Meeting the diverse needs of people professionals in HR, L&D and OD, students, self-employed consultants and SMEs through Special Interest Groups. Come along to one of our next events in Manchester, learn from the best about the hot topics in HR, L&D and OD. Gain new perspectives, share your insights, network with like-minded people. Raise your profile by getting your name and work 'out there' (you never know who might be in the room!. Our interactive and chronological events list enables you to plan ahead by scanning all events with one-click access to our bookings platform. Event summaries provide you with an overview of all events, for when your pressed for time and want a quick read. Our one-pagers provide you with detailed event descriptions and speaker profiles. We'll be adding many more events to this flip book . Bookmark this resource for easy access from your mobile, tablet, laptop and desktop. CIPD Manchester Branch manchester@cipdbranch.co.uk #cipdMCR
CIPD NORTH: REGIONAL INSIGHTS
CIPD NORTH: REGIONAL INSIGHTS
Daphne Doody-Green , Head of CIPD Northern, England
Welcome to the Spring issue of CIPD North: Regional Insights. The new year presents an ideal opportunity for the people profession to make a greater impact and continue to thrive through change. But to do this, we need to better understand the challenges that our region’s people professionals are facing this year. Have your say here to help us shape our activities, campaigns and better support your needs. As part of our commitment to championing better work and working lives, we are continuing to work with, and influence, senior leaders, policy makers and local authorities. We are particularly excited to be bringing the Metro Mayors of Manchester, Liverpool and West Yorkshire together this month for an exclusive event for our HR leaders. Find out more on our news page. We are also continuing to develop our regional communities and networks this year. If you would like to find out more about how to get involved with our HR leader network, Northern Policy Forum or Senior People Professional Network e: cipdnorth@cipd.co.uk Furthermore, as a CIPD member, please remember
that you have access to a wide range of benefits and services to help you excel in your role and achieve your career ambitions. These include our new Learning Hub – with free learning courses – and our employment law resources which offer advice on everything from maternity and parental rights to fair pay and redundancy. CIPD student members can also join our hugely popular online CIPD Student Conference on 2 April for free this year. I will be chairing the event, and over 800 delegates have already booked to join us, making it an ideal opportunity to connect with your peers at scale. View the programme and book your place. Lastly, we are delighted to support the first Greater Manchester Good Employment Awards – hosted by the Greater Manchester Good Employment Charter – this month. I judged the ‘Best for Supporting Line Management’ award, which was very tough as the standard of entries was so strong. Read more about the awards and all those shortlisted here. You can also download our people management guide for line managers here. Daphne Doody-Green, Head of CIPD Northern England
REGIONAL INSIGHTS
Spring 2022
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News around the region
Tackling in-work poverty Work can – and should be – a reliable route out of poverty. But one in eight workers are living in poverty, and with the cost of living rising, a percentage of your workforce cold be struggling to cope. To help, we have teamed up with the Joseph Rowntree Foundation to raise awareness of in-work poverty and support employers in helping workers to achieve a decent standard of living. Find out more on our In-Work Poverty Hub. One million chances for young people As part of our One Million Chances campaign – which aims to create a million work and training opportunities for young people – we are seeking case studies of young employees (aged 18-24) who have successfully progressed within an organisation. These case studies will form a series of blogs that highlight the advantages of recruiting and retaining young talent, and shine a light on exemplary employers who are committed to developing young workers. For more information e: kim.bailey@cipd.co.uk
HR leaders unite with Metro Mayors on good employment We are bringing the Metro Mayors of Manchester, Liverpool and West Yorkshire together with HR leaders in our region for an exclusive online Good Employment Summit. The session will explore how we can collaborate to create more high quality and productive jobs in the North. If you are a HR leader and you would like to join the session on 8 March (18:00 to 19:15) e: cipdnorth@cipd.co.uk
Connect & learn with your local CIPD Branch
Our ten Northern CIPD Branches - which form the Northern Branch Network – are planning a range of topical events to help you engage with your peers whilst increasing your knowledge. Upcoming events include ‘Coaching for Inclusion’, ‘Employment Law Update’ and ‘Promoting Mental Wellbeing at Work and Beyond’. Connect with your local CIPD Branch.
ProPEL employee performance & wellbeing
The ProPEL (Productivity Outcomes of workplace Practice, Engagement and Learning) Hub is a unique initiative that brings together experts from universities with the CIPD, to develop and share best practice and ideas for businesses to improve performance and employee wellbeing. Find out more and register for upcoming ProPel podcasts and webinars here.
REGIONAL INSIGHTS
Spring 2022
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News around the region
Levelling-up the North As part of our policy influencing work, we responded to the Government’s Levelling Up White
Sick pay for workers regardless of vaccination status Leading retailers based in the North such
Paper, which failed to address the long standing problems with the skills system. Read our full response here. If you would like to get involved in our policy influencing work, register your interest to join the CIPD Northern Policy Forum e: cipdnorth@cipd.co.uk
as Morrisons, Next and Ikea have cut their sick pay for unvaccinated staff that are forced to self-isolate because of Covid exposure. Rachel Suff, CIPD Senior Policy Advisor provided a comment to The HR World in response to this. She cautioned: Employers should follow their usual sick pay policy for any employee who needs to self-isolate due to COVID-19. Different policies depending on an employee’s vaccination status could be quite complex and come with potential legal risks. They could also be divisive for the workforce.
Celebrating the North’s top talent Our region has some of the brightest talent in the people profession, so champion your best work and get the recognition you and your team deserve by entering the 2022 CIPD People Management (PM) Awards by 1 April. Eight of the North’s people professionals and teams - from organisations such as The Co-op, Leeds Teaching Hospital NHS Trust and The Sovini Group - were recognised as winners at last year’s PM Awards. Read more here.
Collaborating to support HR Leaders in Public Services As part of the Northern Public Services Forum, we have joined forces with other professional HR bodies – PPMA, HMPA and UHR – to deliver some short webinars over the next six months. These sessions will provide insights into the world of work and cross-sector perspectives from leading speakers and facilitators. If you are a HR leader operating in public services in the North and would like to learn and network with your peers to support the HR Profession e: cipdnorth@cipd.co.uk
Making the case for ethnicity pay reporting CIPD Senior Policy Adviser, Charles Cotton gave evidence to the Women and Equalities Select Committee in a one-off session looking at ethnicity pay reporting. Charles echoed the CIPD’s call from September for it to be made mandatory from 2023 for businesses
of 250+ employees. He made the case that businesses should have to publish a narrative and action plan as well as the headline figures.
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Spring 2022
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Volunteer Hotseat
journey. As part of this, we are planning to host more upgrading clinics to help members think about, and plan, for moving to other grades of professional membership. Advice for early career professionals Start building your network early. Be curious and ask people about their careers, even if you have a generalist or specialist route in mind. Ask people about their work too – you may find that in practice there are other things that you are keen to explore. If you have the opportunity to have a mentor, take the chance! Having someone that will listen and support you, but is removed from your immediate circle, is really valuable. Speaking at the CIPD Student Conference I’m looking forward to speaking about the impact our profession can have on wellbeing in the workplace at the CIPD Student Conference. Hearing from a range of practitioners whilst you are studying really enhances your perspectives. When it comes to wellbeing, taking time to know and understand what tops up your personal wellbeing and resilience levels is really important, along with knowing what really drains you. You can’t pour from an empty cup so to truly create better workplaces and working lives we need to be personally in the best possible place.
Chair of the CIPD North East Branch
The CIPD North East Branch is also well known for our annual HR&D Awards which recognise and celebrate the exemplary people practices and inspiring people professionals across the North East. The awards – in their 15th year – attract around 450 guests each year and will take place as an in-person event for the first time in two years, on 30 June. I’m also proud of our work with our L&D community – we’ve really shone a light on this area of specialism through delivering tailored knowledge events and networking sessions for L&D practitioners. Supporting members at all levels Students have had a tough time over the last couple of years, so we have extended our support for them this year. Along with panel events – which allow students to ask professionals from both generalist and specialist roles questions - we will run a follow- up session after the CIPD Student Conference on Saturday 2 April. This will focus on translating insight in to a chosen research area. We’ve seen CIPD membership increase consistently in the North East over the last five years and are committed to supporting our members on that
Dr Elouise Leonard-Cross FCIPD is an Occupational Psychologist and Chair of the CIPD North East Branch which deliver a wide variety of services and events to a thriving community of over 2,000 people professionals in the North East.
In this Volunteer Hotseat, Elouise tells us more about the achievements of the North East Branch and how it has extended its support for students this year.
Dr Elouise Leonard-Cross FCIPD
Empowering & connecting members We were one of the first CIPD Branches to establish a mentoring programme for members, delivered by members. It has proved hugely successful, with members able to support and learn from one another, and build their networks and careers, so it’s a legacy I’m very proud of.
Find out more about the CIPD North East Branch and how to get involved here .
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Spring 2022
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Could you be dyslexic? Barrie’s unwavering commitment to helping create more inclusive workplaces and supporting those with dyslexia has also led to him qualifying as British Dyslexia Association Approved Workplace Assessor, able to screen colleagues – at all ages - for dyslexia. Any staff that are identified as dyslexic are then referred to an educational psychologist for formal assessment. Barrie adds: Adjustments for our nursing staff have involved getting extra thinking time at their handover when they come on to a new shift, to ensure they fully understand their responsibilities. One of our cleaner’s has also benefitted from using visual cards on equipment and storage as a way of remembering instructions. It’s not uncommon for people in an older age bracket to not know they are dyslexic. In fact, some people will go their whole life without ever knowing they are dyslexic as they have become so good at using coping strategies. But the more we talk about dyslexia, and all neurodiverse conditions, the more awareness we will bring to them. This will likely result in more organisations offering support and adjustments for this valuable talent pool who have a great deal of strengths that are of huge benefit to employers.
Supporting North West NHS workers with dyslexia
The North West NHS Dyslexia Network Barrie, an Information Analyst as Lancashire Teaching NHS Foundation Trust, established the North West NHS Dyslexia Network with the aim of helping dyslexic workers access support and adjustments to allow them to perform to the best of their ability. Organisations such as Ability Smart, Access to Work, Diverse Learners and Right Resources Ltd have collaborated with the network to deliver more understanding on what reasonable adjustments those with dyslexia can request in the workplace, to carry out their role with confidence. Hundreds of staff, including doctors, nurses and HR, along with line managers who want to know more about how they can support their staff with dyslexia, have accessed support through the network. Barrie commented: Part of my role as Ambassador of the network is to help staff access any reasonable adjustments they need to feel happy and perform well in their role, and this may involve me speaking to their line manager about why such adjustments are necessary. These changes are often very minor, but will make the world of difference to how motivated and productive a person with dyslexia is at work.
Despite around 10% of the UK population estimated to suffer from dyslexia – a hidden disability that can affect abilities used for
learning such as reading, writing, co-ordination and memory - many
workplaces still do not provide effective support for dyslexic employees to perform their best at work. As someone who understands the challenges of living and working with dyslexia, Barrie Morgan-Scrutton Assoc CIPD, has established a Dyslexia Network to support dyslexic NHS
workers across the North West.
Barrie Morgan-Scrutton Assoc CIPD, Founder of the North West NHS Dyslexia Network
Learn more about how to support neurodiverse employees in the CIPD Neurodiversity At Work Guide
REGIONAL INSIGHTS
Spring 2022
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Creating better work & working lives for veterinary workers in Yorkshire
Developing career pathways & better employee benefits We have developed a career pathway for veterinary professionals with a clear articulation of pay scales
Burnout and the recruitment and retention of skilled staff are challenges that many organisations are facing this year. Keen to overcome these obstacles, VetPartners - which employees over 7,000 staff - is on a mission to ensure its veterinary practices are the best places to work by investing in its people. Rob Williams, Head of Talent at VetPartners in York tells us more about how HR is helping to improve the organisation’s employee value proposition to attract and retain top talent.
at VetPartners are female and approximately 70% of veterinary surgeons under the age of 45 are women. This is part of a bigger piece of work aimed at improving VetPartners employee value proposition, based on colleague feedback, and working to deliver flexible and family-friendly working policies.
as there is poor visibility of this for employees across the profession. We’ve also spent a lot of time developing more generous benefits for all staff, particularly with respect to CPD allowances and annual leave.
Supporting recruitment, flexible working & wellbeing
Equality and ‘fairness’ Due to the nature of our business, only a relatively small proportion of employees can work from home (5-6%). But we have a very open, collaborative, and supportive approach to managing teams and as long as work is completed, we don’t spend lots of time checking what people are doing or make judgements about who is, or isn’t, physically present. We have a proud track-record of recognising and developing talent and promotion from within; two of our senior operations team have been promoted recently, both from veterinary nurse backgrounds and both are working remotely.
There is a worldwide shortage of veterinary surgeons including in the UK. For many years the UK has relied on overseas vets to meet workforce needs. But Brexit and Covid have both dramatically reduced vet immigration to the UK. To help with the recruitment of vets, we have restructured the recruitment team with a focus on supporting practices to recruit directly through their networks. We have a Tier 2 Visa Sponsorship Licence to help recruit overseas vets too. We have also signed up with Working Families to improve our flexible working and family-friendly work policy and practice as a means of improving recruitment and employee relations. Furthermore, HR have undertaken mental health first aid training to support leadership teams more effectively with supporting colleagues with stress and anxiety.
Rob Williams, Head of Talent at VetPartners in York
Enhancing maternity pay VetPartners introduced enhanced maternity pay (8 weeks at 100% pay and 12 weeks at 50% pay) in June 2021. Traditionally in veterinary employment only statutory maternity pay was on offer. Enhancing maternity pay for our colleagues is a positive development as 85% of our 7,200 colleagues
Learn how to implement various employee benefits and a wider reward strategy here
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Spring 2022
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Northern employers award record pay to overcome recruitment difficulties
workforce in the last six months and 33% plan to raise pay in the future. Other popular responses to retention difficulties in the past six months include improved flexible working arrangements, implemented by 40% of employers in the North, focusing more on employee wellbeing (49%) and increased investment in training and development (35%).
Significant problems filling vacancies Over half (66%) of employers in the North said that they plan to recruit in the next three months to March 2022 and just one in ten (11%) plan to make redundancies. hiring, pay and redundancy intentions of organisations, and the pay award figure revealed in the latest report is the highest recorded in the last ten years of the CIPD’s reporting. This demonstrates the scale of the growing challenge facing employers in finding and keeping staff. Employers across the North of England are responding to recruitment problems by increasing pay, providing more flexible jobs, and more training and progression opportunities. These findings are from the CIPD’s latest Labour Market Outlook , which found that employers in Northern England anticipate making pay awards of 3% in 2022 as they look to combat increasing recruitment and retention difficulties. The quarterly survey highlights the
However, while recruitment intentions remain strong, half (50%) of employers in the North report having vacancies that are hard-to-fill. Two thirds of organisations (69%) anticipate problems filling vacancies in the next six months, with a third (35%) expecting these problems to be ‘significant’. Incentives to attract new hires In response to recruitment challenges, in the past six months over half (58%) of employers in the North with hard-to-fill vacancies have increased wages to attract new hires and 41% of respondents have advertised more jobs as flexible. Looking to the future, 43% of employers in the North said they will look to upskill existing staff to help address the issue of hard to fill vacancies, while 34% said they will improve job quality and raise wages respectively, to help attract and retain talent. Overcoming retention difficulties There is also a clear focus on workforce retention. Two-fifths of Northern employers (43%) reported increased employee turnover or difficulty with retaining people over the last six months. To address this, over half (61%) of employers with retention difficulties have raised the pay of the incumbent
Jon Boyes, CIPD Labour Market Economist said:
Even though more businesses in the North anticipate making record pay awards to their employees this year, most people are set to see their real wages fall against the backdrop of high inflation. What is encouraging is that more employers in the region are looking
beyond pay increases to help attract and retain staff by providing more flexible working opportunities and investing in more training and development, as well as taking staps to support employee health and wellbeing. Together these practices can broaden the range of candidates employers can attract and may also reduce the need to recruit more staff, which should reduce wage inflation pressure to a degree.
REGIONAL INSIGHTS
Spring 2022
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Events and Networks
31 March at 12pm Northern Policy Forum
2 April 2022, online CIPD Student Conference
CIPD North Senior People Professional Network (SPPN)
The next Northern Policy Forum will cover regional skills policy and our response to the Levelling-Up white paper, including an interactive discussion to gain member views. Contact – cipdnorth@cipd.co.uk to register your interest
Don’t miss out on this unique digital learning experience – free for CIPD student members - and the opportunity for you to connect with other students from across the UK and beyond. Expect to see a great mix of organisational case studies and panel discussions addressing the big and emerging workplace themes.
4 March & 23 March, Online
The SPPN provides a platform to connect and share best practice with like-minded peers. The network of senior people professionals host topical online sessions every two months with a range of expert speakers. Upcoming events include ‘Spotlight on career development’ (4 March) and ‘Virtually HR’ (23 March).
CIPD Manchester Branch: Inclusion & Diversity
15-16 June 2022, London CIPD Festival of Work
31 March, Online
CIPD North East Branch: Insights & Inspiration
Join us over two days to hear insights from industry thought leaders on how business and people strategy need to evolve to adapt to a new working environment. Our Festival floor will bring those ideas to life, allowing you to interact with the people and solutions to help you create a better world of work.
Join us for a panel discussion tackling some of the trickier questions around diversity and inclusion in the workplace. Our distinguished panel of experts and thought-leaders include Peter Cheese, Chief Executive, CIPD and Sheryl Miller, Diversity Consultant & Author.
24 March 2022, Newcastle
Hear success stories from winners of the 2021 CIPD North East HR&D Awards, which may inspire you to enter the 2022 CIPD North East HR&D Awards.
REGIONAL INSIGHTS
Spring 2022
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