IES Annual Conference 2025: Boosting productivity through people

Background

The UK government’s central mission is to grow the economy and deliver effective and efficient public services. Public debate around addressing the UK’s stagnant productivity performance has focussed predominantly on macro-level issues. There has been comparatively little attention paid to performance and productivity at the organisational level. Yet, people-related issues lie at the heart of this challenge. To improve performance, there is a pressing need to build more engaging work and workplaces, effectively manage the adoption of new technology, develop capabilities and promote wellbeing.

With a shifting employment relations landscape, a key national challenge is how employers, employees and their representatives, and government work together to realise the vision of high investment, high skill and high-performing workplaces.

Join us to hear from key thinkers, practitioners and opinion leaders on how organisations, sectors, and the UK can address the productivity challenge through people.

Questions we will seek to address include:

• How can HR best drive organisational performance and productivity through people?

• How can we enhance employee engagement?

• What is the role of employee voice and relations in enhancing productivity?

• How can enhanced wellbeing at work support productivity and performance in the workplace?

• How can we adopt AI in ways that support wellbeing and productivity?

Who should attend:

HR professionals including those with responsibility for people and workforce strategy, employee relations, diversity and inclusion, wellbeing, capability.

Agenda:

09.30 Coffee and registration

09.50 Welcome and opening remarks

Naomi Clayton, Chief Executive, IES

10.00 A whole new world: The things we see and the things we don’t in the labour market of 2030

Neil Carberry OBE, Chief Executive, REC

Neil was appointed as Chief Executive of the Recruitment and Employment Confederation in June 2018. He was appointed an OBE in the King’s Birthday Honours List of 2025. Neil is a Chartered Fellow of the CIPD, a Fellow of the RSA and a member of the Company of HR Professionals. A seven-time nominee to the SIA staffing100 in Europe, Neil is also on the board and exec of the World Employment Confederation and of a Multi-Academy Trust in England

Q and A

10.45 Organisational case study: Making AI work for your people

Matthew Ambrose, DEEP (Delivering Excellence in Employability Practice) UK Project Lead, The Institute of Employability Professionals (IEP)

Matthew is the UK Project Lead for the IEP’s global DEEP (Delivering Excellence in Employability Practice) initiative and has led several AI projects within the sector. Matthew will present a case study example of how AI has been introduced into the role of employability professionals, leading to improvements in efficiency and effectiveness, improved interactions with clients and the ability and scope for practitioners’ to focus time on the more meaningful aspects of their work.

Q and A

11.15 Coffee

11.30 Engagement trends and their impact on UK productivity: Insights from the Engage for Success 2024 annual survey

Dr Sarah Pass, Senior Lecturer, Nottingham Business School & Advisory Board Member, Engage for Success

Sarah is a practice-oriented academic concentrating on employee engagement and experiences of work. She is a member of the Engage for Success (EFS) Advisory Board and co-leads the EFS annual survey, which benchmarks the engagement levels of the UK working population. Sarah leads EFS projects focusing on different aspects and influences of engagement in practice and is also Chair of the EFS East Midlands Area Network. Sarah is a Fellow of the RSA, an Academic Associate of the CIPD, and a member of the Involvement and Participation Association (IPA) Working Insights Group.

Q and A

12.00 The links between training, organisational climate, and digital innovation

Professor Maura Sheehan, Professor of International Management at Edinburgh Napier University

Maura has a PhD in Economics and is Professor of International Management at Edinburgh Napier University. Her research focuses on the relationships between firms’ training and development (T&D) of their employees and organisational performance metrics including innovation (especially the determinants of incremental and radical), sales turnover and profitability. In a Consulting capacity, Maura specialises in organisational development, workforce training, and cultural transformation, focusing on human aspects (specifically, the links between leadership and emotional intelligence) and digital transitions and innovation performance. Maura has practical experience with facilitating employees to engage with new technologies and innovations and building trust between employees and technological change through her consultancy roles with the Royal Mail (introduction of automated sorting machinery) and KPMG (introduction of machine learning amongst actuaries and auditors).

Maura will present her research and practical experience of how investing in training and creating the right climate can help drive innovation and organisational performance.

Q and A

12.30 Lunch

13.15 Employee voice and productivity

Nita Clarke OBE, Director, Involvement & Participation Association (IPA)

Director of the IPA since January 2008, Nita has a long career in the trade union and labour movement. She has an in-depth understanding of the positive role that modern unions and representatives can have in the workplace and a very wide knowledge of the trade union movement as well as business needs. She has close working links with the TUC and many individual unions as well as the CBI, EEF, Chemical Industries Association and many individual companies.

Q and A

13.45 Organisational case study: Wellbeing and productivity

Dr Sally Wilson and Dr Alison Carter, Principal Research Fellows, IES

Sally has more than twenty years’ experience of conducting applied research in workplace health and wellbeing. Her specialisms include occupational health and safety, mental health and disability. Alison established IES' coaching research work in 2001 after publishing one of the first exploratory studies in the UK into the executive coaching process.

Sally and Alison will present a case study of how they supported a department within the Home Office to redesign jobs to both improve wellbeing, reduce sickness absence and work-related stress.

Q and A

14:15 Panel discussion: Where should organisations focus their efforts to improve productivity through people?

Q and A

14.50 Closing remarks

15.00 Close

The event will be chaired by Dan Lucy, Director, HR Research and Consulting, IES

Event information

Location: Broadway House, Tothill Street, London SW1H 9NQ

Travel: Nearest underground station is St James’s Park (District & Circle Line). Mainline stations at Victoria, Waterloo and Charing Cross are within walking distance or a short bus ride.

Event timings: The event will run from 9:30am to 3pm.

Conference fees: Tickets for this in-person event cost £195 +VAT per person. IES HR Network members will each receive two complimentary passes to attend the event.

Cancellation policy: Cancellations made five working days or more in advance of the event will receive a 100% refund. Cancellations made within five working days of the event are liable to payment of the attendance fee in full. Delegate substitutions can be made at any time ahead of the event. Please contact steve.orourke@employment-studies.co.uk for further information.