At some stage in the development and growth of a business, we are faced with strategic choices. One of the most critical of these is our workforce. With a rapidly changing and mobile workforce, it is more important than ever that businesses adapt and respond to the needs of existing and future employees.
When comparing to the rest of the UK, full-time employment has remained stable in Scotland, whilst part-time employment, temporary jobs and self-employment are all on the up, and have been on the up since 2008. Couple this with the rise of more people working later in life and a drive to boost the number of apprentices, businesses are managing a truly modern workforce.
Part-time work is a positive element of the employment system, enabling flexibility for those who need it most, whether those are parents and caregivers, or simply workers looking to strike a work-life balance. Indeed, recent ONS data illustrated that there are now more people in the workforce that would like to work fewer hours, for less pay, than the reverse, showcasing the changing societal attitudes to working hours in general.
Part-time work in particular, is prevalent amongst women and has played a critical role in increasing participation of women and under-represented groups into employment. Of course, part-time work must not act as a mechanism to stall or inhibit individual employee growth. Whilst businesses are playing an active role in closing the pay gap and increasing diversity in the workforce, recently published reports such as those by the IFS show that women continue to earn less than men, despite achieving better educational standards on average, and that the gender pay gap has not fallen in the last 25 years for the most highly educated women, despite closing somewhat for others.
The private sector is playing a role to tackle these issues, and more employers are looking at innovative ways to overcome these challenges such as focusing on outcomes, rather than hours worked, when evaluating employee performance and pay. That also opens up more opportunities for employers to retain and recruit staff, such as considering job-sharing and flexible working arrangements for senior roles as a matter of course, and recognising that many roles in the modern, digital economy can be effective without a strictly defined schedule, or even an office.
This isn’t simply a matter of good social sense, but economic too. Employers that are able to implement these practices will benefit from real competitive advantage. Many businesses have demonstrated the increased effectiveness of having balanced gender representation at senior and board level and a healthy employment mix in the workforce. Companies that take this seriously will capture the benefits of modern flexible working and secure a firm competitive advantage in a global marketplace.
Liz Cameron is chief executive of Scottish Chambers of Commerce.
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