Chris Grayling to look at cutting employee red tape

Chris Grayling, the Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, has told the human resources trade magazine Personnel Today that the Conservatives will take on board some of the concerns within the industry about the impediments of red tape.

"Every person in the country in a management or HR role that deals with regulation agrees there is too much red tape, that the system is too complicated," Grayling told Personnel Today.

"We're going to be doing some work during the course of this autumn on the health and safety environment to see what can be done to reduce the regulatory burden without compromising on safety standards."

On welfare to work schemes, Grayling also promised much less prescription of what employers can and cannot do.

"What you have had from the government over the past few years is an initiative here, an initiative there, and I don't want to replicate that," Grayling said. "I want us to have a much more simplified structure, without the government prescribing the programme a welfare-to-work system with contractors based geographically, dealing with a range of people with a range of needs, so we can say, 'you're the professionals, can you get on with it please?'."

Comments

[Tony Makara]

Chris Grayling is one of the most radical members of the Conservative team and I really like the fact that he has the will to get things done. On the matter of red tape perhaps Mr Grayling can use his influence with employers to make job application forms less exacting. The need for job applicants to provide two former employers as references is a real stumbling block for those without a credible work history. In fact the whole CV culture has become a daunting barrier to employment for so many. We need to get back to a process in which a person could see a job advertised, ring up, get a quick interview and start immediately. Of course there should be exceptions in key areas where children are involved, but apart from that the job application process takes far too long. CVs, rather like the filofax, seemed like a good idea twenty years ago but now the fact that employers expect elaborate CVs and demand several references, completely slows the job application process down.

[David Cooper]

Mind if I give a gratuitous plug for the 100 Policies article on the theme of Regulatory Freedom For Small Firms that I submitted in the dim and distant past? The hated statutory disciplinary procedures are all set to be repealed, but there's still every danger that whatever replaces them will still leave small businesses burdened. And that's with the deadweight of the remaining legislation still bearing down.

[Libertarian]

Nothing of substance from Boy Gideon? I am not surprised. He, like "Call Me Dave", is out of his Bullingdon depth. Send for Redwood!

[Malcolm Dunn]

Do you really have to be so juvenile Libertarian?

[Ruth]

Tony - if I may, you are suggesting exactly the sort of prescriptiveness that we don't want government to exert on employers. It is up to employers to decide whether or not they want the opinion of a previous employer. In California employers get burdened with bad staff, and can't identify the good ones, because previous employers are so liable to being sued if they give anything other than a glowing reference. As a result employers there refuse to acknowledge anything other the dates that a person worked for them.

[Phil C]

One thing that needs to go is the "schemes of equality" that public sector organisations have to complete: they are a huge time and resource-wasting cottage industry. And do nothing positive to promote equality of opportunity.

[Tony Makara]

Ruth, I take your point. I am just concerned that the CV requirements of some employers can become a genuine obstacle to those with a patchy work history. Often job advertisments tend to too specific in asking for people with previous experience of the job at hand. This immediately excludes most of the people who might otherwise apply for the job. While some skills are vital for certain jobs I feel employers are generally too specific in demanding someone who is absolutely tailor-made for the position. We have to look at the situation from the perspective of someone who is lacking in experience and perhaps confidence. A complicated job application process is likely to be very offputting to such a person.

[Malcolm Stevas]

Tony Makara:
"..the CV requirements of some employers can become a genuine obstacle to those with a patchy work history. ....employers are generally too specific.... We have to look at the situation from the perspective of someone who is lacking in experience and perhaps confidence. A complicated job application process is likely to be very offputting to such a person."
Well, frankly, tough luck - the world of work might be altogether too daunting for someone so fainthearted.
More to the point, this is not, or should not be, anything to do with governments, future Tory or otherwise. The current problems are more to do with grotesque, byzantine H&S laws, anti-discrimination twaddle etc, that put us well on the way to matching France for the sheer difficulty of employing people in the first place - and getting rid of them if they prove useless. The mountain of bureaucratic crap[ that we have to wade through is not only oppressive to individuals, it impedes this country's economic wellbeing.

[David]

As with most nonsense now, the EU is the underlying driver on this.

[Libertarian]

"Do you really have to be so juvenile Libertarian?

Posted by: Malcolm Dunn | October 10, 2008 at 20:39"

What have the Bullingdon Boys, with their multi-million family fortunes, said of substance this week? Millions have had their pensions smashed this week but all they can do is support this pathetic government.

Do you honestly think that the Bullingdon Boys, with their experience limited to the Westminster village and PR, have the skills and knowledge to sort out this mess? Where is their decision-making experience?

Would you invest in a financial institution with the Bullingdon Boys as Chief Executive and Financial Director? If not, why do you think that they are fit and able to run the nation's economy? They have said nothing of substance to convince me that they would be better than Brown and Darling.

It is times like these that test national leaders. So far, the Bullingdon Boys have not even attempted to give their own answers, just copying the idiots in Downing Street. John Redwood, although I may not agree him entirely, has at least offered some ideas.

[Edward Huxley]

As David pointed out, most red tape comes from Brussels, so how is Chris Grayling proposing to deal with this?

[sally Roberts]

Tony Makara, I agree with you that many people are deterred from applying for jobs because they fear they cannot provide the requisite two references from a former employer (although some companies will accept one character reference provided the source is "respectable" and easily contactable if required).
The sad fact however is that these days it becomes ever more necessary to check out references - many people fabricate or "embroider" and once someone has been taken on as an employee it is one hell of a job to get rid of them again thanks to Employment legislation (and yes, pace GB£, Libertarian and Co I KNOW much of it emanates from Brussels!!)
In the case of someone who is handling finances in any shape or form then it is absolutely vital to take steps to establish a degree of honesty and probity.
I do not really know what the answer is, but suspect that job-seekers will continue to have to prepare CVs which will catch the eye of the hard-pressed HR Department sifting through what can be hundreds of applications for one position!

[sally Roberts]

P.S. Sorry in that roll call of names I forgot to mention our Friendly UKIPPERS Edward Huxley and David!!

[Edward Huxley]

Nice of you to call us friendly Sally. I am still very much a Conservative. Just waiting for sanity to return to the party.

You seem to agree about the burden the EU imposes on us.

[sally Roberts]

Edward I do acknowledge that EU Directives contribute massively to the amount of "red tape"! I think you and some of the others are under the misapprehension that I believe everything which comes out of Brussels is good - that I am rather like one of the less intelligent animals on "Animal Farm" - Boxer or Molly perhaps - when the fact is that I, like many others in the Conservative Party do feel that whilst Europe needs reform we should not simply walk away. In other words, it is grown up, joined-up thinking!
Perhaps a little more careful reading of my postings (I know you read ones relating to squirrels, badgers et al with avid interest!) would help?

[Yet Another Anon]

On the matter of red tape perhaps Mr Grayling can use his influence with employers to make job application forms less exacting. The need for job applicants to provide two former employers as references is a real stumbling block for those without a credible work history. In fact the whole CV culture has become a daunting barrier to employment for so many.
That isn't a government responsibility, private sector recruitment methods are down to the private sector managers and the fact is that they won't take anyone on if they are suspicious of them - that's just the way things are.

On the other hand government could look at the way that public sector application forms are set out, indeed the public sector ones are frequently the longest and most demanding of references.

Supposedly there was going to be a scheme to hold references of behalf of people - so a former employer could register their reference - then of course they wouldn't have to resend the reference if it was again needed.

People lose touch with other people and it wouldn't make for much of a conversation of someone's only reason for ringing up is to check if their reference is still at the same address.

If the referee dies or develops alzheimers or simply can't be bothered supplying a reference more than maybe the once, it's not anything that the prospective employee has any control over.

[sally Roberts]

Libertarian - I am afraid I agree with Malcolm on this one! Your first posting was "juvenile" and your response no better!
You have told us in another discussion that you were unsuccessful in being selected as a candidate on a number of occasions. I am afraid, sympathetic as I was to you I am beginning to see why.....

[Malcolm Stevas]

Yet another anon:
"Supposedly there was going to be a scheme to hold references of behalf of people - so a former employer could register their reference - then of course they wouldn't have to resend the reference if it was again needed..."
Please tell me this was not going to be State-run..? Recipe for another information-loss disaster. It's bad enough when the latest government cock-up is losing the detials of 100,000 Services personnel on a hard-drive; imagine the consequences of hundreds of thousands of people's CVs being left on a train by some Civil Service bozo - doesn't bear thinking about.
Sally Roberts, your criticism of Libertarian seems to be the usual reflex defensiveness: his point about the inexperience of Cameron & Co is a perfectly sound one, and not "juvenile" at all. Redwood does at least have considerable experience of the world of work, the City in particular, as well as a substantial intellect.

[sally Roberts]

Malcolm Stevas I was referring really to Libertarian's constant parroting of "Bullingdon"..."Bullingdon" as a constant refrain! It really is very childish and denotes perhaps a small chip on the shoulder....? Libertarian has told us that he is a millionaire entrepreneur and good for him - but perhaps he regrets the fact that money cannot buy class?

[David_at_Home]

"P.S. Sorry in that roll call of names I forgot to mention our Friendly UKIPPERS Edward Huxley and David!! "

How nice of you to remember us, Sally! Thank you.

Like Henry, I was a Conservative once (my late Dad was a stalwart member of his local Conservative Association) but ceased to be so when I realised that the Conservatives where giving away our national sovereignty, were more amenable to the desires of large business (very different, incidentally, for those of small to mid sized businesses) and had otherwise become indistinguishable for New Labour. It was not a sudden conversion, just a gradual movement.

[a-tracy]

Tony M, employers are the people that are held to account if a poor recruitment decision is taken. We all have examples of hiring a diamond in the rough, however, we also have more examples of hiring the rough that claimed they were a diamond!

For those people that can't provide two sound character references why don't you set up a business and hire them?