The Future of HR is a major two-year research project which believes that a good relationship between the employer and employee lies at the heart of high performance working.
HR’s raison d’etre is the pursuit of high performance working, invoking a menu of incentives believed to encourage this behaviour from employees. However, employees’ expectations of the 'deal' have changed - and what were once percieved as extras are now perceived as givens.
Central to this employment relationship or psychological contract, therefore, is understanding what really matters to employees.
Find out more about The Work Foundation's research methodology and rationale.
Research outputs
Since it started in 2009 the Future of HR programme has produced a number of reports with more in the pipeline:
Quality People Management For Quality Outcomes
Published August 2009
Wilson Wong, Alexandra Albert, Marianne Huggett and Jane Sullivan.
A review of the existing theoretical and conceptual work on the psychological contract.
Deal Or No Deal?
Published January 2010
Jane Sullivan and Wilson Wong with Divya Adusumili, Alexandra Albert, Laura Blazey, Marianne Huggett and Jennifer Parkin.
This working paper develops our model of the employment relationship and a discussion of its core features.
The Deal in 2020: A Delphi study of the future of the emplyoment relationship
Published June 2010
This report looks at the factors that are likely to shape the employment relationship in the next 10-15 years. Over 20 experts participated in a Delphi exercise in late 2009 to build a consensus on what issues will affect this, from a macro level to an organisational.
Next steps
Final report
Due November 2010
This report will draw together the key elements from the first three working papers and based upon empirical research within our seven sponsor organisations and informed by our panel of experts, this report will develop a framework for nurturing the employer/employee relationship.