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Hopefully you will be aware of the live event we held in June this year. The theme focused on ‘The power of your workforce’, with content from us at Murray and via our three brilliant guest speakers. We have since shared a summary of the insights they produced, in our live event blog but we wanted to bring you even more! In this blog we will take a deeper look into the rich content our presenters gave us.

Despite the event being held in June, changes to the financial and political backdrop, especially in the UK with recent political upheaval, we believe the content below is still very much relevant and worthwhile to you all!

Amanda Hudson, People & Projects Consultant – Investors in People

The human touch

Amanda covered a variety of key areas regarding the ‘human touch’ from their perspective at Investors in People. The session began by posing a crucial question – what is human capital?

Throughout the presentation Amanda delivered, the audience were presented with five key areas believed to influence the way we will work up until 2030…

  • 1. Technological breakthroughs: as the world continues to evolve, we see adaptations in areas such as automations and robots. Have you noticed those little delivery robots for your packages? That’s a key example of technology adaptation.
  • 2. Demographic shifts: it’s clear to see that within the UK we are changing in size, and with the world’s population ageing we can see businesses being put under pressure when it comes to talent, business models and even pension costs. It seems that the older demographic will be required to develop newer skills and work longer than previous ancestors.
  • 3. Rapid urbanisation: there has been a significant increase in the population relocating to work within cities. This means that cities will need to adapt for this change and work on job creation for those relocating.
  • 4. Shifts in global economic power: this will influence how we work as there will be power shifting between developed and developing countries.
  • 5. Resource scarcity and climate change: the changes within depleted fossil fuels, extreme weather, rising sea levels and food shortages will create new types of jobs that currently don’t even exist.

 

Globally, one in five employees are likely to switch to a new employer in the next 12 months according to research. The PwC’s Workforce ‘Hopes and Fears’ survey involved more than 52,000 workers across 44 countries, including 2,000 people in the UK.

Other stats from the survey showed:

  • 18% of workers said they were very or extremely likely to switch to a new employer within the next year, with a further 32% stating they were moderately likely to switch.
  • An increase in pay is the main motivator for changing jobs (72%), followed by wanting a fulfilling job (68%) and wanting to truly be themselves at work (63%).
  • Younger employees were less likely to feel satisfied, with only half of Gen Z workers (aged 18-25) feeling happy with their role compared with 61% of baby boomers (aged 58 and over).
  • UK workers were less likely to ask for a pay increase in the next 12 months (27% compared with 35% globally), despite the escalating cost of living.
  • Job satisfaction was low among UK workers who were not in management positions, with only one in five people (19%) stating they were very satisfied with their role. This is compared with 51% of respondents in top leadership positions.



When it comes to recruitment there is a current struggle to fill positions. According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), there were 1.17m job openings in October - almost 400,000 higher than pre-pandemic times. Due to so many openings available, it is important that when the candidate joins, the company culture is desirable otherwise they are likely to leave. With interviews, dropouts, and notice periods the hiring market is experiencing more pressure than ever.

Roger Martin-Fagg

Business trends



Guest speaker Roger, a behavioural economist by trade, delivered content that focused on the economy and presented his subject matter in the most engaging way that kept everyone on their toes! (Who knew that a simple bank note could get the audience aligned with their thinking!) He covered a variety of topics including GDP analysis.

Some facts that were shared:

  • In 1974 the average household spent 25% of its disposable income on food – in 2016 it was 10%
  • The average household has 5k ‘above normal’ cash reserves
  • The Bank of England has created £470Bn since Covid

 

The UK Employment Arithmetic

  • The UK has lost 1.3m EU workers since Brexit
  • We have 1.8m fewer 15-24 year olds
  • There are currently 1.3m advertised jobs
  • Around 500,000 55-65 year olds have retired early
  • Supply has fallen by 3.6m, demand increased by 1.3m
  • Earnings up 7%, 1.4% in real terms
  • During the 1st Quarter 2022, 994,000 changed jobs
  • There are 1.4m unemployed

 

Roger talked through a guide outlining the generational gap and compared the difference between these groups of people…

  • Silent
  • Baby Boomers
  • Gen X
  • Millennials
  • Gen Z

 

Significant differences between the generations were highlighted – Baby Boomers used the pub to socialise, however Gen Z are more into sending each other TikTok’s and communicating via social media. As technology has expanded so have the hobbies of these generations. The Silent generation would read, Baby Boomers indulged in TV, Gen X surfed the net, Millennials stream more music and Gen Z are more into gaming and video streaming!

 

The projected numbers for the UK towards the end of 2022

  • Real GDP + 3.0% & Nominal GDP + 10%
  • Earnings including bonus +7%
  • Basic wage growth 5%
  • Unemployment 3.6%
  • House prices 6%
  • Inflation 7%
  • $1.20, Euro 1.18

Fraser Morgan, Director of Digital Programmes – Corndel

The new normal


Fraser joined us via Zoom, due to him unfortunately catching Covid but he pressed on. He began the session by diving into how everyone can become more digitally enabled. In a world that is becoming more digital, it is important to understand and follow trends, keeping up to date with new advances. Different generations have varying levels of confidence regarding technology, so it is important to keep regularly sharing tips as well as taking advantage of courses, provided by various sources such as LinkedIn learning.



We have all noticed that since the pandemic, people now work in a more hybrid fashion as not everyone went back to the office full time. With this comes a change to many things, one of which include meetings. A popular type that is more popular is the book club style, sharing material beforehand which has become a key part of this and offers plenty of key elements to be discussed during the meeting.

A new feature many are now aware of and using, is on-demand content. Some examples of this are:

  • Screen recording presentations – this allows you to watch in the convenience of your own time. This can include webinars too – signed up and now you can’t make it? Not to worry you’ll be able to get content on-demand from the company providing it.
  • Crowdsource your work -you can obtain heaps of information and opinions from those sharing on the internet.
  • Track changes and adding comments – now people are editing and giving feedback a lot more through the likes of tracked changes. This is a way to show what has been changed without fully stripping out the prior content.

 

Feedback has always been appreciated, but now more than ever people are seeking it more often. There are now a range of ways that feedback can be harvested and shared among people, these include:

  • Faster set ups for feedback forms
  • Questions before and after
  • Instant visualisation

 

We appreciate that some of Fraser’s suggestions are not new, but it was a great session for all in the room to be reminded of these but also to understand what tools are out there that we never knew about!

 

We have the recordings of all three talks! If you would like to view them, just get in touch with us – marketing@murray-uniforms.co.uk