IES Annual Conference 2024: Creating a Sustainable Workforce
We heard from the UK's leading employment specialists and HR thinkers on how best to create a sustainable workforce.
Background
HR sits at the centre of the biggest challenge currently facing the UK economy - labour and skills shortages combined with work environments that are failing to attract and retain workers.
There is likely to be growing pressure in the year ahead for organisations to do more to deliver ‘good work’, whether as a result of an upcoming UK election, acute retention and skills challenges, changing social attitudes and expectations around work, or to wider pressures such as the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive.
The pressure for organisations to have an evidence-based story to tell about their workforce strategy, and to provide more information about material workforce risks that could affect the business or society more widely, will affect many organisations both directly and indirectly.
Faced with these challenges and forces, HR has a job on its hands. In this year’s annual conference, we heard from a range of speakers who can inspire our thinking about how to proactively address the risks that could well undermine workforce sustainability and shape a workforce strategy that is future-proof.
Questions we addressed included:
- How can HR best create a sustainable workforce?
- How do we create work and workplaces that retain people and valued skills?
- How can HR mitigate the risks to workforce sustainability?
- What is the current state and prospects for the UK labour market and what does that mean for building a sustainable workforce strategy?
- What are the implications of wider external factors eg political and regulatory, on the workforce sustainability agenda?
Slides:
IES Annual Conference 2024: Creating a Sustainable Workforce
Speakers:
Tony Wilson, Director, Institute for Employment Studies (IES)
Woojdan Raza, Director of People, Culture and Inclusion, The National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO)
Claire Campbell, CEO, Timewise
Sue Falch-Lovesey, UK Head of Social Value, Equinor
Dr Wilson Wong, Director, Insight and Futures, WongonWork
Nita Clarke OBE, Director, Involvement & Participation Association (IPA)
Dr Zofia Bajorek, Senior Research Fellow, IES
Dr Sarah Pass, Senior Lecturer, Nottingham Business School
Kerry Smith, Chief People Officer, British Heart Foundation
Related Blogs
Grasping the nettle: shaping a fairer world of work in complex times
Flexible working as a day one right
Additional resources
Report: Progression in Employment: Employer toolkit and case study collection
Report: Labour Market Statistics, May 2024