Apart from the obvious moral arguments for providing a great place to work in return for the time employees invest in helping your business, being a good employer, offering good work makes perfect economic sense. Common sense suggests happy employees give greater discretionary effort. However, what may be surprising is just how much difference that can make. One recently published study by Prof. Alex Edmans of the London Business School, showed that over a 28-year period, companies reporting the highest employee satisfaction levels consistently outperformed their peers financially to the tune of between 89% and 184%
Providing good quality jobs
Being or becoming an ethical employer means going some way beyond ensuring legally compliant practices. For example, B Corp Companies undergo an employment practices survey as part of their accreditation process. The B Corp checklist considers the extent to which working for the organisation provides a liveable wage, supports health and wellbeing, offers training and development and quality employee engagement and participation.
The Chartered Institute for Personnel & Development (CIPD) defines “a good quality job” through seven similar criteria. Their definition can be summarised as:
- Giving employees the means to make a secure living
- Allowing for work-life balance
- Provision of opportunities to learn and advance
- Providing a supportive environment with constructive relationships
- Allowing employees, the voice and choice to shape their working lives
- Ensuring work is physically and mentally healthy
- Providing a sense of fulfilment from the work itself, or by association with the work
What’s the UK Government doing?
In the latest part of its Good Work Plan to improve workers’ rights, the UK government is proposing a new workers’ rights watchdog to act as a “one-stop shop” for enforcement, combining the roles of the enforcement bodies that will police the minimum wage, modern slavery and agency workers’ rights.
Powers of the new Agency
The new agency will take over HMRC’s scheme of naming and shaming employers that fail to pay the minimum wage, and will extend minimum wage enforcement to workers employed through agencies or gangmasters. It will also remove the need for vulnerable workers to turn to the tribunal system to reclaim holiday or sick pay entitlements. The watchdog would also create a “single, recognisable port of call” where workers can “blow the whistle on bad behaviour”.
Simple things an employer can do to help protect workers rights
- Adopt an ethical decision-making framework inside your Company – We have a free downloadable checklist to go with this article and would be delighted to offer our advice and consulting services.
- Ensure your managers are well versed in your policies and ensure they stick with them. We offer management training covering a wide range of topics and competencies.
- Ensure your suppliers make a declaration about the provision of workers’ rights and modern slavery as part of the tendering process.
- Be prepared to check that their policies are being implemented.
