What If?

Why, come 2023, is childcare still perceived as a predominantly ‘female’ domain by so many? Why is leave at the start of a child’s life still very rarely shared by parents? Do we need to scrap the current system of SPL in the UK? Academics Sarah Jackson and Michael Kimmel discuss.

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The way many people now work post pandemic is almost unrecognisable compared to how this looked before, raising the question of whether formal employment contracts have had their day. Academics Peter Cappelli and Ranjay Gulati explore what it might mean for the future of organisational culture and employee loyalty if we all essentially became contractors.

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Examples of company bosses taking a hardline stance on political and social issues have proliferated over recent years – particularly in the US, on highly emotive matters such as climate change, abortion, LGBTQ+ rights and Black Lives Matter. Academic and author Margaret Heffernan and CEO of NHS Employers Danny Mortimer discuss where such activism is appropriate, and how to get it right.

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In times gone by, it was an unspoken fact of life that come a certain age, everyone would swap their careers for a life of gardening, golf and general relaxation. But those days are already long gone. Academic Lynda Gratton and former pensions minister Steve Webb debate whether this is a good thing, and whether our economy will be able to sustain such widespread later life working.

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Fuelled by a cost of living crisis and several years of frontline workers having put themselves at risk during the pandemic, the UK is facing the biggest wave of industrial action since the 1970s. Professor Melanie Simms and equality and diversity organiser at Equity Ian Manborde discuss just how far this might all go.

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Since the financial crisis of 2008, the #MeToo movement and a series of high-profile corporate collapses, the business world has begun to question a certain brand of forthright – often macho – leadership. But do we still need ‘superstar’ leaders in some contexts?...ponder academics Randall Peterson, professor of organisational behaviour and academic director of the Leadership Institute at London Business School and Doyin Atewologun, dean of the Rhodes scholarships at Oxford University and director of the consultancy Delta Alpha Psi.

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If the traditional unstructured interview is about as useful at predicting on-the-job success as astrology and graphology, and many employers still rely heavily on this, should we just dispense with the whole process altogether, and recruit at random? Academic Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic and recruitment firm CEO Cynthia V Davis discuss the state of play currently, and how to make hiring better – and fairer. 

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What would we all do all day if there were no jobs? And how likely is this to come to pass? Academic Daniel Susskind argues it is only a matter of time before mass society-wide unemployment becomes a reality, while NHS Confederation chief executive and political thinker Matthew Taylor says there will always be work – we just need to ensure it is good.

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