Transcript Document

The Learning Workplace
Presentation
March 2004
Lucy Fallon-Byrne, Director
Overview
1.
Strategic importance of change in the workplace
2.
Characteristics of successful workplace change and
innovation
3.
Workplaces in Ireland today: Survey research
4.
Emerging priorities and areas for action
Wim Kok – Competitiveness and jobs
‘Member States, social partners, enterprises and
workers must increase their capacity to anticipate,
trigger and absorb change, whether cyclical or
structural, if more jobs are to be created and filled’.
Kok Report (2003)

Increase adaptability of workers and enterprises

Attract more people to the labour market

Invest more and more effectively in human capital

Ensure effective implementation of reforms through better
governance
1.Strategic importance of change in the
workplace
• Performance of our workplaces is now critical to achieving our
national ambitions and moving to higher value-added activities
• Workplaces can create new opportunities but to do so they must
be geared towards constant change and innovation
• How work is configured and workplace relations are a real force
for change, improvement and value added at national level
However…
• There has been very little analysis and focus on the workplace in
the development of national strategy to date
NCPP Website – www.ncpp.ie
2
Emerging characteristics of a future workplace
• Organisational fitness as a strategic priority
• Employees as the ‘thinking core’ of the organisation
• Promoting more participative models of management
• Investment in skills and training but in the context of the
workplace
• Diversity – a source of competitive advantage
• Recognition of the value of better work-life balance
• Changing role for trade unions
Organisational Fitness
Fitness – The capacity of the organisation to:
• LEARN – change commitments, attitudes and values
• ADAPT - its strategy and business model
• CHANGE – multiple organisational elements
• DEVELOP – needed capabilities
• OFP – Organisational Fitness Process
Six Silent
Killers
•
•
•
•
•
•
Unclear strategy
Poor leadership style – top down
An ineffective top team
Poor co-ordination
Closed vertical communication
Inadequate leadership / manangement skills and
development in organisation
Employees as ‘the thinking
core’
• In the future all workers will be knowledge workers
• Need to widen and deepen the knowledge base of
the organisation
• Enormous implications for HRM
• information and consultation
• employee involvement
• creating the conditions for employees to contribute
• honest conversations
• tolerance of failure and risk
• New psychological contract
Benefits of high involvement – the international
evidence
• Benefits
– Overall performance and profitability
– Productivity and efficiency
– Innovation
– Employee benefits
• New model of management
– Participative and engaging managment style
– Engaging rather than heroic management
– About us rather than about me
– Implies increased vulnerability, emotional intelligence
Perceived effects of partnership
100
90
80
70
76
73
72
71
70
67
60
50
40
30
20
29
25
27
25
19
20
10
3
4
4
3
6
5
0
Job Sat
Performance
Pay & Cond
Positive effect
Emp Security
No effect
Willingness tochange
Confid co-op with
m'ment
Negative Effect
Diversity
• Diversity critical because of demographic situation
• The business case for diversity
– Widens the innovation, creativity and knowledge base
– Allows for greater diversity in the thinking core
– Mirrors the diverse needs of customers
• Ireland’s poor performance in relation to diversity
– biggest gender pay gap in Europe at 16%
– poor childcare infrastructure
– largest gap between high and low skills employed
Changing role for trade unions
• Working in partnership with mangement to
– Secure the future success of the organisation
– Increase the skills and employability of their members
• Research shows that workers want
– Unions to work more closely with management than at
present
– A wider range of representation including training and
learning, flexibility, work-life balance
3
Workplaces in Ireland today
NCPP/ESRI Survey Work Autumn 2003
• Employee Survey - 5200 employees
– Focus
• Working conditions
• Attitude to change
• Openess to change
• Employer Survey
– 1400 private sector employers
– 572 Public sector organisations
– Focus
• Perceptions of pressures for change
• Responses to pressures
Workplaces in Ireland: Key survey findings
• Employers
– Twin track attention to innovation and costs
– Increasing priority attached to developing human capital
• Employees
– High levels of job satisfaction
– High levels of commitment to work and to organisation
– Evidence of substantial change over past two years
– Evidence of willingness to change
• Three quarters of employees willing to accept increased responsibility
– Importance of communication
• Employees who report higher levels of consultation relating to decisions
affecting their work are more likely to accept change
4
Emerging areas for action
•
Under-utilisation of the workforce
•
Low levels of information and consultation
•
The knowledge / opportunities divide in the workplace
•
Linking innovation and change to job satisfaction and
reduction in stress
•
Policy supports and infrastructure
4
Emerging areas for action
Information flows - Private Sector
Percentage of Private Sector Employees 'Hardly Ever' Receiving Information from
Mangement in 6 Areas of Work
100
90
80
70
60
50
58
52
40
30
41
37
42
40
20
10
0
Competition
Intro new
prod/serv
Intro new tech
Re-org
company
Change work
pract
Sales/Profits
Percentage of employees consulted prior to decisions
affecting their work
50
40
30
27
24
20
21
15
10
13
0
Almost always
Often
Sometimes
Rarely
Almost Never
4
How equal are our workplaces?
The opportunities divide
•
Social class and educational attainment create
important differences
•
job satisfaction and work commitment
•
levels of information and consultation
•
levels of discretion and autonomy
•
levels of partnership and participation
•
levels of training
4
How equal are our workplaces?
The opportunities divide: training
Education levels
35% no quals
60% with 3rd level quals
Social class
35% semi skilled, 28% unskilled
63% higher professionals
Full-time more than part-time
Union more than non-union
Public sector (60%) more than private sector (45%)
More general in nature that specific
4
How equal are our workplaces?
The opportunities divide:
•
•
•
•
Higher professionals 3.3 times more likely to receive
information that unskilled manual workers
Higher professionals three times more likely to have
participation arrangements in workplaces (58%) than
unskilled workers (19.8%) but…..
Where participation arrangements are in place there is a
high level of involvement among semi-skilled and unskilled
workers (54% and 74%)
Employees in public sector (45%) much more likely to
report presence of partnership than employees in private
sector (18%)
4
How equal are our workplaces ?
The opportunities divide:
Trade union membership lowest among:
•
Young workers
•
Those with no educational qualifications
•
Those with short job tenure
•
Part-time workers
and
•
Significanly lower among those with nonpermanent contracts
4
Inequality and underutilisation
Under-utilisation of the workforce
– Employees are under-utilised: low levels of
consultation but high levels of willingness to
change among workers
– Lack of diffusion of new work practices
• Employee financial participation
• Flexible working
• Partnership and participation
4
Emerging areas for action
D.
Linking change to job satisfaction and reduction in stress
–
–
Reducing stress is particularly important in implementing change
successfully
Information has little effect on reducing stress – information and
consultation most powerful
Autonomy
Consultation and involvement
Family-friendly policies
Flexitime
Managing Stress
Increasing Stress
Information without involvement
Lack of autonomy, control
Performance review
Working from home
High level of organsational change
5
Conclusions
Knowledge society and knowledge working
needs a different type of support – a new HRM
paradigm
– Acknowledge employee involvement as a key
strategy in achieving change and high performance
– Make the economic and business case for equality
and diversity
– Recognise the link between well-being at work,
work relations and productivity and innovation
– Develop policies to address the opportunities divide
in our workplaces and underutilisation of our
workforce
2.
Change as a mindset: Some examples
Abbott
Tegral
Allianz
Medtronic
Willingess to
Change
Aughinish
Alumina
High performance founded on
information and consultation
Philosophy based on partnership,
participation and team working
80% of employees working on
products that are less than 2 years old
Commitment and expansion to
growth for example into power
generation
Employment continuing to grow
despite significant cost disadvantage
Innovative links with third level
Forum Website – www.ncpp.ie/forum