Edited by Tony Pilch
Published 2006 (ISBN 1 905370 06 7) Price £9.95
As part of our ongoing concern with the regional economic agenda, this collection of essays explores the role of employer and employee relations in promoting skills and productivity in the economy. The UK has historically experienced low levels of labour productivity compared with other major economies. In recent years, however, the UK’s performance on the Government’s headline measure of productivity – output per worker – has been improving. At the same time, however, new global challenges are emerging. As the contributors to this booklet acknowledge, meeting these challenges and boosting productivity over the long term will rest on making progress on the drivers of productivity – innovation, skills, investment, competition and enterprise. In turn, this will require employers, employees and key bodies to work together and forge a consensus in the workplace about how these challenges can be met, particularly in raising skills levels. We hope that the contributions within this pamphlet will help to develop the debate around how a progressive consensus in the workplace can help boost UK skills levels and productivity in each and every region of the UK.