Well it is Panto Season!!
The recent report published by the UK Commission for Employment and Skills (UKCES) on Careers of the Future gives key statistics for the top 100 jobs. Thank heavens HR and Industrial Relations Officers feature in the list.
For those of you into metrics, according to their data 132,000 are in current employment. The projected net change in employment is 23,000 with 73,000 projected job openings. The mean earnings are £28,999.
The use of the title Industrial Relations Officer made me link up with an article by Arvind Hickman in yesterday’s HR Magazine. Lord Monks, former general secretary of the TUC, was speaking at a joint Work Foundation and Prospect event looking at HR. He challenges the HR profession to be “more assertive and more militant about putting people at the centre of organisations”. Nothing wrong with that although the use of the word militant would worry me!
Lord Monks is also quoted as saying that HR had “regressed more than it had progressed” in recent years, citing excessive executive pay, growing inequality and employment insecurity as failures of the function. He went on to say that “It’s an area that has declined by too much and needs strengthening. We need leaders of big companies who come from the HR function who can do the money and product as well.” Monks recalled the time he led the TUC in the 1970s when “the stars of the HR world were the industrial relations managers”.
Interesting thoughts, so it is important to yet again stress the need for People Professionals to be more rounded in their knowledge. The key areas for me are finance, the use of metrics, really understanding the business they are working in. People professionals also need to adopt the proactive behaviours of Courage to Challenge and Skilled Influencer.
There is no doubt in my mind that People Professionals do need to be at the top of their game in these fast changing times, they need to enable their organisations to be agile, embrace change, and above all they need to really understand the diversity in their people.
To help you with this I came across a great report by Unum – the Future of the Workplace it looks at:
- the ageless workforce – that is ‘ageless’ enables ‘returnment’ instead of retirement and promotes the idea that you can work forever.
- the mindful workforce – mindful, tranquil, sublime and that nurtures the health and performance of the mind.
- the intuitive workforce – that monitors its workers’ environment, mood, wants and needs, to create an all-encompassing, intelligent and intuitive working environment.
- the collaborative workforce – that is collaborative, cooperative, convivial and collected in the way it operates.
The report has some very practical toolkits to help stimulate different approaches. So demonstrate that you are Curious and have a read, who knows what ideas will be stimulated!