CIPD North Regional Insights Winter Issue 2021

CIPD North Regional Insights Winter Issue 2021

CIPD NORTH: REGIONAL INSIGHTS

CIPD NORTH: REGIONAL INSIGHTS

Daphne Doody-Green , Head of CIPD Northern, England

Welcome to our winter issue

As we come to the end of 2021, we have a lot to celebrate in this issue, including inspiring volunteers, northern CIPD Companions, new CIPD North networks and our work with the West Yorkshire Fair Work Charter to help create good employment standards in West Yorkshire. I am also delighted to announce that next year’s CIPD Northern Annual Conference will take place at The Midland Hotel – a stunning Grade II listed venue - in central Manchester on 2 March. A range of influential speakers will join us to tackle the most pressing issues affecting organisations. These include Jeremy Snape (former England cricketer and Leadership Coach), who will talk about the winning mindset for leaders, and Veronica Hope Hailey (Dean of the School of Management, University of Bath) who will share insights on responsible leadership. To find out more about our range of sponsorship opportunities at the CIPD Northern Annual Conference e: [email protected] In other celebratory news, the people profession’s resilience and commitment to driving positive workplace change was highlighted in our 2021 People Profession report.

It revealed that nearly two thirds (61%) of HR and people professionals strengthened their skills - through either upskilling or reskilling - as a result of their organisation’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Further to this, our recently published Annual CIPD Report also highlights how the profession has continued to grow and innovate during an exceptional year of change. The new year presents an ideal opportunity to set resolutions that can benefit you, both personally, and professionally. To help with this, we recently established a Senior People Professional Network to provide a platform for like-minded peers to connect and share best practice. We were thrilled to welcome over 80 senior professionals to the launch. If you would like to get involved and for all other queries, please email the CIPD North team e: [email protected]

The main homeworking challenges for people professionals during COVID-19 have been:

Supporting employees’ mental health and wellbeing 55 %

Building organisational

culture and values 48 %

Managing performance 46 %

How have people professionals’ skills changed in response to COVID-19?

Have had to upskill or reskill

61 %

No change in skills 39 %

Wishing you all lots of health and happiness in the New Year,

Daphne Doody-Green, Head of CIPD Northern England

Upskilling has occurred across all HR roles and in organisations of all sizes.

2021 People Professional report

Volunteer Hotseat

Challenging assumptions and tackling the gender pay gap

We have a growing network of over 800 Enterprise Advisers who volunteer their time to develop a strong careers programme for young people at secondary school or college. The role involves sharing their HR expertise and insight to connect education with businesses and employers to help create work and training opportunities for young people. In this volunteer hotseat, Nigel Jones FCIPD, Group Director of People at The Together Housing Group - one of the largest housing associations in the

The property sector is a male dominated industry and this is leading to a gender pay gap in the sector, despite there being opportunities for everyone. To help challenge role assumptions, I helped organise a female only enrichment session. A presentation was given by our female staff, including the Head of Property Care, an apprentice, and a female plumber, which showcased the range of great career opportunities out there for women in the property sector.

The Our Lady and St John Catholic School (OLSJ) sits on a large housing estate in Blackburn that The Together Housing Group owns and manages. It is a deprived area so I knew the support of an Enterprise Advisor would be incredibly valuable to the pupils as they would benefit from finding out more about the local career opportunities we offer. Together Housing Group would also benefit by attracting new young talent into the sector.

Maisie Roberts

From student to employee; Maisie Roberts

Adding value to careers education

North, managing over 36,000 homes - tells us more about his role as Enterprise Adviser at Our Lady and St John Catholic School in Lancashire.

Maisie joined Together Housing Group as a school leaver, coming in as HR admin apprentice and then achieving a full-time position as an Administrator in the Repairs and Customer Support team. From an Enterprise Advisor perspective, Maise’s enthusiasm and hard work is a

The OLSJ School has a dedicated full-time careers leader in place, and I see this as a must for any school as they can focus on driving the careers curriculum forward. My role as Enterprise Advisor is to provide added value through employer acumen and insight into what employers expect from young people. I’ve been able to set up site visits for students which provides them with the opportunity to see what an office is like, find out about jobs in the housing association sector and learn about our interview and recruitment process. I hope to build on these activities through providing work experience, and delivering employability skills sessions to help students identify the skills they have, or need, to match the job role they are interested in.

Nigel Jones FCIPD

powerful example of what one person can achieve at the start of their career, and from the business’ perspective, we see Maisie joining us as a real success story on how we can continue to support young people into employment.

Giving back

I wanted to get involved with the Enterprise Advisor programme as I saw how the role would provide a great opportunity to give back locally. It also supports Together Housing Group’s vision of trying to provide career support and opportunities for our tenants and their children.

Find out more about becoming an Enterprise Advisor here .

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ACE-ing the future of work

Soft Skills in Hard Times

News around the region

Our first hybrid Annual Conference and Exhibition (ACE) proved a huge success. It brought thousands of people professionals together, in Manchester and online, to look beyond the pandemic at how we reset and build a better future for people at work.

We were delighted to host our first in-person

event of the year - known as ‘Soft Skills in Hard Times’ - in collaboration with the Greater Manchester Good Employment Charter and Acas. Over 100 delegates joined us in Manchester to hear our panel of experts discuss the vital skills and behaviours people managers must develop to better support staff in the fast changing world of work. Read more here.

High profile speakers included Labour MP and Shadow Lord Chancellor and Justice Secretary David Lammy, who delivered a passionate speech about the importance of racial equality at work.

2021 Northern CIPD Companions

Four northern members were awarded the highest CIPD accolade and level of membership – Chartered Companion – this year, for their exceptional impact on the profession and industry.

Congratulations to CIPD Chartered Companions:

Responsible business through crisis report

Developing Fair Work for West Yorkshire

• Hayley Tatum , Executive Director and Senior Vice President for People at Asda.

We are proud to be working with Mayor Tracy Brabin on her work to develop a Fair Work Charter for West Yorkshire - due to launch in March 2022 - to help improve employment standards across the region.

A must-read for any HR leader, this report reveals the candid reflections of more than 60 CEOs and HR directors - from organisations such as Bank of England, Capita and the NHS - on how they have responded to unprecedented challenges to build a fairer, more people-centric world of work. In the Responsible business through crisis report Sir Peter Hendy, Chairman of Network Rail talks about how the organisation was previously a ‘centralised, risk averse, bureaucratic organisation.’ But it is decentralising its management structure to ensure the right people have oversight on decision making.

• Paul Boustead , Director of People and Organisational Effectiveness at Lancaster University. • Peter McLinn (sadly passed away in September 2021), former Co-Chair of the CIPD Northern Branch Network and

This work complements the support and resources we have provided to Mayor Andy Burnham of Greater Manchester and Mayor Steve Rotherham of Liverpool, to create localised employment charters and standards for their respective city regions.

an active member of his local CIPD branch, Tees Valley for over 30 years.

• Olive Strachan MBE , Founder of Olive Strachan Resources.

Olive Strachan MBE

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The North’s people professionals triumph at CIPD People Management Awards

The Sovini Group, Liverpool - Best Flexible Working Initiative

The Co-op, Manchester – People Team of the Year (private sector)

Eight of the North’s people professionals and teams scooped awards at the 2021 CIPD People Management Awards, which celebrate the outstanding achievements of HR and people professionals across the UK. The awards attracted over 150 entries this year with over 800 delegates in attendance at the glittering awards ceremony, held at The Grosvenor Hotel in London.

People Team of the Year: The Co-op, Manchester

Karbon Homes, Newcastle - Best Organisational Development Initiative

The team also helped to recruit more than 5,000 additional colleagues over just six days and played a fundamental role in implementing government guidance as it evolved throughout the pandemic.

Best Flexible Working Initiative – The Sovini Group, Liverpool Best Organisational Development Initiative – Karbon Homes, Newcastle Best Health & Wellbeing Initiative (private sector) – Northumbrian Water, Durham People Team of the Year (private sector) – The Co-op, Manchester CIPD Judges recognised that The Co-op Hire to Retire team had gone above and beyond to coordinate the organisation’s impressive response to the Covid-19 crisis, supporting its frontline colleagues across its stores, depots, funeral homes and more. As part of this, they created ‘Co-op Care’, to share information and tools with colleagues, on a weekly basis to help them take care of their physical and mental health.

Nick Speight MBE, Head of Co-op’s Hire to Retire team said:

Our unwavering support for our colleagues and customers, across our shops and funeral care business has had a significant positive impact on the extensive range of communities that we serve in. We are thrilled the Judges recognised this and rewarded our people team for all their hard work and commitment.

The Northern winners: Best Apprenticeship Scheme - Leeds Teaching Hospital NHS Trust, Leeds Best Digital Technology Initiative in HR/L&D – Shared Services Connected Ltd, York Best Change Management Initiative – The Co-op, Manchester Michael Keely Outstanding Student Award – Ryan Hollingshead of Tiffin Sandwiches, Bradford

Register to enter the 2022 CIPD People Management Awards here .

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HMRC: Taking pride in being people experts

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has a people team of around 1400, of which approximately 200 are based in the North East. Together, the work they have put in to become a CIPD People Development Partner demonstrates a clear commitment to delivering excellent people management, as well as supporting the overall workforce and business to succeed and thrive.

Karen Barella Assoc CIPD HR professional Development & Apprenticeship Lead at HMRC in Newcastle Upon Tyne said: We are committed to building a world class HR function and an organisation that truly is a great place to work, for people of all ages. The PDP programme has helped us to achieve this by supporting us in upskilling our people team to become leaders in their field. We are incredibly proud of the work that we have done so far to gain this accolade.

HMRC was the first civil service department, indeed the first public sector organisation, to become a CIPD People Development Partner (PDP). The move follows years of work to professionalise its HR function with a view to meeting future strategic challenges and becoming leaders for the HR profession. The journey to becoming a CIPD PDP has seen HMRC launch a series of new development programmes covering topics like, strategic workforce planning and organisational design for HR. They also widened their learning products and explored and provided accredited programmes to upskill people in specialist areas, to the highest CIPD level.

Growing the next generation of people professionals

She adds:

Another advantage of taking the step towards achieving CIPD People Development Partner (PDP) status, says Karen, is the opportunity to share good practice with other PDPs, which include Tesco , Peabody , Network Rail , Ministry of Défense and the Home Office . The CIPD’s knowledge and support has enabled us to think differently about how we will develop our people in the future. For example, we are using HR apprenticeships as a way to develop our people, and using what they have learned to support and improve the business.

The CIPD People Development Partner programme is designed to raise the capability, credibility and impact of an organisation’s people function. It does this through aligning an employer’s HR and Learning and Development (L&D) practices against CIPD standards and supporting the people team to thrive through CIPD training and development. The programme also supports and encourages organisations to provide entry-level opportunities for young people, such as apprenticeships and graduate programmes.

Results

HMRC achieved their target for 75% of HR staff to have gained a CIPD qualification by 2020, and they are planning to revise this target upwards, with the aim of 85% of their people staff achieving some form of CIPD accreditation by 2023. The organisation – which employs over 60,000 people nationwide - has also ensured that it has extended its professional development offer so that it’s not just focusing on the skills it needs now, but what it needs in the future.

If your organisation is interested in becoming a CIPD People Development Partner please email [email protected]

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Tackling the North’s labour and skills crisis

Over a third (38%) of organisations in the North of England are finding it hard to fill vacancies, despite 70% looking to recruit more over the next three months, according to new CIPD research. Jobs in many low- paid sectors in particular, are facing acute talent shortages, including hospitality (51%) and health and social care (49%).

The report found that where employers in the North are acting to address hard-to-fill vacancies, the most popular planned response is to upskill existing staff (44%). Other responses include raising wages (25%), hiring more apprentices (25%) and making a greater effort to recruit older people (9%).

William Hare apprentices

CIPD calls for government action

Bridging the skills gap through apprenticeships

Skills training with the Army

In our in-depth Addressing skills and labour shortages post-Brexit report - based on a survey of more than 2000 employers in low-paying sectors and focus groups – we call on the government to tackle the region’s labour crisis and reverse decades of underinvestment in skills, through three key measures: • Introduce a temporary job mobility scheme for young EU nationals to act as a ‘safety valve’ to ease immediate, acute labour shortages. • Reform the Apprenticeship Levy to create a broader, more flexible training levy to boost employer investment in skills. • Provide £60m to fund a business improvement consultancy service via the Growth Hub network to help more firms invest in new technology and improve their people management and workforce development capability.

As more employers look to upskill or reskill staff amid the labour shortages, the British Army’s engagement team are helping large and small companies to achieve through developing workers core skills and confidence in areas such as leadership and problem solving.

Rather than compete for graduates every year, William Hare (a global leader in engineered solutions and headquartered in Greater Manchester) has developed award winning apprentceship programmes to help bridge any skills gaps.

Lieutenant Colonel Andy Black REME, Head of Engagement, NE and Yorkshire said:

Ceri Travers, Organisational Development & Early Careers Manager at WilliamHare in Bury said:

The Army firmly believe that their personnel are more than employees, they are its key assets. This is why we provide key skills training not just to deliver a soldier’s duties, but to develop them for life after their army career, and it is these skills we pass on at our community events.

Our apprenticeship programmes offer permanent roles; everyone has a mentor and a learning plan; most programmes offer progression and there is a salary scale to enable people to increase their salary every year as they achieve.

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Lessons I’ve learnt along the way

Celebrating 40 years in the profession

Resilience is important – of your ideas and suggestions, of your values and ethics and of who you are as a member of a function and team. • Patience and creativity – in HR we should be change agents, but sometimes if you are convinced that you are right, you may need a different approach, or to wait for a better time to make your suggestion to affect the change needed. • We live in a VUCA world – look at the way we needed to step up and lead during the pandemic! We should be excited that our profession is still so relevant and needed year-in, decade-out. • Continual learning important. This includes learning about what is happening in the world, what is happening with technology and what is happening culturally. You never know what may become the important ‘new influence.’

Spotlight interview with Kay Penney of Northumbrian Water

Kay Penney FCIPD, Group HR Director at Northumbrian Water is one of only 21 people professionals in the UK to mark 40 years in the profession as a CIPD member this year. She tells us more about her journey into the profession and the lessons she’s learned along the way that have helped shape her career.

My career journey into HR

CIPD membership has supported me in my career

While studying for a Business degree I had an opportunity to work in Stuttgart, Germany at the headquarters of Daimler Benz (the company which designs and manufactures vehicles under the Mercedes Benz brand). They gave me the chance to work in their Industrial Relations department on a couple of difficult projects. I graduated in a recession, so it was difficult finding my first role, but I was eventually hired to work in a Personnel team on a six-month contract. I stayed five and a half years, moving from Graduate Trainee up to HR Manager. My engineering sector experience certainly helped me on the HR ladder because it was a sector where significant changes were happening, and it was great to be able to get stuck in and learn.

In the early days, being a member of the CIPD provided me with the technical knowledge needed to contribute at work. I have spent a lot of my career working internationally and I have used the CIPD’s learning and competency framework in many countries as a way of developing the competence of my team and their ability to make a

Advice I would give to others at the start of their career journey

If HR is the career you want, go for it; no matter how hard it is to get your first role. When I started my HR career 40 years ago, I worked with many line managers who resented having a woman in my position and did their best to undermine me continually. It was tough and I had to grow hard skin to survive. Those of us in HR are expected to uphold our organisation’s values, so remember to be professional at all times; even work parties and social events are still work. Deliver what you say you will, exceed where you can, and read a lot. Find new ways to keep learning, network and keep up with colleagues who move to different organisations as you can keep learning through them.

difference in our business.

CIPD Profession Map

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Events and Networks

Northern Annual Conference

2 March 2022, Manchester

Liverpool City Region Skills Show

18 - 19 January 2022, Liverpool

Local CIPD Branch Events

CIPD Students Conference

The northern region is made up of ten CIPD Branches which we work with to shape regional events and development opportunities for members. Find out about more about your local Branch and its upcoming events here.

2 April 2022, Online

The conference is an opportunity for CIPD students to come together online, learn from experienced professionals, build their confidence and capabilities to start or progress their careers and drive better work and working lives. Attendees learned more about essential CIPD resources, the importance of building their network and online presence to support their professional growth and impact.

Applied Research Conference

Networks

26-27 January 2022, Manchester

Our range of regional networks and forums engage the profession, shape conversation and help to shape positive change in the world of work. If you would like to find out more about our HR Leaders Network, CIPD North Policy Forum or our new Senior People Professional Network e: [email protected]

ARC is the annual meeting place for academic researchers and practitioners working in people management, employment policy and related fields. This conference holds a unique place in bringing together these two communities to hear about cutting edge research in HR and active discussion on how it can be applied in practice.

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