Firstly I’d like to take this opportunity to thank everyone that has been involved in our birthday celebrations, it’s been a joy to see employees, partners and practitioners sharing your positive stories. For my final blog, I’d like to talk about ambition.

And to see where our ambitions lie in the next 12 months, you only have to look at the state of the labour market in the UK.

There’s a huge skills gap and labour shortage, but the number of job vacancies from August to October 2021 continued to rise to a new record of 1.1 million.

That’s an increase of 388,000 from the pre-coronavirus pandemic January to March 2020 level, with 15 of the 18 industry sectors showing record highs.

Total job-to-job moves also increased to a record high, driven mainly by resignations rather than dismissals, during the July to September 2021 period. 

Why are people resigning?

Everyone has reasons for leaving a job, whether it’s for work-life balance or a career change. But perhaps the most understated reason is poor management and leadership.

In a 2021 report by Predictive Index, 2000 people were surveyed. Of those 2000 people, half of them thought about leaving in the past 12 months, and 63% said it was because of poor management.

And it makes sense; we recently hosted a webinar about the 2.4 million accidental managers in the UK, which cost the economy £84 billion and reduce productivity per person by 4.5%. But what’s the solution?

Could talent lie within your workforce?

The UK is historically poor at upskilling and training its existing workforce; it’s one of the reasons the Investors in People framework was created in 1991.

We want the future to be better for managers and everyone in the workforce, and looking within your organisation could highlight people who can help you fulfil your ambitions.

Our assessments are designed to identify how good you are at staff development and retention. An assessment will also help you create an action plan to improve and give you the opportunity to be part of a community that’s committed to people management and wellbeing.

Our People Lead Beth Samson sums it up:

“If you’re sat around a table at a dinner party this festive season (socially distanced or otherwise!), half of the people there will be thinking about leaving their jobs. At Investors in People, our ambition is to ensure that leaders of organisations working with us can be confident that when their employees are around a table talking about work, they only have good things to say”.

Driving marketing, sales and retention

Making work better requires investment, so we’re refining our marketing and sales process and engaging with our partners more than ever.

While our ambitions lie in getting as many companies accredited as possible and helping those companies retain their accreditation after every three-year cycle, our work has a deeper meaning.

We want to keep companies in the mindset that looking after their people and wellbeing is continuous. Taking your eye off that will only lead to your ambitions waning and your company becoming less adaptable.

Ensuring we have the marketing, sales and customer engagement resources to do this is crucial, so we’ll be investing in these teams over the next 12 months.

Promoting what we already have

We aren’t like Apple, where we can release a new product every year, so we’ll be focusing on our three accreditations; We invest in people, We invest in wellbeing, and We invest in apprentices.

The ‘We invest in people’ framework is 30 years old and has helped companies thrive through two recessions and a pandemic, so we’re confident in its success. Plus, 87% of employers say that improving retention is a key priority in their organisation, which the framework helps achieve.

While ‘We invest in wellbeing’ and ‘We invest in apprentices’ are new in comparison, wellbeing and talent acquisition will be huge drivers for companies in the next 5-10 years, so we’re confident in their success.

Work is changing. Are you set up to succeed?

Work is changing, and the organisation’s that thrive are always the ones with solid people management and wellbeing strategies – you’re more likely to retain people if you’re invested in them. We’re on a mission to make work better, and I’d like to invite you along for the journey – our door is open to anyone who shares that vision.

View our accreditations for more information.