Good work is good for employee, employer and nation

Citation

(2003), "Good work is good for employee, employer and nation", Career Development International, Vol. 8 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/cdi.2003.13708aab.009

"Good work is good for employee, employer and nation"

"Good work is good for employee, employer and nation"

Creating good work is essential to the UK economy, but the current definitions of good work are dated, historically inaccurate and gendered.

Is New Work Good Work? by the Work Foundation's head of policy research, Andy Westwood, says that "good" work is frequently seen as "old" work, in particular among the more traditional industries in the more industrialized parts of Britain. The massive expansion of jobs in the retail sector – seen as "new" work – is generally viewed as bad.

Although Asda was recently voted as the best place to work in Britain, and has been at the forefront of business in restoring job opportunities to parts of Britain that need them the most, supermarket jobs in particular are seen as low-prestige, low-dignity and low-benefit.

Andy Westwood argues that an honest, informed debate about the quality of jobs is long overdue. "Good work matters, not only to those people who might be fortunate to do these kinds of jobs", he said. "We need more good jobs in Britain because we perform better as an entire labour market, as organizations and as individuals."

But despite government aspirations for improving overall productivity, current policies relay a contradictory message – for example, the Government's commitment to keeping the UK's levels of labour-market regulation the lowest of any major industrialized country, and its refusal to distinguish between good and bad jobs in the pursuit of full employment.

Andy Westwood, said: "The Government's 'work first' approach fails to distinguish between good and bad jobs, and could be thwarting attempts to improve UK productivity".

The report details the consequences. The Labour Government has a good record on workplace reforms, but has failed to tackle the low-skills equilibrium – a vicious cycle of low-skill labour and low-skill jobs that contributes to a low-skill economy.

The workforce is more critical – more workers are dissatisfied and levels of contentment with prospects, pay levels and working hours have all roughly halved in less than ten years. Nor has the Government closed the productivity gap – the UK consistently underperforms against its major industrialized counterparts in Europe, North America and the Far East.

Andy Westwood, said: "Retail has been one of the most maligned types of work in modern Britain – and we should acknowledge that our popular perceptions have been misplaced. Much new work should be reconsidered as decent and productive work, but the real lesson for government is that more good work means better productivity and prosperity for the whole country."