Neil Carberry: It’s about putting people first
Neil Carberry is on a mission to improve the skills system, writes TERRY MURDEN
During his regular visits to Tynecastle, Hearts season ticket holder Neil Carberry will need no reminding that hiring top talent can mean the difference between success and failure. He also believes that giving employees the conditions that suit their circumstances is the best way for employers to get positive results.
As chief executive of the Recruitment & Employment Confederation, Carberry heads up a group representing 3,000 agencies and others linked to the sector and he’s on a mission to improve the skills system north and south of the border.
Tackling “economic inactivity”, which includes a quarter of those of working age, has become a hot topic, not only for filling skills shortages, but dealing with issues over mental health and the cost of living.
This group includes those who are long-term sick, are simply not seeking employment, or are unable to get into the labour market because of their circumstances. They may be single parents, or carers, for instance.
It has kept flexible working at the top of many employees’ priorities since the pandemic and can be a deciding factor in whether a position is filled or remains vacant.
He accepts that there is more that firms themselves can do to improve the labour market, not least by adopting less-rigid hiring practices that suit the employee as well as the employer, rather than rule out people too quickly because they do not meet criteria that may be determined by a computer algorithm.
“Many employers says their people are their greatest asset. If that’s the case, then they deserve better,” he says.
Crucially, he wants to see government do more to improve the skills system and is concerned that when they do take action, regrettably it often means more bureaucracy that can make things worse.
“It’s important for government ministers to understand that people want to work in different ways to the traditional nine-to-five, full-time role,” he says. “People want to be able to manage their lives, not just their job.”
However, he says employers also have the right to run their business in a way that is not hampered by too many rules that make it difficult and costly to employ staff.
Carberry, whose previous roles include leading the CBI’s work on labour market, skills, energy and infrastructure, has been back in Edinburgh, his home city, hosting a network meeting for members, with Scottish Labour’s economy spokesman Daniel Johnson joining them to exchange ideas and opinions.
“He had to take a bit of pressure regarding his colleagues in Westminster,” says Carberry who says that a big issue among the 25 who attended were hikes in employers’ national insurance contributions and other changes to employing workers announced in the Chancellor’s October Budget.
“Members were very concerned about the way the national insurance rise was brought in as well as the Employment Rights bill,” says Carberry. “They will make things more challenging and have put a brake on firms’ willingness to hire people.”
He says lowering the threshold on NICs will hit part-time workers in particular. The British Retail Consortium has warned that one in ten part-time shop workers may lose their jobs.
The new employment rights bill has increased concerns around unfair dismissal and other changes such as abolishing zero hours contracts that are now occupying the minds of lawyers who expect a rush of new cases.
“It won’t work [for companies] if you burden employers with added costs of tribunals that may take 18 months to settle,” says Carberry. The Treasury appears to agree and has raised concerns that the system, which is already facing a two-year backlog, may struggle to cope with an increase in claims.
Carberry is particularly animated about the apprenticeship levy that operates differently in Scotland and England. South of the border employers make a payment and can then draw from their fund to suit their own needs. In Scotland, the levy is part of the block grant and employers must access it from a general pot.
“The skills system in Scotland is overly bureaucratic. UK companies are sending their Scottish apprentices to England to train because they can draw down their levy from there,” he says.
The Scottish Government set up the Flexible Workforce Development Fund to give firms easier access to funds, but Carberry says they found this was also “too difficult”.
There have been objections, not least from the Scottish Chambers of Commerce, to the Scottish Government’s decision to move national training programmes, including apprenticeships, from Skills Development Scotland (SDS) to the Scottish Funding Council (SFC).
SFC’s responsibilities for funding further education student support will move to the Student Awards Agency Scotland (SAAS), bringing this together with SAAS’s existing responsibilities for higher education student support.
Carberry says this shuffling of organisational responsibility offers no guarantees that it will improve the system and help get more people into the right jobs for either the employer or employee.
“Our failure to grow the economy is about productivity and that is about getting the workforce and skills system right,” he says. “It all comes back to putting the people stuff first.”
PERSONAL CHECKLIST
Occupation: chief executive of he Recruitment & Employment Confederation (since 2018)
Birthplace: Edinburgh
Age: 48
Education: University of Oxford, London School of Economics and Political Science
Career highlights: began career in recruitment in 1999 working for executive search firm Fraser Watson before doing a post-graduate degree in Human Resources at the London School of Economics and joining the CBI in 2004. He was managing director, leading the CBI’s work on the labour market, skills, energy and infrastructure. He is a Chartered Fellow of the CIPD and a Fellow of the RSA. He is a member of the council of Acas and a former member of the Low Pay Commission. A three-time nominee to the SIA Staffing 100 in Europe, he is also on the board of the World Employment Confederation and a primary academy trust in Oxfordshire.
Other activities
An RFU qualified rugby coach and was one of the 8,000 co-owners who made Heart of Midlothian the UK’s biggest fan-owned football club.
Who was the biggest influence on your career?
My former boss at the CBI Richard Lambert
What did you want to be when you were young?
As a kid I lways wanted to be captain of a ship
Biggest mistake?
Taking too long to learn that you should speak your mind and realise that those more senior or experienced don’t always know what they are doing! I was too head down, no complaints for too long!
Who would you invite to a fantasy dinner party?
Thomas Muir, Dolly Parton and Dave MacKay
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