion in employee productivity, work quality and performance as a consequence of lean workforces and additional working hours. With an apparent leadership/management disconnect with staff, firms may also not realise the nature and extent of the problems ahead.
‘Organisations that are able to understand and alleviate employee anxieties and provide effective ways to counter the impact of high pressure work environments will ensure that they retain more engaged and productive workers, making a route through the economic uncertainties far clearer.
'There is evidence in our survey that those firms who are able to implement effective HR strategies that drive higher levels of engagement may find that these initiatives will differentiate them in terms of organisational performance.’
Commenting on the findings, Richard Martin, Partner and Head of Employment at Speechly Bircham, said: ‘This year’s survey findings send out a clear warning to employers. The combination of increased workplace conflict, longer hours and rising stress levels is a potent cocktail that could lead to a significant rise in tribunals and industrial action if not properly addressed.
‘Despite our last survey showing that UK employers regarded employee engagement as their number one priority, reported levels of employee engagement have fallen. Skills shortages are worsening and the rigid cap on immigration means that employers are left with few tools with which to plug the skills gap.
‘Only a small percentage of businesses have any measures in place to deal with pay inequality despite the Equality Act looming.
‘Perhaps most worrying is what can be read between the lines of the survey about employee wellbeing and engagement. At a time when employers should be focusing on re-engaging with staff and repairing the damage caused by the recession, staff are instead being made to work ever harder, without reward. An economic recovery built on working reduced workforces harder and harder is clearly not sustainable and could lead to major problems for employers – particularly in the public sector.’
The report is available: http://www.speechlys.com/state_of_hr_report_2011
Notes to Editors
The State of HR: Austerity or Prosperity? is one of the most comprehensive surveys to date on the effect of the recession on employers and their staff. A questionnaire was distributed to approximately 5,000 senior HR professionals in November 2010. Of the 550 responses received to both the paper and online versions of the questionnaire, 437 responses were usable within the analyses performed. Almost 68 per cent of them recognized a union or other form of employee representation. The data was analysed by Stuart Woollard and Dr Mike Clinton at King’s.
Speechly Bircham’s Employment group is a leading employment law practice meeting the diverse needs of a broad range of employer and senior employee clients. The employer clients include public and private companies, partnerships and other organisations, based in the UK and overseas, across a wide range of business and professional sectors, with a strong focus on financial services, professional services, media and entertainment as well as larger corporates. The team handles sensitive and complex issues across the spectrum of the employment relationship. The group has specialist expertise concerning immigration issues and works closely with the firm’s pension and employee benefit teams. The team is highly regarded for its experienced, discreet and practical approach.http://www.speechlys.com/Employment
King’s HRM Learning Board is unique in the way it connects organisations to the latest academic research and thinking on contemporary workforce issues. Through its workshop and seminar programme, bespoke learning and advisory activities, and through a variety of other forums and media, the Learning Board is an innovative thought leader on contemporary people management practice. It also enhances the experience of King’s postgraduate student talent pool by developing work placements, internships and projects with our partners on key workforce development interventions and strategies. www.kcl.ac.uk/hrmlb
King's College London
King's College London is one of the top 25 universities in the world (2010 QS international world rankings), The Sunday Times 'University of the Year 2010/11' and the fourth oldest in England. A research-led university based in the heart of London, King's has nearly 23,000 students (of whom more than 8,600 are graduate students) from nearly 140 countries, and some 5,500 employees. King's is in the second phase of a £1 billion redevelopment programme which is transforming its estate.
King's has an outstanding reputation for providing world-class teaching and cutting-edge research. In the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise for British universities, 23 departments were ranked in the top quartile of British universities; over half of our academic staff work in departments that are in the top 10 per cent in the UK in their field and can thus be classed as world leading. The College is in the top seven UK universities for research earnings and has an overall annual income of nearly £450 million.
King's has a particularly distinguished reputation in the humanities, law, the sciences (including a wide range of health areas such as psychiatry, medicine, nursing and dentistry) and social sciences including international affairs. It has played a major role in many of the advances that have shaped modern life, such as the discovery of the structure of DNA and research that led to the development of radio, television, mobile phones and radar. It is the largest centre for the education of healthcare professionals in Europe; no university has more Medical Research Council Centres.
King's College London and Guy's and St Thomas', King's College Hospital and South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trusts are part of King's Health Partners. King's Health Partners Academic Health Sciences Centre (AHSC) is a pioneering global collaboration between one of the world's leading research-led universities and three of London's most successful NHS Foundation Trusts, including leading teaching hospitals and comprehensive mental health services. For more information, visit: www.kingshealthpartners.org
For more information contact pr@kcl.ac.uk or 0207 848 3202.