Pay Attention to Get Ahead
This essay is part of our New Year's series on what to expect in 2025, and can be downloaded as one compiled PDF for you to read at your leisure via the download form. Thank you
By Amanda Walters, Director at the Centre for Progressive Change
After the spillover effects of a pandemic, war and a cost-of-living crisis, incumbent political parties across the world find themselves punished at the ballot box. Here in the UK, Keir Starmer’s Government initially benefited from this sentiment, but may now be counting the cost.
With a rocky first few months, where ‘pitch rolling’ to set a more negative media narrative about the difficult decisions to come didn’t land with the public and journalists as hoped, the Government will be seeking a 2025 reset. The Government will have an opportunity to demonstrate more positive progress as its first raft of legislation starts to pass into law. External economic factors may lighten the mood if the public receives at least some relief from falling interest rates.
But how much the feel-good factor can extend among lower income working people remains a key question. This group, which my organisation - the Centre for Progressive Change - is set up to serve, continues to feel impatient and cynical. Recent research by More In Common and UCL’s Poverty Lab found people will judge the Government by a reduction in NHS waiting lists and whether the cost-of-living falls.
Civil society faces its own challenges. For organisations like mine, who have been helping people at the sharp end of increased costs, there is a view that the end is not yet in sight for the chronic problems of poverty, and they want meat on the bones of the various mission boards and strategic initiatives that have sprung up. Front-line charitable organisations feel they are still taking up an unsustainable level of slack from creaking public services and gaps in the welfare state.
For business, there is an opportunity to show they’re attuned to this broader public and stakeholder sentiment. Taking action to get ahead of the pack is often a wise strategy. Take for example, those thousands of employers who already pay at least the Real Living Wage to their staff. This is a concrete cost-of-living measure aligned with the Government’s strategy. Those who do it will be benefiting from their association with this movement given the renewed attention on pay and conditions for workers.
Another area set to dominate 2025 is fixing both workforce health and the health of our NHS. Economic inactivity due to ill-health is at record levels, due to reach 4.3 million people by the end of this Parliament. This has a massive cost to the economy and wider society. We need to search for new ideas on health protection and prevention.
The work of Legal & General Investment Management (LGIM) is one example of this. Partnering with Sir Michael Marmot and his Institute for Health Equity after the pandemic, they looked at how they could improve the health outcomes of their facilities management staff.
The result was the Hidden Workers Report. LGIM committed to day one sick pay, at the same level as standard pay, along with access to virtual healthcare services and death in service benefit.
These changes were LGIM’s way of recognising their cleaners, security guards and others for the work they did during the pandemic. Not only were these changes a boost to employee morale but also have seen improved retention.
Forward-thinking businesses like this can continue to benefit by showing they’re ahead of government, innovating and finding new solutions. As the Government struggles to so far gain the public’s trust, there is an opportunity for business to earn it, showing their commitment to investing in stakeholders and in the country.