The aims and objectives of the Project were:

To work directly with employers to determine how IAG can best add   value to their workforce development activity and to develop business arguments for involvement with IAG

These aims were to be achieved by engaging at least 4 significant employers of different types: Local Authority, NHS Trust, Large Private sector employer and Small and  Medium sized Enterprise. This report covers employer engagement and related issues. 

 
Defining IAG in the Workplace was an important first step; the question of how it might fit in organisations and the nature of IAG in the workplace had to be addressed.  

Our approach to the subject now leans towards engaging employers in discussion about employee development and guiding them towards the idea of providing an information and advice service for employees of the shape and scope which best suits them.

Confidentiality and impartiality of advice were the key dimensions. The key issue for the Project was seen as reaching and helping those most vulnerable in the workforce and, accordingly, it was decided that employers should decide on the shape and nature of the service they wished to provide with the proviso that arguments for greater impartiality would be pursued wherever appropriate. The arguments for impartiality and confidentiality were developed as the Project proceeded. 

The four organisation types as set out in the objectives, each had characteristics specific to their nature:

Local Authorities

There are four local authorities in the West of England area: North Somerset, South Gloucestershire, Bath & North East Somerset and Bristol City Council. Internal Projects tend to dominate the agenda. It was foreseen that the capacity of staff members to become involved in the Project might be limited. Staff retention, basic skills needs among staff, best practice rules and fostering a lifelong learning culture are all important issues for local authorities. Arguments for quality information, advice and guidance on learning and work flow naturally from these or may be easily attached.

Healthcare Trusts

Issues and arguments are largely similar to those for local authorities. In addition a number of factors and events seemed at the outset likely to play a part.  The NHS University was in its consultation stages, the report ‘HR in the NHS Plan’ published in 2000 and the move towards computerisation of patient records.  Staff retention was generally seen as an important priority for all NHS Trusts and perhaps the central issue in terms of potential involvement with IAG.

Larger employers

In trying to identify/predict those common features of large Private Sector employers important to their potential engagement, it was natural to take cognisance of the greater diversity in the Private as opposed to the Public Sector.

A starting point in trying to prepare approach and arguments, was the assumption that large employers attitudes would lie somewhere on a scale between the highly progressive employers heavily committed to staff development and those who respond only to those matters which they perceive as balance sheet imperatives.

SMEs

Trying to engage SMEs was acknowledged as problematical but the recognition that even the smallest businesses can often be members of sector-based organisations led to plans to promote IAG benefits to employers, through these.

Employee Targets

According to the aims and objectives of the Project, all participating employers should have a significant proportion of employees who are amongst the most vulnerable members of the UK workforce:

• those with basic skills needs
• those likely to be discriminated against
• those with low level qualifications
• those ‘stuck’ at NVQ level 2 wishing to progress would be part of this group

An IAG service provided by an employer on a confidential footing, delivered by staff who are sensitised/trained in basic skills needs recognition, can provide a long term means of spotting those most in need of help and referring them for assessment.

It may be that providers of basic skills tuition, who are broadly sympathetic to the notion of IAG, need to be more acutely aware of its relevance.

Engaging Employers

Leads to potential participants were established by carefully explaining Project aims to organisations and individuals involved in employer contact. 

There is an ideal process and order of events that needs to be followed in order to provide a professional/efficient interface with employers.  In the interests of maintaining dialogue and generally managing the relationship with a contact, it is also important to be flexible.  

The question of who engages employers and the competences required may well be important.

Business Arguments & Potential Impact

From the outset it was necessary to adapt to the slightly uncomfortable position of selling the Project to participants whilst one of the central aims was to develop the business arguments. The main focus was therefore on what seemed the most obvious selling points, which were identified as:

• staff retention
• the cost of undiagnosed basic skills needs
• enhancing employee development activities 

Of these, it seems clear that the basic skills needs arguments are the most important and lso the most challenging for employers.  However, employers need to look to the future. In the event of changing job roles wouldn’t it be cheaper to have staff ready to develop into their new role rather than shed them and recruit new staff? What also needs to be demonstrated are the subsidiary costs of staff time lost in, for example, verbally explaining essential Health & Safety matters.

In the context of an organisation’s participation in IAG, a diverse range of potential areas of impact exists.  As mentioned elsewhere, actual impact will be assessed in July 2003. IAG might achieve the following:

• Underpin and support staff development
• Improve skills of line managers e.g. identification basic skills needs
• Increase numbers of staff able to benefit from internal T& D opportunities

These factors have a number of potential organisational impacts, depending on a variety of complex variables such as size, workforce composition, nature of business etc. They may:

• Create savings in terms of greater effectiveness of staff development activities
• Help develop the skills of line managers
• Enhance the impact of IiP on the business and assist business goals
• Assist achievement of best practice in HR/Personnel issues e.g. induction procedures
• Employers' reasons for engaging

In the context of the Project, employers expressed a surprisingly wide range of reasons for engaging with IAG.  For example they felt IAG might:

• Enhance the psychological contract between employee and employer  
• Promote and enhance a culture of lifelong learning
• Empower and encourage staff to overcome personal development barriers
• Contribute to the retention of staff

Current Development

The position with all participating organisations is fluid. The foregoing work will take the shape of developing a strategy for IAG, employee development and/or a strategy for basic skills.

So far, amongst activities undertaken, the IAG Partnership has provided some outreach IAG sessions on a drop-in basis, installed learning helplines in some organisations. Portable display board systems have been purchased for large multiple site organisations to allow for internal outreach work. The major point of progress, however, has been in building internal capacity to deliver IAG within organisations. A specially delivered NVQ 3 in Advice & Guidance course has started for 14 employees from 7 organisations.  Providers have modified their approach to allow for individuals with little experience of IAG delivery.

Handling Employers' Reservations

There were relatively few objections encountered from employers. One employer felt that providing an IAG service would encourage staff to leave their organisation.
Rather than providing information, advice and guidance on learning and work, an employer might offer staff information and advice about learning and occupational roles within the organisation.  Clearly this service could not be seen as a back door exit, but a means of promoting the organisation to employees linked to recruitment, induction and staff development.

The Matrix Standard

Adapting arguments for IAG to arguments for matrix seemed to revolve around the ability of employers to absorb IAG ideals first. News from the Guidance Council employer pilot points to the matrix being used to accredit a wide range of workplace activities, which involve Advice and Guidance. This confirmed a view held within the local IAG Partnership, which will be thoroughly explored, in the coming months.

Timely information from the Guidance Council mapping the matrix standard to the Investors in People standard would have been a great advantage. In the absence of such guidance some attempts have been made at identifying the closest points of contact of matrix and Investors in People.

In general terms the strongest links with IiP are through personal development issues and processes. In the coming months, more detailed strategies for working with employers, where linkage between matrix and IiP standards can be achieved, will be developed.

Where do we go from here?

Although the closing date for QDF Projects has passed, IAG in the Workplace in the West of England will continue by consolidating the work with employers so far and continuing to build IAG services in the organisations where agreement has been reached to do this. Amongst future aims will be to:

• Add to and develop the arguments for involvement with IAG expressed in this report from impact evaluation in July 2003
• Trial, in the workplace, new Management Information requirements for IAG Partnerships

A strategy for expanding IAG in the Workplace will be produced in consultation with key strategic partners.