To achieve its purpose of Championing Better Work and Working Lives, the CIPD is committed to carrying out extensive research. Advancing knowledge and understanding about how work is organised, managed and governed helps to ensure work creates both economic and societal value and promotes ways of improving individuals’ working lives. 

The CIPD often partners with renowned business and management schools, and is well-known for providing a valuable point of view on the rapidly changing context of work, HR analytics and the science of human and organisational behaviour.

The CIPD’s dedicated research and policy advisers rely on input from people with real organisational and business experience to inform their findings, and the continuous flow of outputs from the team, helps to maintain the Institute’s position as an influential thought leader on the world of work.

What’s on the CIPD’s research agenda in 2017?

The UK’s decision to leave the European Union looks set to have huge implications for employers, especially those who employ relatively large numbers of EU nationals. 

In his predictions for 2017, Ian Brinkley, Acting CIPD Chief Economist, anticipates that 2017 could be the year when inward migration to the UK from the rest of the EU starts to move towards permanently lower levels. There was a sharp slowdown in inward migration between July-September according to the Office of National Statistics.

The CIPD’s latest Labour Market Outlook (Nov 2016) also found that 38% of employers think it will be harder to recruit EU workers in the year ahead and 28% have concerns that their current migrant workers may wish to leave the UK. 

With the prospect of restrictions on EU immigration looking increasingly likely, the CIPD is seeking to influence the shaping of future EU immigration policy with a report that will draw on interviews with employers that employ non-UK nationals. Should EU nationals only be allowed to live and work in the UK if they have a job offer? Should there be separate arrangements for different regions and sectors?  Should the Government cut off the supply of low-skilled EU workers or introduce short-term visas to meet a temporary need for low-skilled workers?

If you’re keen to have your voice heard on this highly topical issue, please email Gerwyn Davies, CIPD Labour Market Adviser or call him on +44(0)208 612 6376. He’s particularly keen to hold confidential interviews with UK organisations that currently employ EU migrants.

With the prospect of restrictions on EU immigration looking increasingly likely, the CIPD is seeking to influence the shaping of future EU immigration policy with a report that will draw on interviews with employers that employ non-UK nationals. Should EU nationals only be allowed to live and work in the UK if they have a job offer? Should there be separate arrangements for different regions and sectors?  Should the Government cut off the supply of low-skilled EU workers or introduce short-term visas to meet a temporary need for low-skilled workers?

If you’re keen to have your voice heard on this highly topical issue, please email Gerwyn Davies, CIPD Labour Market Adviser or call him on +44(0)208 612 6376. He’s particularly keen to hold confidential interviews with UK organisations that currently employ EU migrants.

Dr Jill Miller, CIPD Policy Adviser, is currently focusing her attention on BAME (Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic) representation in UK employers. Her aim is to encourage employers to take action to improve the representation of employees from BAME backgrounds at all levels of seniority. This is a key issue to address if we’re to have truly inclusive workplaces that embrace the benefits of diversity and enable everyone to reach their full potential at work.

To inform Jill’s research on this critical issue, would you be willing to share what your organisation is doing? If so, please get in touch with Jill.

Other research projects on the CIPD’s horizon include the gig economy, skills policy and employment regulation. Any opportunities to get involved with this research, as well as any key findings, will be widely advertised in the CIPD’s flagship weekly newsletter – the CIPD update. Sign-up below.