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John Taylor
| 23 Aug 2011 | 14:53
The summer is just about over, England are number one at test cricket for the first time is some considerable time and industrial peace has broken out in most of our workplaces. But what is waiting around the corner?
Just as you could not predict the demise of the News of the World or the recent shocking riots, it is difficult to tell what will happen in the autumn. We will be studying the motions and debates at the TUC Congress in September.
Will a more militant approach be adopted or will the unions continue to engage constructively with the government over the budget reductions generally and the future of pensions more specifically? This will shape the collective temperature over the coming months and, to a large extent, our workload in this area so we will be watching the situation carefully.
We also are, of course, awaiting the government's response to the Resolving Workplace Disputes consultation.
There has been overwhelming support for the earlier involvement of Acas in conciliation in individual disputes. If the government does opt for this, we will have to redesign the whole process of individual conciliation just as we are rolling out our new IT platform. Who said there is never a good time for change?
In the meantime, let us all enjoy what remains of the summer and wallow in the glory of being number one at cricket (well at least for the time being!)
John Taylor is the chief executive of Acas
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Recent postingsJohn Taylor
| 28 Jun 2011 | 10:01 The month of May was annual review time in Acas and I have been conducting interviews accordingly with our directors. When you are blessed with good colleagues, it’s difficult not to take them a little bit for granted. This last month has allowed me to take stock of just how much hard teamwork has been undertaken over the last year by everyone in Acas.
I've not long returned from visiting Botswana at the request of the Foreign Office. Botswana has recently signed up to all of the conventions of the International Labour Office and its government was seeking guidance on how to deal with a newly-unionised public sector. I spent two days in Gaborone (or “Gabs” as it is known to the locals) sharing the UK experience, with colleagues from Australia and Canada also contributing - a real commonwealth effort. I was able to get in a couple of game drives and was really lucky to see a pack of wild dogs hunting antelope, and lions with a buffalo kill - now that was real teamwork.
May also saw the retirement of Jerry Gibson, our director for London. Jerry and I started at Acas in April 1975 when the world consisted of “industrial” rather than “employment relations” and trade union general secretaries were as famous as premier league footballers – but, of course, not as well paid and never as anonymous!
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John Taylor
| 21 Mar 2011 | 10:15 Tragic events elsewhere in the world really do put your own work problems into perspective and can reduce the most difficult of challenges into suddenly manageable ventures – or so it seems.
We now have a corporate plan and direction of travel for Acas for the next two years as we try to plan for an uncertain workload. We remain very busy, and the hardest task I now face is building some flexibility into our various work offerings so that we can scale up and down to meet demand.
A good example of this is the challenge that will face us in 2012. We have made excellent progress in our efforts to minimise any employment relations problems at the Olympics and Paralympics. A three-way agreement signed between us, LOCOG and the TUC will provide a fast-track dispute resolution process to avoid problems during the actual running of the Games themselves.
At some point, upwards of 100,000 employees and volunteers will be busy at the venues and we will need to have accredited conciliators on site and ready to intervene. And, of course, the day job will continue.
Later this month the Acas council will decide its response to the government's consultation paper on reforming the employment tribunal system, Resolving Workplace Disputes. This will also shape our work responses over the next few years.
Challenges, yes, but not in the same league as those in Japan and the Middle East.
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John Taylor
| 18 Feb 2011 | 16:57 We've finally got our budget settlement. Good news for me as I've had some sleepless nights and can now get on with plotting the course ahead. Good news for you as this should be the last time I write about it!
Going forward, next year's funding allocation is almost the same as our final budget for this year. Beyond this we will have a slight increase. This has to count as a good result in the current financial climate, but it will still be very tough - we will have to absorb additional costs arising from inflation and the rise in VAT.
While one uncertainty has now gone, we are faced with more arising from the government's consultation paper on the reform of the employment tribunal system, Resolving Workplace Disputes. These uncertainties are much more welcome, as the proposals envisage an enhanced role for Acas in the resolution of disputes in the workplace much earlier and before they reach a tribunal.
It is a big vote of confidence for our pre-claim conciliation service and seemed to be warmly welcomed by both employers and trade unions. By changing the process you can start to change mindsets - from 'I'll go to court to sort out the problem with my employer' to thinking first about resolving that problem in the workplace - but it won't happen overnight.
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John Taylor
| 17 Jan 2011 | 08:54
Still no formal news about our budget settlement - but there has been lots of speculation in the media about the state of employment relations in 2011.
Opinion is divided about the likely scale of any collective industrial action, so it is another waiting game for us. It goes without saying that we stand ready to assist should our help be needed.
On the individual front, there is more talk about a review of the employment tribunal system. I'm obviously heartened by the calls from both sides of the fence, as it were (the TUC and British Chambers of Commerce), for providing our conciliation involvement earlier in individual disputes.
Allocating the proper budgets and getting the appropriate mix of staff to deal with all of this uncertainty will be tricky. Unfortunately there are no magic bullets and we will only be able to square these circles by tight financial management, embracing more flexible working practices, multi-skilling staff and enhancing our use of technology.
Talking of which, I eventually entered the 21st century with the Christmas gift of a personal computer now housed in my flat. Having studiously only ever used my work email, I will have to multi-skill myself now!
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John Taylor
| 7 Dec 2010 | 11:18
I'm still in limbo as we at Acas await formal notification of our budget settlement. I am trying to be as level-headed as possible about the eventual number, but hope springs eternal!
Of course, we're not alone in this situation. I recently attended the annual conference of public-sector body CEOs, held at the National School of Government, to discuss the future and the challenges we face. It certainly had me musing that Acas is in a better position than the 192 bodies that are to be abolished and the 118 which are to be merged into 57 over the next two years.
This is the message I have been communicating to staff as I talk to everyone in Acas about the future. This will be my third round of talks this year - and is the best use of my time as all my managers struggle to help staff cope with the uncertainty. For an organisation like ours, it is definitely “practise what you preach” time.
Away from the office, one piece of good news is that all my boxes have been unpacked. Yes, the flat is untidy with a lot of work ahead but I do not appear to have lost anything in my move. I'd settle for a similar result on the budget - enough money to get us through to 2015, but with the significant change required to get us there.
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John Taylor
| 16 Nov 2010 | 11:05
When I was first asked to blog for People Management, my mind roamed around the big topics preoccupying me. It didn't take long for the spending review and my recent flat move to rise to the top of the "Things With The Potential To Keep Me Awake At Night" list.
The spending review grabs me in two ways:
First, any cost reductions in the public sector will always have significant people implications - which means increased work for HR professionals at a time of fewer resources.
Second, because Acas is 90 per cent publicly funded, like other public-sector chief executives I now face the task of taking the organisation forward with a reduced budget. This won’t be easy with nine years of continuous cost-cutting behind us - but at least there's some comfort to be had in knowing I'm not alone.
The greatest challenge will be achieving cost reductions so that front-line staff can stay in post. This is tough in an organisation where 85 per cent of our costs are on staff, premises and essential support such as IT. There's precious little room for discretionary funding, such as research and development staying up to date and relevant ways of meeting changing customer needs.
Difficult choices are inevitable; but at least I've cut my teeth with slimming down my contents and possessions to squeeze into a new flat. So far I don't think I've got rid of anything with terminal consequences, but then I haven't unpacked all the boxes yet!
So, interesting times, as they say, and I'll be sharing my trials and tribulations of running Acas in the months ahead.
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