Your August at-a-glance summary of insights, tools and resources to keep your people practices impactful and relevant in a changing world of work
As your professional body, we’re here to help you embrace changes and trends in the world of work. With valuable new insight on skills development and labour market trends, practical resources to help you recruit effectively, and tips on how to harness employer brand, this month's run-down has something for everyone.
The UK labour market is going through massive transformation, driven by technological advances, environmental sustainability and shifting demographics. These forces are having a huge impact on the skills in demand and opportunities available across sectors and regions.
This month, we published a report calling for a coordinated approach to skills development. This approach must support individuals throughout their careers, align with industrial strategy and ensure fair access to opportunity.
Also in August, we published our quarterly Labour Market Outlook, one of the most authoritative employment indicators in the UK. The report provides a forward-looking analysis of employers’ recruitment, redundancy and pay intentions.
Employers told us that their confidence remains low – especially in the public sector, where staffing levels are expected to decrease overall. The good news is that employers expect hard-to-fill vacancies to decrease, and pay expectations remain even overall.
We’re keeping a watchful eye on the evolving employment law landscape and updating our knowledge hub with the most current information and guidance. Here’s the latest this month:
Our knowledge hub offers a range of resources to help you design and evaluate effective learning initiatives. This month we updated three of our factsheets bringing together everything you need to know about coaching and mentoring and how to evaluate your learning programmes, and how to implement a learning and development strategy.
We’ve developed a series of practical tools, all grounded in our Profession Map, to guide HR professionals through every stage of the hiring process. From deciding whether to recruit, to designing job descriptions and work sample exercises, these tools will help you attract, assess and select the right candidates for your organisation.
Employee engagement has a direct impact on retention, performance and wellbeing, but many organisations struggle to define it or take effective action. We’ve analysed the latest to show how positive engagement drives commitment and productivity. And we’ve outlined practical steps you can take to boost engagement through job design, supportive management and stronger workplace culture.
Against a backdrop of skills shortages and economic uncertainty, organisations need an authentic employer brand to help them recruit and retain employees. In a new article developed alongside talent strategy and recruitment specialist Omni, we offer insight into how organisations can bring their employer brand to life.
We’ve responded to the Low Pay Commission – the independent body that advises the UK government on minimum wage rates – as part of its annual consultation. Our submission highlights how April’s increases in the National Minimum and National Living Wage, alongside higher Employer National Insurance contributions, have affected organisations across the UK. We set out which sectors are most impacted, how businesses are adapting, and our recommendations for the 2026 wage rates.
Organisations across the Middle East are taking innovative steps to strengthen their people strategies, from boosting wellbeing and inclusion to building future talent pipelines. Our latest case studies and thought leadership highlight how employers are tackling pressing challenges and shaping the future of work.
Our discussion forums provide a safe, open space for our global community of people professionals like you. Members share their insights and seek advice on the issues they may be facing in their day-to-day roles. Topics of discussion this month included:
We have around 100 regularly-updated factsheets providing overviews and information on key topics
Our guides provide recommendations and advice on how to apply good practices in the workplace
Listen to episodes from our podcast series on a range of topical workplace, HR and L&D issues
Practical resources to support you in the workplace
