Remember all the talk during Covid about the ‘new normal’? It seems that this year really has seen the embedding of it, with hybrid working in many (but not most) workplaces. IER is one of those workplaces, where staff now typically work 2-3 days each week in the office.
In the past I worked most days in the office when not in London. I confess to not missing the daily commute on those days when I now work at home. On the other hand, I feel that I’m losing out on the important daily informal interactions with my colleagues in IER.
In 2023, we also added three new learning units to our LMI for AllLink opens in a new window. Funded by the UK Government, this longstanding project supports practitioners and teachers to access and use labour market information (LMI) as part of the careers education, advice, guidance and counselling process. We’re always keen to develop our LMI services and so welcome feedback and requests about this project. The project team can be contacted via email at lmiforall@warwick.ac.uk.
IER’s third new normal seems to be research projects examining green jobs and skills. What started as a trickle in 2020 has turned into a steady flow of projects over 2023 funded by devolved governments in England and Scotland. Led by Jeisson Cardenas RubioLink opens in a new window, these projects typically examine the supply and demand for green jobs in particular regions using the new GreenSOC developed by IER with our colleague Pauline AndersonLink opens in a new window at Strathclyde University in Scotland.
By contrast, ReWAGE Link opens in a new windowhas been winding down. Originally intended to support the UK Government in building back better jobs post Covid, this independent expert advisory was awarded extended funding in 2023 by the ESRC but which finally ended in the summer. Led by IER Director Chris WarhurstLink opens in a new window and Leeds University’s Irena GrugulisLink opens in a new window, this initiative has proved to be an enormous success. Thanks to the generous buy-in of its 35 UK-wide experts, ReWAGE produced 40 evidence papers and policy briefs, made 8 submissions to government and parliament consultations and countless presentations to government not only in Westminster but around the UK. Its success offers a blueprint for UKRI investments in the future that want to take research to policymakers.
Since the Brexit vote, IER has continued to secure research funding through Horizon 2020 and now Horizon Europe. 2023 has been no different. Two new Horizon projects started. The first, Skills2CapabilityLink opens in a new window, led by 3s in Austria, examines labour market transitions, skills and training. The second, HE bridges 5.0Link opens in a new window, led by our Dutch colleagues at TNO, focuses on the green and digital skills needed for Industry 5.0. We also started an EU CHANSE funded project called GIG-OSH Link opens in a new windowthat examines the physical and mental health of platform workers, which is led by the Karolinska Institute in Sweden.
All of these EU projects required co-funding from the UK Horizon Guarantee or UKRI, which added to our bureaucracy. However, the UK becoming a fully-fledged member of Horizon Europe in early 2024 will make leading projects and working with our continental European colleagues easier. That can only be a good thing and we look forward to what we hope will be our final new normal next year.
All in all, as Raymond Brigg’s Father Christmas might say, 2023 has been a “bloomin’ marvellous” year for IER and we’d like to thank all of our research partners and funders in the UK and elsewhere for their support. We look forward to continuing to work with you in 2024.
In the meantime, we hope that everyone has a wonderful Festive Season and Hogmanay.
Professor Chris Warhurst, IER Director.
New publication: Legislating against Lookism in Australia
Archival analysis of cases of alleged lookism in employment in Victoria provides an important opportunity to assess the efficacy of legal attempts to address employment discrimination based on employee appearance and identify lessons for improving such laws.
Leveraging procurement to foster employment equality
Based on mixed-method research, the report sheds light on the policy framework and the inclusion of equality objectives in public procurement in England, Scotland and Wales and identifies barriers to and enablers of socially responsible public procurement.
Using two skills dictionaries, the ESCO dictionary and a national labour market dictionary, this study extracted required skills from Chilean online job advertisements. The study found enhanced results when applying the latter dictionary method and so concludes its incorporation into labour market information systems, and online job portals, would enable better decision making by the various actors in the labour market.
IER welcomes Professor Trine Larsen
Trine Pernille LarsenLink opens in a new window joined the IER in October. Trine’s background is in Industrial Relations, Public Administration and European Social Policy, where she uses mixed methods to understand the processes of regulatory changes as well as outcomes in the areas of comparative employment, industrial relations and European work-life balance policies.
Her research focuses among others on social dialogue practices, non-standard work and labour market segmentation. Recent research has explored the digitalisation of work as well as public procurement practices, including their implications for management-employee relations, working conditions and individuals’ working lives.
Trine has previously worked at different universities in Denmark, the UAE and the UK (University of Copenhagen, Aalborg University, University of Sorbonne, UAE and the University of Kent).
Tracking Graduates and their Mobility: Comparing Experiences in the International Framework
Professor Kate Purcell and Dr. Sangwoo Lee have been invited as panelists to the International Conference on ‘Tracking Graduates and Their Mobility’ organised by ‘Alma Laurea’, a renowned public interuniversity consortium in Italy. The event took place on 1 December 2023 at the University of Bologna.
Find out more in the IER news itemLink opens in a new window how the cross-European graduate study has evolved over a decade, leading to it currently being piloted in 17 countries, and what IER staff presented at the event on the IER news page. Although the UK is no longer part of the EU, IER’s research impact still reaches and influences European research.
Time to broaden the definition of graduates’ labour market outcomes: Job quality premium - Blog by Sangwoo Lee
The quality of paid work has become an essential component of individuals’ well-being in modern-day capitalism, and there has been a surge in policy discourse surrounding the objective of ‘more and better jobs’ (as articulated by the OECD) or ‘decent work’ (as outlined in the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals) over the past two decades.
Given the growing policy concern toward employment quality, coupled with the growing tertiary-educated population globally, exploring the wider benefits of higher education on the quality of individuals’ work life, beyond the well-documented earnings premium, has become crucial to better understanding existing inequalities in the labour market. As individuals increasingly value intangible benefits, e.g., work-life balance, above tangible benefits, e.g., wage, when choosing their careers, it is now time to consider a broader definition of graduates’ labour market outcomes with a concept of job quality.
The blog highlights that graduates experience good job quality in many but not all respects and argues that there is a need for better data. Read the full blog hereLink opens in a new window.
Good Work and Industry 5.0 presentations
In November, Director of IER, Chris Warhurst presented at a string of events on:
‘Mapping the Good Work policy terrain’ to the Department of Business & Trade
‘Good Work and Productivity’ to a Productivity Institute event held at Warwick Business School as part of the Productivity Week, and on
‘Industry 5.0’ at the Digital Manufacturing Conference held in Cambridge.
