The Job Support Scheme announced by the Chancellor of the Exchequer on 24^th September is a form of short-time working subsidy found in countries such as Germany and France. If an employee’s working hours are reduced and thereby their pay, the state will make up a third of the lost earnings and the employer a further third. In summary, the scheme is designed to distribute available work over a larger group of workers than would be the case otherwise thereby helping to offset any increase in unemployment resulting from the pandemic.

There is something unusual in the Job Support Scheme: it potentially increases the employer’s labour costs. Take the following example as an illustration.

Someone working 40 hours a week for ₤12.00 an hour has their hours of work reduced to 24 a week. This means that the weekly wage will reduce from ₤480 to ₤288. The employer will pay a third of the employee’s lost earnings (₤64) and the state a further third. The impact of this is to increase the employee’s hourly rate from ₤12.00 to ₤14.67; an increase of 22 per cent. If this were maintained over six months, to when the scheme is currently scheduled to end, the employer will have ended up paying an additional ₤1,651 to the employee for hours worked.

It is hard to escape the fact that it will be cheaper for the employer to retain as many employees working their usual hours and not use of the scheme, and make the others redundant. Of course redundancy costs and potential income from the Job Retention Bonus for previously furloughed employees may offset the employer’s additional hourly labour costs from using the scheme. Plus the employer will retain a full complement of skilled employees to take advantage of the eventual recovery thereby avoiding future recruitment costs or those which result from difficulties finding people with the right skills.

Nevertheless, the potential effectiveness of the Job Support Scheme would appear to be finely poised between success and failure simply because it requires employers to increase their hourly labour costs.

A new report, published by Forces in Mind Trust on September 23rd 2020, finds that the experience and skillset of Senior Non-Commissioned Officers (SNCOs) are often misunderstood and under-valued in the civilian labour market.

The report states that SNCOs’ unique skills, combined with their length of time in service, may put them at a disadvantage when they leave the Armed Forces and have to compete with civilians for jobs. The research, undertaken by a team at IER and QinetiQ, found that SNCOs often join the military at a very young age and can struggle to find employment when they leave service. The majority of SNCO veterans who took part in the research said they found it overwhelming to have to deal with the practicalities of civilian life at the same time as trying to find employment, and 23% found their lack of interview experience to be very challenging. Negative attitudes from potential employers were also found to be a barrier.

The report outlines recommendations for SNCOs to support their own transition as well as calling for more support from Government, business, and Armed Forces charities to ensure SNCOs’ skills are better understood and utilised by civilian employers.

Read more in the press release here.

In June, Chris Warhurst contributed to Warwick’s new Global Research Priorities (GRP) group’s debate on Productivity and the Futures of Work with a webinar on ‘The shape of employment to come’. It includes a 7-point plan for employment in a new UK industrial strategy.

GRPs are interdisciplinary research groupings intended to respond to complex multi-faceted global problems through collaborative research excellence.

The recorded presentation can be found here and a blog post on this topic here.

The IER and QinetiQ, were commissioned by Army Families Federation to analyse the factors shaping the employment of military spouses/partners and to formulate recommendations for effective support services.

The report, launched by AFF at the Royal Horseguards Hotel in London on Tuesday 19th June, with speakers including the Right Honourable Esther McVey, contains a series of key recommendations for supporting military spouses/partners into employment.

The research involved five separate phases of data collection, undertaken between October 2017 and April 2018. Data was collected from an online survey with almost 1500 spouses/partners from all three Services, 32 telephone interviews, an online survey with 38 employers and 14 stakeholder interviews.

Lyonette, C., Barnes, S-A, Kispeter, E., Fisher, N. and Newell, K. (2018) 'Military spousal/partner employment: Identifying the barriers and support required' - report to Army Families Federation.

In April the CIPD launched the first report from its new UK Working Lives Survey . It found that whilst half of respondents would work even if they didn’t need the money, over half of respondents also said that their jobs fail to provide decent career development. A team from IER helped develop the survey tool and analyse its results, with Dr Sudipa Sarkar seconded to the CIPD as part of this work.