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Category: Blogs
Date: July 2010
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The vanishing DRA
Thursday, 29 July 2010
Category:
Health and Wellbeing
By phasing out the Default Retirement Age (DRA) of 65 the UK is merely addressing the inevitable adjustments to the future experience of work.
The demographic realities in many developed countries of an ageing society and the reduced numbers joining the working age population make the principle for working longer unarguable. Europe’s working age population is projected to decline by nearly 50 million in the next 20 years while in the UK the average population growth in the next two decades is of 0.7%.
It is prudent to address the impact of longevity and falling birth rates before it becomes a crisis For instance, the intergenerational model and final salary schemes assume larger numbers of workers supporting the preceding generation. This is clearly unsustainable. The lucrative early retirements of the 1970s and 1980s were perhaps an aberration. We shall all have to shift our expectations of what we can expect from our working lives.
The benefits of the government’s proposal are that workers can choose to work longer if they are able and willing. Studies indicate clear psychological benefits to those in work.
However, this assumes that society in general and employers in particular pay attention to the well-being of their employees throughout their working lives. According to Professor Marmot’s report, Fair Society, '…more than three-quarters of the population do not have disability-free life expectancy as far as the age of 68’. That suggests that for the benefits of abolishing DRA to be realised, the role of ill health and its influencing factors must be incorporated. The initiative must be backed up with schemes like those of Sweden’s ‘Workability’ to ensure that workers’ health, skills and experience match the demands of their jobs.
Wilson Wong
Is work ruining our lives?
Wednesday, 28 July 2010
Category:
Health and Wellbeing
On Wednesday 21 July, I chaired the 4th Annual Relate Lecture given this year by its new President, Professor Cary Cooper of the University of Lancaster....
Stephen Bevan
Too many managers, not enough innovators?
Friday, 23 July 2010
Category:
Knowledge Economy
Over the next ten years job growth in both the US and UK economies will be driven by an expansion in knowledge intensive services and care related jobs. But there is a striking rise in the predicted number of managerial jobs that will be created in the UK. Given that productivity in the US is 22% higher than the UK , this begs the question - what are all these managers doing?
Ian Brinkley
What’s on the horizon? Implications for people management
Wednesday, 14 July 2010
Category:
The Future of HR
On Tuesday 13 June, The Work Foundation held a workshop for their network of partners looking at the drivers shaping the employment relationship over the next ten years, following the launch of the third report, The Deal in 2020.....
Dean Morley, Deputy HR Director, Pensions, Disability and Carers Service, Dep for Work and Pensions
A tale of two anglo-saxon economies
Monday, 12 July 2010
Category:
Knowledge Economy
Once described as two countries divided by a common language, the US and the UK are typically seen as exemplars of ‘hire and fire’ labour market flexibility in contrast to the ‘sclerotic’ over-regulated labour markets of the rest of Europe.
Ian Brinkley
No city left behind?
Thursday, 08 July 2010
Category:
Cities/Ideopolis
The Coalition government believes that ‘rebalancing’ the UK economy is a top priority. It wants to stimulate growth in the private sector outside of the South East of England. And later this summer it will publish a white paper on how it intends to do just that.
Jonathan Wright
Clear vision for policing at risk
Tuesday, 06 July 2010
Category:
Blogs
The Home Secretary’s announcement that police budgets will be hit in the current slashing of the public sector follows in the wake of the 2009 White Paper which called for deep cuts in police budgets...
Jane Sullivan
Publish and be damned
Friday, 02 July 2010
Category:
Knowledge Economy
The Queen's speech promised that "A new Office for Budget Responsibility will maintain confidence in the management of the public finances."The No. 10 website explained: "The OBR would put the UK at the forefront of international best practice, exceeding the IMF's recommendations on fiscal transparency. The UK would be one of the few advanced economies with an independent fiscal agency producing the official fiscal and economic forecasts."
Charles Levy