Innovation Fellowship 3 - Enhancing organisational effectiveness by modernising support for working carers

本研究的重点是改善对在职护理人员的支持。在英国，招聘、留住和让护工重返工作岗位已被确定为主要的经济和社会问题。由于对家庭和雇主的人口和经济压力，他们可能会变得更加重要（HM Government et al., 2013）。雇主照顾者论坛于2009年推出，是一个雇主会员论坛，旨在协助雇主留住和管理有照顾责任的雇员。《照顾者雇主》（2017年）指出，英国650万名照顾者中有300万人将带薪工作与照顾老年人、残疾人或重病亲属结合起来。10个护理人员中有8个处于工作年龄，这一比例增加到45-64岁人群中的1 / 5，这是护理的高峰年龄（carers UK, 2015）。照顾责任是员工离职的一个关键原因。六分之一的员工减少工作时间或完全离开工作岗位来提供护理（Ipsos MORI, 2009）。通常，这些员工在任何组织中都是最有经验的，这一问题正在得到雇主和政策制定者的认可（employers for careers, 2017）。例如，英国政府的“更充实的工作生活战略”明确承认了这一点，该战略的重点是支持50岁以上的工人（DWP, 2017）。该研究将与英国工业战略（HM政府，2017年）保持一致，该战略制定了政府的计划，以创造一个提高整个英国生产力和赚钱能力的经济。已经确定了十个支柱，政府认为这对于推动整个英国经济的工业战略至关重要。这项研究有可能为该战略的支柱2（发展技能）、支柱4（支持企业创业和成长）和支柱9（推动全国增长）做出贡献。支柱2：创新研究员将解决管理/人力资源管理技能的不足，这对提高生产力至关重要，特别是在中小型企业和“落后”行业（O' mahony & Van Ark, 2003）。它将促进管理人员和团队领导的技能提高，使他们能够采用创新的方法来支持和管理有照顾责任的雇员，从而减少缺勤和招聘的成本，并提高生产力。支柱4：企业创业和发展的潜力高度依赖于他们在吸引、投资和留住员工方面的成功。在职照顾者往往难以将他们的照顾者和雇员角色结合起来；许多人辞职，导致业务中断，招聘/培训成本过高，阻碍了组织业务增长的能力。创新研究员将支持小型企业设计创新方法，以减少人员流失/缺勤，促进灵活工作，并提高其招聘和扩张能力。支柱9：护理在贫困地区更为普遍，在技能或生产力较低的地区，对工作护理支持的需求更为迫切。创新研究员将收集证据，说明如何采取措施留住/支持在职护理人员，以帮助表现不佳地区的企业应对扩大业务和提高生产力的挑战。在各种类型和规模的组织中，为有照顾责任的工人提供更好的工作实践和管理安排，将确保组织效率，并在地方和全国范围内带来更高效的经济。主要的效率可以通过人力资源计划来实现，以减少与护理相关的保留、缺勤和招聘成本以及浪费的人力资本投资。《工业战略》（2017年）对商业领导力、创新型高绩效组织以及在技能差距和/或生产率低的地方开展业务的挑战的关注也与本研究的重点高度相关。

This research focuses on improving support for working carers. Recruiting, retaining and returning carers to the workplace have been identified as major economic and social issues in the UK. They are likely to become even more important as a consequence of demographic and economic pressures on families and employers (HM Government et al., 2013). Employers for Carers was launched in 2009 as an employers' membership forum, with the aim of supporting employers to retain and manage employees with caring responsibilities. Employers for Carers (2017) states that 3 million of the UK's 6.5 million carers combine paid work with caring for older, disabled or seriously ill relatives. Eight in 10 carers are of working age, with that proportion increasing to one in five of people aged 45-64, the peak age for caring (Carers UK, 2015). Caring responsibilities are a key reason why workers leave employment. One in six employees reduce their working hours or leave work altogether to provide care (Ipsos MORI, 2009). Often, these workers are the most experienced in any organisation, an issue that is gaining recognition among employers and policymakers (Employers for Carers, 2017). This is explicitly acknowledged, for example, in the UK government's 'Fuller Working Lives Strategy' which focuses on supporting workers aged 50 plus (DWP, 2017). The research will be aligned to the UK Industrial Strategy (HM Government, 2017), which sets out the government's plan to create an economy that boosts productivity and earning power throughout the UK. Ten pillars have been identified, which the Government believes are important to drive forward the Industrial Strategy across the entire economy in the UK. This research has the potential to contribute to Pillars 2 (Developing Skills), 4 (Supporting Businesses to Start and Grow) and 9 (Driving Growth across the Whole Country) of the strategy. Pillar 2: The Innovation Fellow will address deficiencies in the management / HRM skills vital for productivity improvements, particularly in small to medium sized enterprises and 'lagging' sectors (O'Mahony & Van Ark, 2003). It will promote upskilling of managers and team leaders and enable them to introduce innovative approaches to supporting and managing employees with care responsibilities which can reduce the costs of absence and recruitment and enhance productivity. Pillar 4: The potential for businesses to start up and grow is highly reliant on their success in attracting, investing in and retaining employees. Working carers often face difficulty combining their carer and employee roles; many quit their jobs, causing disruption to business and excess recruitment/training costs and holding back organisational capacity for business growth. The Innovation Fellow will support smaller businesses to design innovative approaches to reducing turnover/absence, promote flexible working, and increase their ability to recruit and expand. Pillar 9: Caring is more prevalent in deprived areas, and the need for work-care support more acute in areas with low skills or productivity. The Innovation Fellow will gather evidence on how adopting measures to retain/support working carers helps businesses in under-performing regions address challenges in expanding their business and improves their productivity. Better working practices and management arrangements for workers with care responsibilities, in organisations of all types and sizes, will ensure organisational efficiency and lead to a more productive economy both locally and nationally. Major efficiencies are achievable via HR initiatives to reduce care-related retention, absence and recruitment costs and wasted human capital investments. The focus in the Industrial Strategy (2017) on business leadership, innovative high-performing organisations and the challenges of operating in localities with skills gaps and/or low productivity is also highly relevant to the focus of this research.