Evidence library

Working Lives Scotland is the CIPD’s dedicated report on job quality in Scotland. Adapting the CIPD Good Work Index  to the Scottish Fair Work Framework, the report provides analysis and insight on a range of issues, with a view to informing public policy interventions and improving people practice.

"Our latest research explores job quality in Scotland today and the factors impacting it, such as the cost-of-living crisis. Our evidence suggests a return to ‘business as usual’ in Scotland, but not a move towards fairer work, with concerning gaps in flexibility, job autonomy and employee voice across Scottish workplaces.

Our Working Lives Scotland sample comprises 1,010 respondents of the total 5,139 employees across the UK. "

Key findings Our Working Lives Scotland report is now in its fourth year – spanning periods of time just before, during the height of, as well as after the pandemic. The report’s findings are based on the 2023 UK Working Lives survey, which offers insights into Scottish job quality changes and continuity over time. Our Working Lives Scotland report supports a broader picture of job quality in the UK, provided by the CIPD’s Good Work Index research.

Fair work in 2023 • The 2023 survey continues to show remarkable stability across all fair work dimensions, including concerning gaps around flexibility, job autonomy and employee voice. • Among others, we’ve found the highest level of presenteeism recorded so far, with 58% of all employees saying that they went to work despite not feeling well enough to do so. • We continue to find additional challenges across some aspects of fair work for women, disabled employees or those with caring responsibilities.

Poorer job quality for key workers • The increase in collective employee action over the last few months has put job quality into sharper focus, especially for those who work in sectors with limited homeworking options. • We continue to see significant gaps in fair work for those in so-called key worker roles. In fact, with the notable exception of the meaningfulness of work, we find key workers do poorer across most job quality aspects. • From lower objective and subjective pay, through higher workloads and feelings of exhaustion, to poorer formal and informal flexibility – the drivers for collective action are broad.

The impact of the cost-of-living crisis • While the tightness of the labour market is reflected in good job security, we see an impact of the cost-of-living crisis in our findings. • There are year-on-year drops in the ability of employees to meet financial commitments across all income bands, although they are understandably much worse for those on the lowest incomes. • Concerningly, we see a fifth (20%) of all employees lose sleep over money worries and nearly a third (32%) say their employer is not doing enough to support their financial wellbeing.

Persistent flexible working gaps • The only pandemic-driven change in job quality that remains a feature of Scottish working lives is the boost in the levels of home and hybrid working. These are embedding even further, with the preferences of the vast majority of workers matching their current ways of working. • We do, however, see signs of some reluctant returning to the office for some and pick up on challenges around relationships with colleagues and work–life balance. • Perhaps most importantly, nearly half (44%) of all Scottish employees either can’t (33%) or don’t want to (11%) work from home at all. True flexibility needs to look beyond homeworking.

Employee voice challenges • Most concerningly, the positive improvements in employee voice scores we’ve found over the last two years have disappeared in this year’s survey. • While it doesn’t necessarily follow that employers rolled back on the level of staff engagement they boosted during the pandemic, it does highlight that employee perceptions of the effectiveness of their voice have taken a hit. • The changes are probably linked to the cost-of-living crisis, the levels of collective action and the media coverage thereof. Employers, managers and employee representatives need to redouble their efforts in this area.