CIPD Good Work Index 2023: what you need to know

Employment, News / 13 December 2023

The CIPD Good Work Index is a yearly report on job quality in the UK, which offers guidance and recommendations for employers, policymakers, and workers. The latest survey was held in January and February 2023 and used a sample of 5,139 workers across the UK. The main findings of the 2023 report show that while job satisfaction remains reasonably high, between 6 and 9 million people in the UK could be experiencing a lower quality of work than in 2019. The report also reveals worrying signs of a reduction in employee engagement, and significant variations in job quality across different groups of workers. Since 2019, there has been a drop in the number of workers who are satisfied with their pay and benefits and have opportunities to learn new things at work. The report also found that public sector workers were less satisfied than private sector workers, and that younger workers, low-paid workers, and workers with disabilities or long-term health conditions faced more challenges and barriers in accessing and experiencing good work.

For more information on how the CIPD defines and measures ‘good work’, read A guide to the CIPD Good Work Index.

What are the findings of the CIPD Good Work Index 2023?

The findings of the CIPD Good Work Index 2023 are split into 10 sections. Let’s look at the findings for each.

The cost-of-living crisis

Worryingly, the 2023 report reveals that many workers in the UK struggle to cope with the cost of living, and are still experiencing the impact of the pandemic. The report shows that only 48% of workers can meet their bills and commitments without any difficulties, while 16% are experiencing severe social distress, such as constant struggle or falling behind financially.

The report also shows that the cost-of-living crisis is not evenly distributed across the UK workforce. Some worker groups are more vulnerable and affected than others. For example, workers in lower-income households are more likely to face financial hardship and stress. The report also finds that the situation has worsened for many workers. The share of those who are coping without difficulties has fallen from 55% in 2022 to 48% in 2023.

Discontent in the public sector

Feelings of discontent in the public sector led to a wave of strikes and protests by various groups of workers, such as transport workers, barristers, doctors, teachers, nurses, and civil servants in 2022 and 2023. The CIPD Good Work Index 2023 report found that many public sector workers feel their pay does not reflect their job responsibilities and that they face more challenges and pressures than private sector workers.

Discontent in the public sector isn’t only about pay but also workload, mental health, bargaining power, and discretionary effort. The report shows that public sector workers are more likely to:

report negative impacts of work on their mental health
feel exhausted and under excessive pressure
think that their workload is too much
have less time to get their work done within their allocated hours

In comparing 2023 public sector worker responses with 2019 and 2022 findings, the report presents a mixed picture of changes in job quality. Public sector workers have become more dissatisfied with their pay, but haven’t experienced significant changes in their mental health, workload, or pressure.

Job design and the nature of work

The CIPD Good Work Index report explores how job design affects the quality of work and the experience of workers in the UK. The report measures various aspects of job design, such as complexity, variety, creativity, meaningfulness, autonomy, and influence.

The 2023 report shows that most workers have positive feelings about their work and find it engaging, meaningful, and satisfying. For example, 69% of workers said their work was useful for their employer, 61% said their work was important, and 59% said their work served a satisfying purpose.

However, the report also reveals a wide range of attitudes towards job quality. For example, 47% of workers said their work involved monotonous tasks, 24% said they were always or often exhausted, and 21% said they were under excessive pressure. The report shows that there has been a decline in certain factors such as enthusiasm, usefulness, and discretionary effort. This suggests that for some people, the quality of their work experience has deteriorated over time. For example, the share of workers who said they felt enthusiastic about their job always or often fell from 54% in 2019 to 49% in 2023, and the share of workers who said they would work harder than they had to fell from 57% to 51%.

Skills, qualifications, and knowledge

The CIPD report examines the skills, qualifications, and knowledge of UK workers and how they relate to job quality, pay, and career prospects. The 2023 report found that 60% felt they had the right qualifications for their job, 31% felt they were overqualified, and 5% believed they were underqualified. When questioned about skills, 53% believed they had sufficient skills, 31% stated they could cope with demanding duties, and only 13% felt they lacked the skills to do their job. Over time, the percentage of workers who could cope with demanding duties has dropped from 37% in 2019 to 31% of workers in 2023. However, there has been an increase in those who felt they had the right skills for the job, from 50% to 53%.

When asked if they received the training and information they needed to do their job well, just over half of workers and managers stated that they did. Only around a fifth disagreed.

Work-life balance

The report found that most workers have a reasonable work–life balance, with only 25% stating that work makes it difficult to meet their personal commitments. Conversely, 9% said that personal commitments made it hard to do their job. The report also found that work pressures prevented 54% of workers from relaxing in their personal time.

The report also examined the impact of caring responsibilities on work–life balance. It found 40% of workers have caring responsibilities, either for children or for adult relatives, and that carers are more likely to face difficulties balancing their work and personal lives than non-carers.

Flexible working

This section examined the availability and extent of flexible working in the UK, including informal flexible working. The report found that informal flexibility is widespread, with around two-thirds of workers saying they can vary their start and end times of work without prior agreement. However, formal flexible working is less common, with only 37% of workers saying they have a flexitime working arrangement.

The report shows that small to medium businesses are slightly more likely to allow workers to take time off (informal flexibility), but large firms more commonly offer formal flexible working, especially homeworking. However, there is no strong link between firm size and flexible working overall.

When asked how and when workers took up flexible working, 31% said it was offered to them on acceptance of the job, 15% requested it when they started the job, 19% adopted flexible working without asking for it, and 6% said their employer imposed flexible working. At 20%, the biggest reason for working flexibly by far has been the Covid-19 pandemic and its after-effects.

The only type of flexible working that has seen a significant increase is working from home, rising from 30% in 2019 to 49% in 2023.

Job insecurity

To determine levels of job insecurity, the CIPD Good Work Index 2023 survey asked two questions: do you think you will lose your job within the next 12 months, and how confident are you that you can find another job?

In answering the first question, only 12% of those surveyed said that it was likely they would lose their job within the next year, 20% said neither likely nor unlikely, and 60% responded that it was unlikely. In answer to the second question, 32% said it would be easy to find a new job, 22% said it would be neither easy or difficult, and 37% said it would be difficult.

The response to both questions has seen an improvement since 2019.

Job mobility

The CIPD Good Work Index 2023 survey asked participants how likely they were to leave their job voluntarily in the next year, how difficult it would be to quit, reasons for wanting to leave current employment, reasons for leaving past employment, and the success of past job moves.

Only 18% said it was likely they would leave their job voluntarily, while a resounding 60% said it was unlikely. Only 3% said it was very likely, which is similar to the 2022 figure (2.8%).
When asked whether it would be difficult to quit even if they wanted to, 39% agreed and 38% disagreed. 31% stated that they’d like to quit but have too few options to do so.

The main reason for leaving was to find better pay and benefits (34%). Other reasons included increased job satisfaction (27%), better work-life balance (23%), different type of work (22%), discontent with senior management (21%), and to find a job with greater promotion opportunities (13%).

When asked about reasons for leaving past employment, many of the same factors were prevalent. The top factor was better pay and conditions (29%), followed by better work-life balance (22%), discontent with senior management (21%), to find a different type of work (18%), and increased job satisfaction (18%).

Finally, when asked about the success of past job moves, most people said that they had improved their pay (58%), their job was more fulfilling (53%), and they experienced a better work-life balance (53%). Only 15-17% said that aspects of their job quality had decreased after a job move.

Relations in the workplace

The CIPD Good Work Index survey 2023 asked questions about work relations with both leadership figures, such as managers and supervisors, and colleagues. Generally, relations with leadership figures were viewed positively, with 76% saying they were treated fairly, 75% feeling respected by their manager, 72% considering their manager to be supportive, and 69% feeling they received recognition for their work. Largely, this positivity has increased since 2019. When asked to give an overall rating of their relationship with their manager, 80% said it was good.

When questioned about colleagues, the response was also positive, with 88% saying they had good relations with team members and close colleagues, and 81% rating their relations with other word colleagues as good.

Voice in the workplace

Voice in the workplace explores whether workers feel that they are able to express their thoughts and ideas to senior management. It also covers internal communication that enables workers to remain up-to-date with company developments. The CIPD Good Work Index 2023 report also included attitudes towards trade unions in this section.

The report found that most workers did have a means of communication with senior managers, including one-to-one meetings, team meetings, and employee surveys. However, around a fifth of those questioned did not. A little over 40% thought their manager was doing well when informing and seeking views from employees, and around 30% thought their manager was doing a good job when it came to influencing decisions.

46% of workers in the public sector said they had a trade union, compared with only 10% of private sector workers. When workers were asked why they hadn’t joined a trade union, there was a noticeable difference between the private and public sectors. The most common reasons for private sector workers were the lack of a trade union or staff association (36%) and no trade union for the type of job that the worker did (18%). In the public sector, cost was the main reason for not joining a trade union at 31%, followed by the belief that there would be no benefit to joining (18%). When asked about managerial attitudes to trade union membership, 18% believed their managers were in favour of union membership, 20% felt their managers were not in favour, 27% thought their managers were neutral, and 35% said they didn’t know.

What are the recommendations of the CIPD Good Work Index 2023?

The CIPD Good Work Index 2023 recommendations are made to two different audiences: policymakers and practice.

CIPD recommendations for policymakers

This guidance is for UK policymakers who are involved in creating and implementing policies that affect the quality of work and employment.

Improve the quality of careers information, advice, and guidance.
Reform the Apprenticeship Levy into a skills levy.
Continue to use the expertise and reach of the Flexible Working Taskforce.
Improve the quality of locally delivered business support services for small to medium businesses on HR and people management and development.
Reform Statutory Sick Pay.
Abolish worker status.
Overhaul the labour market enforcement system to improve the protection of worker rights and raise employment standards across the economy.

CIPD recommendations for practice

This guidance is for employers, workers, unions, and other stakeholders who are involved in creating and improving good work in the UK.

Employers should recognise and communicate the importance of financial wellbeing among their workforces.
Employers and employment professionals should design jobs that are interesting, meaningful, and promote employee autonomy. This will engage and motivate employees.
Employers and managers should identify and manage skill mismatches to engage employees and create job satisfaction.
Employers should encourage the uptake of flexible working arrangements among their workforces.
Employers should proactively strive to make their businesses attractive to current and prospective employees.
Employment professionals and managers should develop strong interpersonal relationships within their teams.
Employers should encourage and empower leaders to promote and assist employee voice in the workplace.

Wrapping it up

The CIPD Good Work Index 2023 report is a valuable resource for anyone interested in improving the quality of work and employment in the UK. It provides an evidence-based framework for measuring and comparing good work across different dimensions, sectors, jobs, and groups of workers. It also offers practical guidance and recommendations for employers, policymakers, and workers, based on the latest research and best practices.