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Analysis

Does work have to be miserable?

Analysis

BBC

Government, Politics, News

4.61K Ratings

🗓️ 3 July 2023

⏱️ 29 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

How can employers in all sectors of the UK economy get the best out of their workers, retain experienced staff, improve productivity and increase profits at the same time?

The principles of "Job Design" seem to promise all of these benefits. It's a process of work innovation which focuses on people, their skills, their knowledge and how they interact with each other and technology, in every workplace, in every sector of the economy.

Proponents claim it gives workers a voice in their workplace, allows them to balance their work and home lives, stops burnout and could get more of the economically inactive back in employment. But what evidence is there that it works - and how difficult would it be to implement changes in the workplace?

Presenter: Pauline Mason Producer: Ravi Naik Editor: Clare Fordham

Contributors: Patricia Findlay, Professor of Work and Employment Relations, University of Strathclyde and Director of the Scottish Centre for Employment Research. Kate Bennett, Labour ward coordinator at Liverpool Women's Hospital. Damian Grimshaw, Professor of Employment Studies, King's College London, and former head of research at the International Labour Organisation. Dame Diane Coyle, Bennett Professor, University of Cambridge and a director of the Productivity Institute. Rachel London, Deputy Chief People Officer at Liverpool Women's Hospital. Jenna Brimble. Midwife in the continuity of care team at Liverpool Women's Hospital. Heejung Chung, Professor of Sociology and Social Policy, University of Kent. Emma Stewart, Flexible working consultant and co-founder, Timewise. Dr Charlotte Gascoine independent researcher and consultant on flexible and part-time working Paul Dennett, Mayor of the City of Salford Jim Liptrot, Managing director, Howorth Air Tech. Stacey Bridge, Financial accounting assistant, Howorth Air Tech.

Transcript

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0:00.0

Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know.

0:04.6

My name's Linda Davies and I Commission Podcasts for BBC Sounds.

0:08.4

As you'd expect, at the BBC we make podcasts of the very highest quality featuring the most knowledgeable

0:14.3

experts and genuinely engaging voices. What you may not know is that the BBC

0:20.4

makes podcasts about all kinds of things like pop stars,

0:24.6

poltergeist, cricket, and conspiracy theories and that's just a few examples.

0:29.7

If you'd like to discover something a little bit unexpected, find your next podcast over at BBC Sounds.

0:36.0

BBC Sounds, Music Radio Podcasts.

0:41.0

Thank you for listening to this edition of Analysis, the podcast that looks at the ideas behind the news.

0:48.0

I'm Pauline Mason. In this episode, I look at job design and what constitutes good work.

0:56.4

The pandemic sparked the biggest change in work patterns for generations.

1:04.4

We've arguably had the biggest experiment in home working that we're ever likely to have.

1:09.7

At this distillery in Kent, 15 staff are on Furlow, just 7 working now, making hand sanitizer instead

1:16.4

of gin.

1:17.4

The measures suggested by Downing Street include things like staggering start times for work, limiting

1:22.1

hot-desking, and bringing in one-way systems to move around.

1:27.0

During the pandemic, companies who were treating in the workers very fairly actually saw that as a massive asset in

1:35.0

circumstances of great crisis and great disruption. They were able to do things

1:39.4

which they would never have considered. It forced us to look at how, when and where we work. For the first time

1:46.7

many workers caught a glimpse of the future of job design an innovative approach which focuses on people,

1:54.6

their skills, their knowledge, and how they interact with each other and technology

1:59.2

in every workplace, in every sector of the economy.

...

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