The Equality Act of 2010 was a landmark moment for employers.  It was one of the most significant pieces of legislation in our lifetime as it promised an end to discrimination on the grounds of sex, race or disability, but today we’re still talking about Equality, Diversity and Inclusion.  In fact, the conversation has never been more prominent with issues like Black Lives Matter forcing society as a whole to examine its biases.

Research from Tribepad looked at whether candidates feel like they are protected from discrimination when applying for their next role, and unfortunately, the answer appears to be ‘No’.

The Tribepad report takes a deep dive into the issue of bias, exploring the root of the problem as well as its impact on candidates, with the aim being twofold: – to highlight the flaws in the current system and to empower employers to bring about real change to benefit everyone.

While Equality, Diversity and Inclusion efforts have long focussed on eliminating bias on the basis of people’s race, gender or sexual orientation; today’s candidates are just as worried about being discriminated against because of their accents, their age and even their appearance.

In a perfect world, people would get hired based on their work experience, their attitude and the skills they bring to the table, however, Tribepad analysis shows that candidates have real concerns that biases, whether conscious or otherwise, might seriously impact their chances of getting their next role.

The findings reveal that candidates’ biggest concerns are being discriminated against due to age, personal appearance and disability.  Meanwhile issues such as mental health, accents and simply being a parent were also common.

The 10 biggest biases according to applicants were: –

• Age (too old) – 64.4%
• Personal appearance – 19.6%
• Disability or learning needs – 17.6%
• Gender or gender identity – 17.4%
• Race or ethnicity – 15.5%
• Weight – 14.6%
• Age (too young) – 13.5%
• Accent – 13.3%
• Mental Health – 12.6%
• Being a parent – 12.6%.

However, while some of these fears of bias are not protected characteristics as defined by the Equality Act, the focus from an employer perspective in addressing biases was as follows: –

• Ethnicity – 92%
• Gender – 87%
• Disability – 72%
• Part-time Working/Flexible Working – 62%
• Socio-Economic Background – 51%
• Gender Identity – 51%
• Age – 41%
• Sexual Orientation – 36%
• Religion/Belief – 23%, and
• Other – 5%.

It should be pointed out, that while a ‘fear’ of bias itself has no bearing on whether the bias truly exists or not, the clear disparity between the focus of employers and the views of candidates does indeed suggest that organisations still have a lot to do to make recruitment more of a level playing field for all.

The full report looking at perceived bias can be accessed here.

The Green Alliance has published a report on the green skills gap which highlights the need for action to ensure the UK job market has the skills necessary for the green economy to develop.

As the government has committed to delivering a net zero economy by 2050 and has highlighted its intention to spread economic benefits across the country through ‘levelling up’, it is felt that the transition to net zero will create new economic opportunities that can be harnessed to spread opportunity across the country, but to do so will require new skills in the UK’s workforce.

The Green Alliance Report identifies specific gaps in skills and makes recommendations for the development of an integrated skills programme to marry the government’s environmental ambitions with its economic and social aims.

The Findings

1. Every major sector in the UK needs to close a significant skills gap to enable them to reach net zero.
2. The sectors with the most pressing emissions reductions by 2030 face the most immediate skills shortages, including housing and transport. Along with land use, these sectors already face shortages to deliver the status quo, let alone progress on net zero.
3. Eighty per cent (80%) of the current workforce will still be active in 2030. As well as attracting new green entrants there should be a focus on transferring existing skills and retraining for the green economy.

The Recommendations

Green skills are central to both levelling up and economic growth, so the government must start from a point of integration. Current and forthcoming legislation on lifetime skills and the UK Infrastructure Bank (UKIB) must give due regard to environmental goals, while environmental legislation must do the same for skills.

However, to ensure the economy does not return to sluggish growth and green jobs do not only stay in the south east but spread across the country, ministers should design and implement a new comprehensive green skills programme, supported in three ways via Industry, Institutions and Individuals.

Industry Will Need To: –

• Develop a UK-wide body and framework for green jobs, to match supply and demand regionally and across sectors.
• Identify and develop local skills plans that link businesses with universities and colleges and reflect local dynamics.
• Sector boards will have to collect frequent, granular labour market intelligence for the green transition.
• And a super-deduction for training, providing 130% tax relief for investment in employees’ green skills should be implemented.

Institutions Will Need To: –

• Develop green courses, using the new framework to understand the landscape of the future workforce.
• Establish environmental modules in other courses as the new skill requirements are not confined to green jobs.

Individuals Will Need To: –

• Support public facing campaigns to increase knowledge about green skills and their benefits, complementing efforts by industry.
• Provide support for workers while they retrain, in the form of loans, grants or maintenance payments.
• Use existing programmes to boost green skills, such as the digital skills bootcamp model.

To read the full Green Alliance report please click here.

 

 

Although youth unemployment has long been a concern, reports by the Chartered Institute of Personnel (CIPD) and Youth Futures Foundation (YFF) note that this has been exacerbated during the pandemic, with young people experiencing the greatest rise in unemployment levels.

While unemployment has now largely returned to pre-pandemic levels, hundreds of thousands of young people are still seeking work and there is an increase in those who are economically inactive.  At the same time, job vacancies have been increasing and have hit record levels in most industries across the UK.

After a period of reduced recruitment and hiring, employers are now having to compete harder to fill job openings. The increased competition for candidates is driving employers’ attention to underutilised pools of talent, who have traditionally been overlooked when accessing employment.

Disadvantaged young people are in most need of these opportunities, and in this context, it is vital that employers can effectively recruit young people from marginalised groups, who may need more support to move towards, or return to, paid work.

Young people can face barriers not relating to education, skills or job performance, such as their age, race, skin colour, gender or disability as well as lacking qualifications, education, or the social and professional skills needed to enter the job market, due to factors such as poverty, lack of support, drug use, mental health problems, discrimination or other social issues. Furthermore, these issues can be compounded by: –

• Ineffective recruitment channels and adverts
• Poor selection methods
• Subgroup differences
• Unconscious bias.

The first step recruiters and employers have to take in employing disadvantaged young people is to get the message about vacancies out to them. The usual communication channels might not work for reaching disadvantaged young people; for example, they may not see a job advert if a recruiter relies on LinkedIn. Barriers can be that they lack confidence, do not know how to job search effectively, or do not know enough about the jobs market to find the right job opportunities.

Instead, there is some evidence to suggest that people from disadvantaged groups often rely more on personal contacts and their informal networks to find employment opportunities, as well as searching for work more locally.  Therefore, recruiters would be more effective if they reach out to local communities and engage with spaces and places where disadvantaged young people are more likely to be represented, otherwise recruitment problems and youth disadvantage will continue to persist.

To read the recommendations and see the full CIPD and YFF reports please click on the respective links.

According to Get My First Job (GMFJ), employers are finding it increasingly difficult to find workers.  A report published by GMFJ discusses solutions to this problem and what can be done about it.

The tight labour market means that employers will need to implement new and innovative ways of attracting the talent in order to grow their business. This includes communicating more effectively the salaries and benefits they offer, and many employers will also be thinking about investing in new technology to automate processes as labour becomes more expensive.

The fiercely competitive labour market will also mean employers having to look to the early talent market to fill the roles they are having trouble recruiting, which in turn will necessitate closer collaboration with education and training providers, particularly in promoting apprenticeships in more creative and appealing ways.

The huge number of job vacancies that have been seen over the last few months cannot continue to rise indefinitely, and so some sort of move to equilibrium between labour supply and demand is likely to happen at some point.  However, both employers, education and training providers should seize the opportunity to review their strategy for recruiting employees and apprentices, not only to get through this time of change, but also to be better placed for the future.

To better understand the ramifications of the changing jobs market, access the full GMFJ report here.

Research from the Chartered Management Institute (CMI), including data insights from Higher Educational Institutes (HEIs), examines the employability of recent graduates from an employer perspective.

The research was conducted between December 2020 and August 2021 and explores changes to employability skills within the context of the pandemic; how employers can help shape employability programmes in HEIs; and the optimal shape of employability programmes that could be offered by HEIs in future.

As employers’ expectations have changed post-pandemic and students face an increasingly challenging job market, the research will help HEIs to develop the courses and student offering that a new generation of learners now need for a hybrid world of work.

The research found that: –

• Many employers still believe that graduates lack the ‘basic’ work-ready competencies that make up employability skills.
• This skills gap will become more apparent in a hybrid / digital world.
• Embedding these skills from the very start of a university course will help students to identify and sell these skills to prospective employers.
• Once a graduate secures a role, the core skills of critical thinking, team-working and communication will be needed. This applies to all students as every graduate needs these skills to navigate the jobs market.
• More needs to be done to connect students with employers.  There is a disconnect that deters many employers from getting involved with HEIs to help shape the employability skills of students prior to graduation.
• 61% of employers who are not currently involved in shaping employability skills with HEIs would like to get involved, but only 11% of this group know how to do so.

The full CMI report can be accessed via this link.