Health & Wellbeing

Job quality is key to good wellbeing

The CIPD has called on employers to ensure job quality doesn’t take a backseat in the quest to protect jobs and rebuild the economy in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

The CIPD Good Work Index has revealed a worrying decline in health and wellbeing over the past two years and highlights that some jobs are undeniably better than others – not just in terms of essentials such as pay and contracts, but also in terms of our day-to-day experiences of work and its impact on our lives.

While some differences in job quality are inherent to the nature of work and the structure of the labour market, the report finds that changes in people management and employment practices could significantly improve job quality in many cases. In particular, it finds that two often over-looked dimensions of job quality – job design and relationships at work – could make a big difference to working lives and performance at work.

The report highlights occupations that lead to particularly poor experiences for workers and those where there are trade-offs to be made between different aspects of job quality, such as pay and wellbeing. For example, while managerial and professional occupations tend to score well across most aspects of job quality, those working in highly paid jobs in legal services, healthcare and conservation report the poorest work-life balance and overall health and wellbeing scores.

Meanwhile, those working in low-paid jobs in animal care, housekeeping, cleaning and sports and fitness report better wellbeing, work-life balance and relationships at work.

Jonny Gifford, senior research adviser at the CIPD, said: “In the current context, it’s important to consider the dynamics of job quality as we assess the impact of COVID-19 on jobs – not just in terms of insecurity and redundancies but also in terms of pressure, stress, work-life balance and pay.

“We need to understand how the short and long-term impacts of the pandemic might differ across occupations and how we can protect the most vulnerable. This crisis is an opportunity to re-imagine what good work means to all of us and our Good Work Index provides a wealth of evidence to inform that debate.”

Good work is fundamental to individual wellbeing, supports a strong, fair society, and creates motivated workers, productive organisations and a strong economy. The CIPD’s purpose is therefore to champion better work and working lives by improving practices in people and organisation development for the benefit of individuals, the economy and society.

Peter Cheese, CIPD chief executive, said: “Job creation and protecting jobs from redundancy are crucial, but it’s not enough to look at the bare numbers of people in work. Now as much as at any time,

“We need to understand how the short and long-term impacts of the pandemic might differ across occupations and how we can protect the most vulnerable. This crisis is an opportunity to re-imagine what good work means to all of us and our Good Work Index provides a wealth of evidence to inform that debate.”

government, employers, the people profession, trade unions and other actors also need to understand the quality of the jobs people do and find ways to improve them.”

While some job quality issues may be inherent to the nature of the jobs in question, the Good Work Index shows that some low-quality jobs could be improved relatively easily by changing people management and employment practices. The report suggests that a better line manager could do more to improve a person’s job satisfaction than giving him/her a pay rise.

The CIPD recommends that people professionals, at a minimum, should be encouraging and supporting line managers to: • discuss workload with their team members and ensure no-one is under excessive pressure have supportive and sensitive discussions with their teams promote existing health and wellbeing benefits

give workers more autonomy or control over how, when and where they work

Pathways to Apprenticeships

LEWISHAM COLLEGE works with a range of businesses and organisations to deliver employer-led pre-employability courses,which lead to job interviews and work.

The College is currently working with several employers, including ISS, Caremark and Greggs. Contact us to fi nd out more about how we can support you!

Let us match you with the perfect Apprentice

Make the most of new Government incentives.

The Government recently announced new fi nancial Incentives for Employers in England. There will now be additional payments for each new apprentice you hire. These payments are on top of the existing £1,000 for new 16-18-year-old apprentices.

This is a limited offer only available from 1 August 2020 to 31 January 2021 » £2000 payment for each new apprentice aged under 25 » £1,500 payment for each new apprentice aged 25 and over

If your business is looking to hire an apprentice under this scheme then If your business is looking to hire an apprentice under this scheme then contact Lewisham College today!

We offer Apprenticeships starting between September 2020 and January 2021 in: We offer Apprenticeships starting between September 2020 and January 2021 in: » Construction & Engineering » Catering & Hospitality » Health & Social Care » Teaching Assistant

Contact us lewisham.ac.uk/apprenticeshipssham.ac.uk/apprenticeships apprenticeships@lewisham.ac.uk 020 3757 3050

Pathways to Apprenticeships through Lewisham College

From full-time courses to community partnerships it looks at the impact it can have on the people it serves. And now, more than ever, it is striving to connect with and build relationships with other like-minded organisations to support life-changing education.

The academic landscape has changed dramatically in the last few years. The employer is now inextricably linked with education. The reforms in both areas are designed to provide recruitment pathways for the future which has allowed the employer to have a huge say in how its future employees are trained.

Post-Covid the need for retraining is more important than ever and Apprenticeships, traineeships and pre-apprenticeship training are a vital tool to revitalise economic growth. Apprenticeships today are delivered through standards. These are real job-related apprenticeships designed by employers. They can cover every stage of a person’s career from a vocational entry point through a Level 2 qualification to a master’s degree. Myths surrounding apprenticeships are now being well and truly smashed. It’s not for only school leavers; You can’t have a degree; I’m too old; It’s only for the trades. These myths all no longer apply. Indeed, more and more employees are up-skilling in the work place to a higher and degree level through new apprenticeship programmes.

There is however an evident need to work with employers in helping them understand the advantages of the new educational landscape. The Apprenticeship Levy, which is central to the new system is currently

Lewisham College is a Further Education College which places the community at the heart of everything it does.

under-utilised. The levy applies to any employer who spends more than £3m annually on wages. They have to put in 0.5% of their payroll above the £3m threshold. This money is then topped up with an extra 10% from government funds and kept in a digital account for that employer to deploy on its own training arrangements for apprentices. The scheme operates on a “use it or lose it” basis. Funds that are not allocated by the employer within 24 months expire and get passed to the government.

It was reported by the BBC earlier in 2020 that from May to December 2019, 4,991 employer accounts gave up a total of £401m which they could have used to train apprentices. The sums returned unspent have been increasing on a monthly basis, reaching £82m in December 2019, the latest figure available. This however could be beneficial to small-to-medium enterprises or even small levy-payers as the government is now making those funds available to them.

Lewisham College can assist SMEs in exploring ways to access unspent Apprenticeship Levy and is already working with the London Progression Collaboration. This is a GLA-supported enterprise which aims to revitalise support for apprenticeships by utilising un-used levy and passing to SMEs to use. Their latest initiative is Reskilling the Recovery whereby they aim to support 1,000 apprenticeship roles in Construction, Hospitality and Retail across the capital. Lewisham College is already working with the LPC and has already put 20+ Lewisham employers in touch with the organisation. The College is also proud to support the “100 apprentices in 100 days initiative” and is working closely with the Lewisham Deal to this affect.

The pathway to apprenticeships has also changed. The college offers the ability to work together with employers on finding the right recruitment method, be it direct recruitment with College learners, traditional recruitment through advertisement or innovative work-based sector academies and vocational preapprenticeship programmes.

Key to all of the College’s work for apprenticeships is developing good strong relationships with employers in its community. Relationships based on communication, trust and respect. We are intent on building those relationships with the members of the South London Chamber of Commerce and welcome the opportunity of opening discussions to see how we can support you in what is both the changing face of education and business in the UK.

To find out more, visit www.lewisham.ac.uk/apprenticeships or contact apprenticeships@lewisham.ac.uk

‘Post-Covid the need for retraining is more important than ever and Apprenticeships, traineeships and pre-apprenticeship training are a vital tool to revitalise economic growth. Apprenticeships today are delivered through standards. These are real job-related apprenticeships designed by employers.’