 | |
| |
 | |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
|
| |
|
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
THE NATIONAL MINIMUM WAGE AND EMPLOYERS' TRAINING DECISIONS
Research report commissioned by the Low Pay Commission >>Back to main index Part 4 - Results from the interviews Twenty-six companies were recruited to the case study phase of the research. A list of participating companies is given below; details of the 26 case studies are reported at Appendix C. Case study companies Hospitality Hotel, North West England, one of national chain, 260 employees, 6 trainees Public House, Wales, 6 employees Hotel, Scotland, 58 employees, 10 trainees Public House and Hotel, Scotland, 6 employees Bar-café, Northern England, one of chain, 32 employees Hotel, South West England, one of pair, 25 employees, 1 trainee Hotel, Midlands, one of consortium, 120 employees Hotel, London, one of pair, 25 employees Hotel, London, one of national chain, 540 employees Retail Retail florist, North West England, 12 employees Food production and retail company, Wales, 180 employees Horticultural retailer, Scotland, 17 employees, 2 trainees Department store, Northern England, 140 employees Petrol station, South West England, 9 employees Electrical appliance store, South West England, 10 employees Convenience store and off-licence, Midlands, 9 employees Retail Florist, Midlands, 23 employees, 4 trainees Specialist Food Store, London, South West, South East and Midlands, chain, 340 employees Hairdressing Salon, North West England, 4 employees, 1 trainee Salon, Wales, 8 employees, 5 Modern Apprentices Salon with training centre accreditation, Scotland, one of pair, 11 employees, 6 Modern Apprentices Salon, Northern England, one of pair, 8 employees, 3 trainees Salon, South West England, 2 employees, 2 trainees Salon 1, Midlands, 5 employees, 4 trainees Salon 2, Midlands, 4 employees, 2 trainees Salon, London, 8 employees, 2 trainees The key themes that emerged from the interviews are identified below: Recruitment and retention One of the issues to be addressed in the study was the relationship of training to recruitment, turnover and retention of staff. Employers were asked, firstly, for their recent experience of recruitment. They were also asked whether they believed that offering training assisted when recruiting, and/or with retention of, staff. A majority of employers reported difficulties in recruiting staff, and it emerged that training was a key element in many employers’ responses to this situation. Table 4.1shows that three-quarters of interviewees reported having difficulty in recruiting staff. Some said it was not difficult to recruit staff, but it was difficult to recruit the right calibre of staff. Table 4.1: Difficulties in recruiting staff across sectors | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Problems with calibre of the recruitment pool was a recurring theme: ‘It is not difficult to attract applicants but to get the right staff is difficult, mainly in production but also retail sales.’ Food production and retail company, Wales ‘The difficulty is with quality of personnel… we operate what we call a ‘large net, small mesh’ approach. We scoop up everything from the ocean floor and then we sift them, so we interview nearly everybody that applies. But it’s the quality of staff…we have trainees, and it’s difficult to recruit these too…it’s to do with their commitment’ Hotel chain, London HQ ‘It is very easy to find staff, but difficult to find good staff.’ Hairdresser 1, Midlands Some hotels reported a situation in which recruitment (and recruitment shortages) were an ongoing feature: ‘We have ongoing, virtually monthly, recruitment…it’s getting the calibre of staff that is the main difficulty.’ Hotel, Midlands ‘We interview approximately 200 people a week, every week.’ Hotel chain, London HQ Others referred to difficulties with specific groups of staff: ‘Around five to six years ago, we would take approximately 12 trainees a year. Now, we are lucky to get three or four. With the rise of the high profile celebrity chef recruitment for the kitchens is okay, but food and beverage service is a problem area. In the last three to four years, we have had no food and beverage service trainees at all, we just don’t get them.’ Hotel, North West ‘It’s easier getting sales staff than finding people to train as florists. Recruiting a part-time sales assistant was quite easy, but recruiting the right sort of people to become florists is difficult.’ Retail florist, Midlands Of the six who did report that they found it easy to recruit staff, two were public houses or bars, and they mentioned either word-of-mouth or spot enquiries from potential recruits as being a major factor. Similarly, a convenience store manager reported that his workforce had remained stable for some years, and he only needed to occasionally recruit part-time assistance, which was done locally, again by word-of-mouth. One of the Central London hotels reported that they often recruited individuals from overseas who were in London to work and to improve their English. Reasons for recruitment difficulties Interviewees identified three main reasons for their recruitment problems: competition from other employers that paid much higher rates; demographic and economic changes that had led to changes in the options available to those from whom these sectors would usually recruit; and lastly, the attitudes of potential job applicants. Pay rates Despite the increase in pay arising from implementation of the NMW, pay rates within their sector were seen as problematic by eight of the employers. Primarily these comments were made by hairdressers, although the hospitality sector also acknowledged some problems. However, it was competition from other sectors, particularly supermarkets and call centres offering far higher rates of pay and causing distortions to the local labour market, that was seen as the major problem: ‘They see it will be a few years until they get onto good money. Many are moving out of the industry. Five or six have gone into local factories.’ Hairdresser 1, Midlands ‘It is quite difficult recruiting staff, predominantly because of competition from call centres that pay significantly higher rates.’ Public house and hotel, Scotland ‘The hotel’s main competitor for employees is retail, particularly supermarkets. We recruit from within a radius of around 15 miles, within which many supermarkets have opened in the past few years, and they offer £5 an hour just for stacking shelves.’ Hotel, North West Social and economic changes Five referred to the fact that the expansion of further and higher education provision had removed many of their traditional sources of trainees: ‘Recruiting the right type of people is difficult…it seems they leave school and go into courses now, whereas before they used to come into the service industries straight from school on apprenticeships.’ Retail florist, Midlands ‘It is difficult to get the right staff, school-leavers go straight to college.’ Hairdresser, South West ‘In the past, the people going into horticulture and engineering were from the middle-of-the-range, educationally. It’s a hands-on job. But with the increase in computerisation [in the economy] those people can now do jobs they don’t get dirty at. So it’s boys from lower down the education ladder that are coming into the trade, when actually you need higher levels of skills because of the increasing sophistication of the equipment we sell’ Horticultural retailer, Scotland Attitudes of job applicants Nine employers commented on the attitudes of recruits. ‘The suitability of the candidates was so dismal…we had advertised in the Job Centre. We arranged to interview 20 people, and just two turned up out of those twenty.’ Retail florist, North West ‘It’s their attitude to work – they are very ‘jobsworth’, never prepared to do a bit extra.’ Hairdresser, North West ‘Younger trainees look initially at hairdressing as an easy option, they don’t realise how hard it is.’ Hairdresser 1, Midlands ‘Juniors come in and then leave when they realise how difficult the work is.’ Hairdresser, North of England ‘They come in thinking they don’t have to work. The social background and the education system is all geared to make it too easy for them.’ Hairdresser 1, Midlands ‘It is difficult getting the quality required for delivery staff…they are intelligent but lack discipline’ Retailer, South West Responses to skills shortages Six interviewees spontaneously spoke of the need to ‘grow their own’ staff as a response to recruitment problems. Employers identified attempts to recruit ‘qualified’ staff (and in particular, the ‘poaching’ of staff from competitors) as exacerbating current employee shortages. The term ‘employee shortages’ is used here, rather than ‘skills’ shortage, because employers indicated that their response to these recruitment difficulties was to attempt to find people who show ‘commitment’ or ‘potential’ and then train them, either from the outset or later on, once they have seen how they perform: ‘If we advertised for fully trained people…well first of all, I don’t believe the people exist, and secondly we would simply be entering the merry-go-round on which a lot of the brand-name hotels are already on…if Hilton advertise for four people, they are simply going to take them from a competitor hotel, and so four people may leave Marriott and go to the Hilton. The Marriott will then need to employ four people, and they advertise, and people will leave Holiday Inn and so the circle goes on…we try to avoid that circle.’ Hotel chain, London HQ ‘When we realised we had a very skilful individual working here as a cleaner, we gave her training for Reception work and she has been working as a Receptionist for 8 or 9 months now’ Hotel, London ‘To be honest, if I put an advert for a florist in, we wouldn’t have any apply! I’ve advertised for florists and you just can’t get any. So rather than go and poach them from somebody…and then if you poach them you’ve got to offer them more than they’re getting, and then that would upset the balance of wages here, so that’s why we have to keep bringing people through all the time.’ Retail florist, Midlands Supervisors and managers are asked to identify any high potential employees…the strategy is to develop a ‘pipeline of talent’ for the company Hotel, North West It was of interest to determine whether those who had increased training provision were also more likely to believe that offering training gave them an advantage when recruiting. If the respondents are grouped into those who had increased training, and those whose provision had remained the same or declined, then there are indications that those who believe that training assists in recruitment are more likely to have increased provision. Interviewees were asked: ‘Do you believe that offering training to staff gives you any advantage over other employers when recruiting?’ and answered on the scale ‘yes’, ‘probably, yes’, ‘don’t know’, ‘probably not’ and ‘no’. Table 4.2: Does training give an advantage when recruiting? Counted as ‘assists with recruitment’ if respondent said ‘yes’ or ‘probably, yes’ Counted as ‘does not assist’ if respondent said ‘no’ or ‘probably not’ | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
While these are small numbers, they indicate that those who believed that being able to offer training to potential staff assisted with recruitment were also more likely to have increased their training provision. Amongst those who had maintained the same level or decreased training provision, a higher proportion of employers believed that the offer of training did not help in attracting recruits. Two employers thought that the value of training varied when recruiting different groups of staff. In both cases they believed that training was valuable in attracting managerial level staff, but was arguably of less use in attracting lower level grades of staff: ‘When we’re looking at the manager and the assistant manager levels we’ve often managed to recruit people from within the industry because they recognise that we invest a bit more in training and we are seen as the leaders in the industry, so we’ve managed to pick up people from rival chains of stores. I suppose with the lower level of staff it’s possibly not such a big factor but may be still a small factor.’ Specialist food retailer, London and regions Employers were also asked if they believed that training assisted with staff retention. Table 4.3 shows their responses. Table 4.3: Does training help with retention? Counted as ‘assists with retention’ if respondent said ‘yes’ or ‘probably, yes’ Counted as ‘does not assist’ if respondent said ‘no’ or ‘probably not’ | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Employers who did not think that training assisted with retention indicated that their main concern was that offering training makes employees more employable and therefore more attractive to other employers: ‘For the majority of new intakes it makes them more employable…[and] there’s a substantial number who learn and then move on elsewhere.’ Hotel chain, London HQ Types of training offered Accredited training A total of eighteen of the twenty-six employers interviewed provided access to accredited training. All of the hairdressers had traditions of providing training for young people, either for NVQs or on Modern Apprenticeships. One salon was a registered training and assessment centre offering Modern Apprenticeships at Level 2. The majority of others sent trainees/apprentices on day release to local colleges; one sent Modern Apprentices to a training company. Two of the retail employers had recently introduced NVQs for their employees: the department store in the north of England had introduced Retail NVQs for its staff, while the food production and retail company in Wales was about to introduce Performing Manufacturing Operations NVQs for production line staff, although had no plans to introduce NVQs for its Retail staff. This was being assessed in-house by managers, with the scheme administered by a local training company. Some of the staff at the horticultural retail centre in Scotland had undertaken the Amenity Horticulture SVQ at the local college. Amongst the retailers, the two florists both had trainees undertaking NVQs in Floristry. One sent their trainees to a local college, the other trained and assessed in-house (they were part of the accredited assessment centre operated by the local college). In the hospitality area, four of the hotels used NVQs/SVQs; one additionally employed people studying towards Modern Apprenticeships. Non-accredited training The specialist food chain (London, South West, South East and Midlands) was currently investigating the possibility of gaining accreditation via a relevant trade association for training modules organised and run in-house. All except one hairdresser ran in-house training in which all employees (stylists and trainees/apprentices) participated. This varied from around half a day a month to two evenings a week. The one hairdresser who did not offer in-house training for staff had previously run a similar system but had encountered difficulties. Training had been organised in the evenings, and staff had wanted to be paid for the additional time spent at the salon. The hairdresser had felt that she was unable to absorb the potential extra costs, and, rather than do this, had decreased, in fact almost completely stopped, this aspect of staff training. The bar-café in the north of England offered a fairly extensive range of in-house training, but this was not accredited externally. The two London hotels used in-house training; in particular the small chain offered in-house training right through to management development, but again this was not externally accredited. The public house and hotel in Scotland offered some limited in-house training, and occasional access to external courses. N/SVQs versus Modern Apprenticeships Out of the eighteen employers providing accredited training, only a minority – five out of the eighteen – offered Modern Apprenticeships. There was no obvious factor that appeared to discriminate between those who had staff registered for NVQs or MAs. Of the five companies that had staff registered on Modern Apprenticeships, three were hairdressing salons, and two were hotels. Both hotels had staff who were registered on NVQs as well as those registered for Modern Apprenticeships. Of the five companies with staff registered for Modern Apprenticeships, only one of these organised training and assessment in-house (the Scottish hair salon that was an accredited training school); the remaining four sent trainees or apprentices to a local college or training company. No employers indicated any reasons for choosing to use Modern Apprenticeships over N/SVQs. However, two employers indicated that Modern Apprenticeships involved too much of an additional administrative burden compared to NVQs: The original paperwork for the modern apprenticeship scheme was a nightmare - we had to appoint a training company to do the paperwork. Hotel, Midlands ‘At the time [there was] quite a lot of money on offer to start up the MAs here, and at the start we had some quite decent payments to get it started which did give us the time to sort it out. But now we just do the NVQ because the MA was involving too much…and [the apprentices] had to do the level 3 which we felt was not applicable to everyone, that’s supervisory level and not everyone is going to be a supervisor, in the level 3 there’s a big section where they have to do till reconciliation and, well, you really only have managers doing that…and without that they can’t complete…and there’s a few other things like that, so really, it was just a waste of time.’ Retail florist, Midlands Provision to different groups of staff There was some limited evidence of groups of staff being treated differently in respect of training provision. In hairdressing, the majority of the accredited training was focussed on young trainees and apprentices. However, given the time taken to go through to the achievement of Level 3 N/SVQs in this sector, it was not uncommon for employees to be in their 20’s and already employed as stylists by the time they achieved this level of award. The hotel in Scotland had initially offered SVQs only to its employees who were aged under 22, but had now decided to offer the opportunity to undertake SVQs to all members of staff (although they had had no takers so far). In two of the Retail companies, while S/NVQs were being used in developing some groups of staff (horticultural salespersons in one case, production workers in the other), there was no perceived need to develop staff in other areas of these businesses (café assistants/cook and sales assistants respectively). There appeared to be two main reasons for this. There was no need for training for certain roles that were seen as reactive, and also employers believed that in some cases training would not be well received by their employees: ‘There is no formal training for the shop staff. We see the retail staff role essentially as being a reactive role, responding to the customer care process. Many of the shop staff are more than happy just doing the job, because it’s flexible, it’s part-time work, that’s one of the big things about it… and perhaps some of the older employees would be put off by the idea of training, and some of the longer serving employees would take the point of view that ‘I’ve been doing this job for thirty years, why are you telling me something different’, and being a little afraid of it’ Food production and retail company, Wales ‘For some staff, yes, training is an attraction, but others see it as a drawback. It depends on the individual’ Horticultural retailer, Scotland Changes to training provision Those employers that had reported increasing or decreasing their training provision were asked to describe how this had changed. Employers described the changes that their company had made which were then checked against a set of response categories to allow comparison across organisations and between sectors. Organisations that had increased training provision Tables 4.4a – 4.4c show responses from employers who reported an increase in training, grouped by category of response. For the hospitality sector, the most frequently-reported way in which training provision had changed was that staff were being trained for a wider range of skills, and in particular interviews mentioned initiatives to increase flexibility and to facilitate multiskilling in their employees. Six out of the eight companies in this sector that reported an increase in training mentioned this. Increased training to develop more specialist skills was the second-most frequently-cited change in this sector, along with reports that training was being provided generally to more staff (five responses in both cases). In retail, training effort was most likely to have been directed at the development of specialist skills, and this was also the case in hairdressing. Across sectors, the development of specialist skills was the most frequently-cited aim of the increased training provision, with training for more staff and multi-skilling being second and third-most-frequently cited changes. Table 4.4c also gives aggregated data across the three sectors. Reasons for increasing training Employers were asked the reasons that underlay their decision to increase training. In hospitality, the two most frequently-cited reasons were to improve quality of service and to help attract staff, with five of the eight interviewees mentioning these. Producing a more highly-skilled staff and to help retain staff were the second-most cited reasons for these decisions, with half (four) of the respondents mentioning these. In retail, the most frequently cited reasons were to improve quality of service and to produce a more highly skilled or flexible staff, with three of the six retailers that had increased training citing these. In hairdressing, the need to keep up-to-date was uppermost in managers’ minds: all four managers cited this as a reason. Improving quality of service, producing a more highly skilled staff, and publicity were also key reasons for three out of the four hairdressers. Across sectors, the most frequently-cited reason for increasing training was to improve quality of service (eleven out of eighteen employers) followed by needed to produce a more highly skilled or flexible workforce (ten employers). The reasons for increasing training given in each of the three sectors are shown in Tables 4.5a – 4.5c, with the data aggregated across the three sectors shown in Table 4.5c. Table 4.4a: Hospitality sector: how has training increased? | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Table 4.4b: Retail sector: how has training increased?
4.4.c: Hairdressing sector: how has training increased?
Table 4.5a: Hospitality sector: why has training increased?
Table 4.5b: Retail sector: why has training increased?
Table 4.5c: Hairdressing sector: why has training increased?
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Organisations that had decreased training provision Initially four organisations that had indicated that they had decreased training in the past three years were selected for case-study interview. However, during the interview with one of these it emerged that in fact virtually no training had been carried out for considerably longer than this. Therefore in this section only the outcomes of the interviews with the three case study organisations that had decreased training are reported: two hairdressers and one retail florist. They were asked in what way(s) they had decreased training provision, and their categorised responses are shown in Table 4.6. One retailer and one hairdresser had cut back on training across the board for all staff; for the hairdresser this had meant the ending of almost all use of product training and demonstrations within the salon. The other hairdresser reported that the salon was taking on fewer trainees than they needed, and existing staff were less likely to be sent to external training; rather, the managers would attend external courses and then cascade the training in-house. Table 4.6: How has training decreased? | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
However, the outcome of these changes had perhaps not been entirely negative: the retailer and one of the hairdressers reported that, as a result of the contraction in training, the training had now become more focussed. The hairdresser now compiled individual training plans to ensure that staff gained training based on identified development needs, while the retailer assessed the impact of all training undertaken. Two months after any employee attends any training, the proprietor assesses their performance on the relevant skill area to determine whether there has been any improvement. Reasons for decreasing training The reasons for decreasing training provision are shown in Table 4.7. Slightly different reasons were given for the decision to reduce training in each of the three cases. In one of the hairdressing salons a combination of financial and pragmatic reasons were cited: since staff now had to be paid for any additional hours spent in training sessions at the salon and the salon could not afford this cost, they had stopped organising training sessions. However, the proprietor did not feel this was too problematic as the staff were experienced and did not need training (except juniors, for whom provision via the local college was being maintained), there was no need to improve quality as clients by-and-large were happy, and the work did not require more than the standard skill levels. Table 4.7: Reasons why training has decreased | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
The second of the hairdressers was quite clear though that he was not happy with the cut-backs imposed. The salon was no longer able to spend the same amount on training as a consequence of increased costs arising from the NMW. However, while the retailer reported that the cut-backs in training had arisen to some extent from the current economic circumstances, the main factor had been going through the Investors in People process. He believed that, as a result the training had become more targeted and had made them focus on what was important to the business.
Impact of NMW on employer training decisions Following the employers’ description of the ways in which training had increased or decreased and the reasons for this, interviewees were specifically asked if the introduction of the NMW had played any part in their decision about training. If they said that it had, they were asked to explain how it had affected their thinking. Looking first at the responses from those employers who reported an increase in training, five out of 17 said that the national minimum wage had played some part in these decisions. However, inspection of the explanations given by the five employers revealed that in only two cases did their comments relate directly to their increase in training activity: ‘It [the NMW] forced the hotel industry to consider the whole package they offered in order to compete against employers outside the industry.’ Hotel, Scotland ‘We [increased the training] because we need to increase profits to meet the increased costs.’ Public house, Wales The responses of the other three interviewees indicated that the NMW had not affected their decision to increase training, but rather, had led to their decision to actively recruit younger people as trainees. The issue of the recruitment of younger workers is dealt with in the following section. Amongst the three employers who had reduced their training level, two indicated that the NMW had influenced their decisions. They were both hairdressers: ‘We used to have a rep in every week doing demos, models coming in…since the introduction of the national minimum wage, trainees only want to do set hours. If they stay on to do training they expect to be paid, consequently we have been forced to cut back. We have been through two inspections by the Inland Revenue over the NMW because the staff have complained about this. So now we provide no training for the staff because of this.’ Hairdresser 2, Midlands ‘We haven’t cut back on in-house training but we have cut back on external training because obviously we haven’t got as much money floating around. The impact of the NMW on the money available meant that we can no longer afford to spend the same amount. The partners go on courses and then bring that expertise into the shop and then cascade it down, rather than sending the staff.’ Hairdresser, Wales In addition, one of the hairdressers who had increased training generally reported that the NMW had nevertheless led the salon to cut back on the number of trainees they took on: ‘In a service industry it is difficult paying people an adult rate when they are not contributing. The NMW has made me look carefully at how many trainees I employ. Proportionally (given the number of stylists I employ now) I have halved the number of trainees relative to stylists.’ Hairdresser 1, Midlands Table 4.8 summarises the numbers of employers who reported that the NMW had, or had not, had an impact on their training decisions. Table 4.8: Did NMW influence your training decision? | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|