On 15 November 2011 Tomorrow's Company launched the first report in a programme on employee voice being undertaken in partnership with the Involvement and Participation Association (IPA). The report ‘Rethinking voice – for sustainable business success’ describes how employee voice is critical for the future of UK plc. Employee voice involves a two-way communication and an honest and trusting relationship between the organisation and its staff. Other project partners include BAE Systems, British Gas, HSBC, IAC Group, Thomson and Unipart, who enrich the report with their own experiences and challenges of voice.  Finally it sets out a framework that pulls together the factors that we think impact on the quality and effectiveness of employee voice in organisations.

These slides are from a presentation by Duncan Gallie.  They examine some employment trends in the UK, particularly the effect of rising job skills but decreasing employee task discretion in the UK. Duncan Gallie is a professor at Nuffield College, Oxford.  He researches quality of work; attitudes to social inequality and the social implications of unemployment.

This diagram was developed by Corporate Culture to explain how CR evolves within a business. Disparate – disparate stage a business is conducting a random mix of activities with no clear strategy or link to the business Silos – this is the phase of CR where the business is working in silos, for example the HR team may be looking at the diversity of the business, someone in facilities management maybe looking at recycling for the building, there may be someone with overall responsibility for CR activities (possible at Board level) but there is no overriding strategy Cross-cutting – this is the phase where the business starts to join up activities and cross cut their CR activity into an overriding strategy which different parts of the business talking to each other. There may be a CR steering Group, CR strategy and will probably be a person or team co-ordinating activities Fully-integrated – this is the phase where the CR activity is fully integrated into the business and decisions...

Apart from money, what is it that motivates people at work? There is plenty of rhetoric about ethics and social responsibility, but does it really make a difference to people's performance at work, or their their loyalty? In 2001 the Ci Group (www.careerinnovation.com) conducted a large-scale global survey to answer these questions. This previously unpublished research illustrates the business benefits from being a force for good company, including: Motivational benefits of employee volunteering; Statistical evidence that ‘Ethical Reputation’ is a top driver of staff retention; The ethical motivation profile of industry sectors;  Links between career discussions and retention.

Companies are responding to global competition and economic volatility by seeking to be more responsive while lowering costs. This often involves down-sizing and out-sourcing: The very things that tend to destroy the trust of employees. At the same time, workers say they want more flexibility, yet this is often perceived by business as a threat to performance. Could there be a way to reconcile these two apparently opposing forces and transform the debate on flexible working and business performance? Workplace experts Career Innovation facilitated an 18-month ‘Agile Resourcing’ programme with some of the world's most respected employers: Boeing, BT, Marriott, Nokia, Pfizer, PwC, UBS and Oxfam. The resulting ‘Manifesto’ provides principles and examples to help create tomorrow's most agile workplaces. www.CiManifesto.com.