As part of the Levering Workplace Innovation project funded by the Faculty of Social Sciences’ Impact Accelerator Account, Sally Wright organised a seminar for policymakers at the UK Government’s Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. It examined ways to improve the innovative capacity of firms. She was joined as a presenter at the seminar by Chris Warhurst and Bengt-Åke Lundvall of Aalborg University in Denmark. The seminar focused on encouraging a change in current thinking about what best levers innovation, highlighting that firms that combine two approaches – the current one based on science, technology and R&D, the other based on progressive ways to manage and organise employees at the workplace-level – have five times greater product innovation.

Professor Paul Edwards will be joining IER as an Honorary Professor. His research career began with the study of workplace industrial relations and industrial conflict. He has subsequently studied new management practices in the workplace and managerial careers, both in the UK and in international comparison. Current research is focusing on small firms and their employment practices, with a particular emphasis on firms run by new migrant to the UK.

IER's Professor Anne Green and Dr Paul Sissons from Coventry University spoke at the Employability and Skills Wales Convention in Cardiff on 'Linking growth sectors and sustainable labour market outcomes: designing policy for progression'. Their presentation included data analysis from an ESRC-funded project with colleague Neil Lee (LSE) on 'Harnessing Growth Sectors for Poverty Reduction' and findings from an international literature review focusing on initiatives to foster progression in selected sectors, with a particular emphasis on promising approaches from the US.

Sissons, P., Green, A. and Lee, N. (2016). Supporting progression in growth sectors: A review of the international evidence. Cardiff: Public Policy Institute for Wales.

Professor Anne Green talks about the importance of in-work progression in a recent Manchester Policy Blog. Anne draws on evidence from her IER work to highlight the importance of employment initiatives to help people in-work move out of poverty. To conclude, Anne draws out a number of policy challenges for city-regions to consider.

An interim report on decent work has been published by Oxfam and the University of Scotland in collaboration with Warwick Institute for Employment Research. The report, co-authored by Sally Wright of IER, examines what low paid, low skilled workers in Scotland want from jobs. The report, What Makes For Decent Work?, can be freely downloaded.