Project DIRECT Update on Stage 2 and Stage

Project DIRECT Update on Stage 2 and Stage 3 Chris Rees & Michael Gold January 2018

Stage 2: Social Partners

Summary of interviews Stage 2: eight interviewees, five social partner organisations • IPA – Patrick Briône, Derek Luckhurst: 12 September 2017 • CIPD – Ramya Yarlagadda: 14 September 2017 • Unite the Union – Tony Burke, Ben Richards: 22 September 2017 • TUC – Matthew Creagh, Iain Murray: 18 December 2017 • Workplace Innovation Ltd/ Workplace Innovation Europe – Peter Totterdill: 10 January 2018 • CBI – declined, 17 August 2017 3

Involvement & Participation Association (IPA) Interviews (12 September 2017) with: Patrick Briône (Head of Policy & Research); Derek Luckhurst (Training & Development Director) • Staff forums are common, but 95% fail to meet expectations • Firms think, wrongly, DP will give them “strategic innovation” • DP only works at operational level • Most managers do not have the skills & confidence to engage staff at operational level • Need more management training • Public sector employers struggle with delegative DP because of risk aversion and compliance issues 4

IPA • Suggestion schemes & attitude surveys are the most common form of DP, and also the least effective • Often reinforce idea that strategy is easy • Encourage ideas which are then not implemented • Often a free-for-all with knee-jerk reactions from staff • For managers to say ‘no idea is a bad idea’ is ludicrous! • For managers to say ‘you said that, so we did this’ only reinforces the problem 5

IPA • To be effective DP must be disciplined – levels of responsibility (for workers, teams, managers) need to be explained • Need an informed workforce before innovation is possible • BAe Systems, Scotland – effective delegative participation, with targets, boosted productivity • But only a very small number of employers do it well – good practice is the exception • The key is informed voice – any form of DP should create an informed workforce and so be an enabler of engagement • Employee engagement means employees ‘knowing what’s going on’ 6

Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development (CIPD) Interview (14 September 2017) with: Ramya Yarlagadda (Research Adviser) CIPD exploring alternative forms of employee voice 1. Self-expression – How can organisations create an environment that balances freedom of self-expression with organisational values? 2. Relationship-building – How can employers tap into views communicated between employees and not ‘officially’ to management? 3. Well-being – How can individuals’ listening skills and empathy be developed? 4. Morality – How to embed ethical values and provide clarity around expected behaviours? 5. Power – How to benefit from involving workers in workplace decisions, while remaining efficient? 6. Service – Should organisations provide channels for voice that include all workforce groups to the same extent? 7

Trades Union Congress (TUC) Interview (18 December 2017) with: Matthew Creagh (Policy Officer, employment rights); Iain Murray (Senior Policy Officer, education and skills) • TUC identifies DP with ‘learning agreements’ agenda and development of union learning reps (ULRs) since 1990 s • DP, as learning agreements, seen as part of the collective bargaining agenda • Case studies (BAe, Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, Norse Group) all focus on enhancing skills to widen job descriptions, redeploy workers (to minimise redundancies) and enable commercial expansion • Workers support learning agreements as they improve their employability and value to the employer • DP in ‘classic’ sense (e. g. staff meetings) necessary alongside collective bargaining 8

UNITE the Union Interviews (22 September 2017) with: Tony Burke (Assistant General Secretary); Ben Richards (International Officer) • DP initially bypassed unions, but is now more collaborative • Three effective forms of DP: ‘toolbox meetings’ (to discuss production problems); team briefings; senior management meetings with shop stewards • Focus on the job, not wider IR issues or T&C • Transmission of information rather than consultation / dialogue (depends on local levels of trust and confidence) • DP works best alongside effective representative participation • UNITE does not see DP as a threat if there is strong indirect participation and there is a clear line between the two • Constructive I&C structures work well, but ‘where companies stuff them full of managers they become discredited’ 9

Workplace Innovation Ltd and Workplace Innovation Europe Interview (10 January 2018) with: Peter Totterdill (Director) • DP seen as self-managed teams that enhance workers’ span of control, delegate decision making and improve skills – ideally, ‘progressive reflection’ gets built into work patterns • Engagement emerges as a by-product of team work and trust • It then helps to remove demarcation, reduce absenteeism and improve mental health • Risk that ‘engagement’ may be seen by organisations merely as PR • Challenges to introduce DP in NHS: target-driven compliance culture leads to fear of investigation and blame culture (hence low-trust) • DP generally introduced by management – unions see it merely as a management function 10

Confederation of British Industry (CBI) Request for interview at CBI declined: 7 August 2017: Upon reflection and having looked at the interview questions you provided I’m afraid this isn’t a subject that we’d be able to offer a detailed view on and so unfortunately we aren’t able to suggest anyone to take part in an interview. Please accept my apologies and best of luck with the project. Best wishes Emily Follis Senior policy adviser (CBI) 22 August 2017: Thank you for your email. Yes, we wouldn’t object to reference of the fact that we declined to participate in an interview for the project. Apologies again that we are unable to make a contribution and best of luck with the project. 11

General summary of social partner views • DP is restricted to operational, not strategic, issues • DP generally introduced at management initiative, hence seen as a management tool • Skills and resources required to make DP work, so it’s not just a form of PR • TUs accept DP as part of management function, but seek to adapt it to their own agenda, e. g. to enhance skills (through ULRs and learning agreements) • DP seen by TUs to work best alongside TU representation and collective bargaining DP is therefore generally regarded as a management tool (e. g. communications, employee surveys, team briefings), but it can be potentially transformative: - Learning agreements to enhance skills and employability - ‘Delegative’ DP (e. g. self-managed teams) Hence ‘surface’ forms of DP co-exist alongside ‘deeper’ forms 12

Stage 3: Selection of Case Studies

Stage 3: Case studies Through IPA: • Leeds Teaching Hospitals Trust – Dean Royles • London Borough of Lewisham – Lawrence Conway • Nampak – Laura Buckthorpe and Greg Ward • South Eastern Railways – Eugene Mc. Conlough 14

Case studies Through Unite: Toyota - Pete Tsouvallaris, full time senior representative Rolls Royce - Simon Hemmings, Rolls Royce (white collar) Brush Electrical Machines - Paul Welsh, Unite convener Siemens - Carl Needham, Unite representative 15

Case studies Through Workplace Innovation Ltd: • DS Smith - packaging manufacturer based in Lockerbie, which has introduced several DP practices as part of a bigger transformation, including shopfloor management and employee-led workplace innovation • Cornerstone - Scotland’s largest social care provider, which has piloted a number of self-managed teams with the intention of moving towards the very flat structure based on the Dutch Buurtzorg model (‘neighbourhood care’ – nurses seek to train the carers) 16

Case studies Through the TUC: Unions Supporting High Quality Apprenticeships, case studies including XPO, Virgin and HMRC www. unionlearn. org. uk/publications/unions-supportinghighquality-apprenticeships Unionlearn Case Studies, focusing specifically on skills in charities, city councils, universities, healthcare and others www. unionlearn. org. uk/case-studies 17

Case studies Through CIPD: Steve Bridger (Communities Manager) – advertisement for appropriate case studies though CIPD membership networks (November 2017): no responses to date 18

Next phase: to select case studies and appropriate number of interviewees Good progress at Leeds Teaching Hospitals Trust 19