Social Policy Association 2024 Conference

Activating Employers: Key Insights from US Fieldwork on the Good Jobs Agenda Amid Political Uncertainty, Presented at the Social Policy Association 2024 Conference

Activating Employers team members Anne Daguerre and Sean Vincent presented their latest research findings at the Social Policy Association conference in Glasgow, held between July 3rd and 5th. As the conference coincided with election night in the UK, there was a great deal of discussion about the future direction of social policy under the new Labour government and the conference included particularly timely research across a wide range of policy areas, including governance, poverty and inequality, and social security.

Anne was a keynote speaker for the plenary session titled "Fair Work and Employment Futures: Challenges for Social Policy," alongside Professors Vanessa Beck from the University of Bristol, Heejung Chung from King’s College London, and Patricia Findlay from the University of Strathclyde. Dr Katy Jones from Manchester Metropolitan University chaired the panel. The speakers discussed issues relating to key themes of the Activating Employers project, including welfare-to-work policy, what constitutes “good work” and how employers can be engaged in workforce development, before taking questions from the audience. The discussion highlighted a growing consensus around what constitutes good work, including secure terms and conditions of employment, sustainable wages, employee voice, and flexible and autonomous working. To achieve this, the panel agreed that employers must be more effectively engaged; and stakeholders need to provide a clear business case for providing good work

Sean delivered a presentation entitled "Regulatory Reforms for Fair Work First: Lessons from the US”, which set out early findings from fieldwork conducted in Baltimore, Pittsburgh, and Washington D.C. During their time in the United States, the Activating Employers team conducted interviews with 37 key stakeholders in the employment space, including policymakers at national, state, and metropolitan levels, leaders of local workforce development boards, employers, and training providers in the construction and home care sectors. Key findings from this fieldwork included:

• There is a broad consensus for the Good Jobs agenda promoted by the Biden administration, with federal infrastructure spending such as the Inflation Reduction Act being a key lever to achieve this.
• The agenda itself is fragile, however. It has relied on a package of regulations and guidance which could be overturned by a Trump administration should the GOP win the presidential elections on the 4th of November 2024. Despite often very polarised rhetoric, there is more of a bipartisan consensus on workforce issues than is generally acknowledged.

The presentation was an excellent opportunity for the team to get feedback on the project as it moves into the next stages of conducting similar fieldwork in the UK and Australia, which will be taking place between August and December 2024.