I’m watching the emails that arrive in my inbox about the Employment Rights Bill with a sense of disappointment. They all shout out a message which I hear as “watch it – you could end up at an employment tribunal”. I don’t think that I’ve seen any that carry a positive message:
- How to shape your recruitment to make the end of probation a great employee experience;
- Create an inclusive culture in which everyone is valued and respected for who they are;
- Embracing flexibility to improve engagement and productivity; or
- The benefits of employee representation.
Now I’m not setting out to be naïve, but it seems to me that we end up looking at this through the wrong end of the telescope when we see the impending legislation as a threat and the imperative as being compliance rather than seeing it as the opportunity to ask what we could do to build a more engaged and inclusive workforce so that legal compliance becomes a consequence not the reason for taking action.
Of course, if your recruitment is an ill-considered rush to put bums on seats and you can hide behind the luxury of a two-year probation period or you lament the end of fire and rehire because you don’t want the hassle of engaging with your employees, then employment rights are a threat.
We continue to fret over stagnant employee productivity and the number of people not in the workforce and looking for work in this country. There is surely a relationship between employment rights and improved employee productivity as a result of increasing job security; and building more inclusive cultures in which fairness and respect are core ingredients must surely be a way of drawing more people into the workforce and expanding the talent pool.