Andrew Marsh, chair of Vistage for the North East and Northumberland, NED for numerous businesses and charities; and successful entrepreneur, spends his days helping business leaders achieve goals and find opportunity.
He has recently joined the board at Citizens Advice Gateshead and works closely with the team at Society Matters CIC, an organisation known for its passion for social change, designing and delivering affordable quality training, offering a continually expanding toolkit of high quality, unique services to help organisations put ideas into action. Here, Andrew talks about impact of employer’s actions on employees and families and what can be done to support more people:
“You can’t help but notice that the news headlines tell us that our economy continues to be weak – high inflation, rising interest rates, a problematic employment market and the specter of recession always on the horizon. We read about and listen to the serious issues people are facing because of the crisis around the cost of living – but how many leaders can honestly say we understand the real impact this is having on our employees and their families? We need to accept that in work poverty is real and exists in plentiful numbers amongst the North East workforce.
“The most recent figures from the All Party Parliamentary Group Child of the North make for sad reading. Over 900,000 children in the north of England live in poverty – that’s 34% – but in parts of Newcastle that number is over 48%. Around one million households in the region were experiencing fuel poverty before fuel prices rose and the cost-of-living crisis hit. 23% of families who are food insecure miss out of school meals because, bizarrely, they earn too much to qualify.
“We know that children who grow up in poverty have far worse prospects than those who don’t with lower GCSE grades, more likelihood of childhood mental health problems, and shockingly drastically reduced life expectancy – sometimes as much as 20 years less than peers.
“The cost-of-living crisis is forcing more working families into poverty, and where in-work poverty goes, child poverty follows. This isn’t just about the now, it’s about the future – but what can we do as business leaders?
“How many times do we refer to employees as the most valuable asset in a business? Or talk about ‘our people’? Imagine what it must feel like to work hard every day but still have nothing spare after the bills to give the kids a treat? Or worse, imagine trying to pay the bills and realising despite all your hours of hard work, there’s just not enough cash.
“If we want people to bring their whole selves into work and focus on the job at hand, it is on us to do what we can to make sure that these problems are not constantly on their minds.
I know some of you will be thinking that under the current circumstances, it’s just not possible to pay staff substantially more, but there are solutions beyond increasing pay and extending benefits, that we could consider. Even if you can action some of them, collectively we will all be doing much more.
Ask your staff how they’re doing – candidly, but anonymously – to get a better picture of the real pain points they’re facing.
Look at your policies and procedures and see whether they are helping or hindering? For example, how does the date you pay people or when you give bonuses fall into the assessment cycle for benefits.
Examine your workplace culture and ask how much it costs to be at work? How many times are people asked to dip into their pockets? Are they travelling unnecessarily?
Use your unique position to make sure that if your people need help – be it budgeting, advice in benefits, or even just how to make their food go further, they can get it easily.
“This might seem like a lot of work, but there are solutions and support out there. It is becoming ever more important that leaders educate themselves in what living with in-work poverty really means and understand the perverse situations it creates, for example, where poor people pay more for many essentials as they can’t afford to buy in bulk or travel to cheaper shops.
“As some of you will know, I am connected to an amazing charity – Citizens Advice Gateshead – and their social enterprise, Society Matters CIC is working alongside North of Tyne Combined Authority to look at exactly this issue. They have a suite of solutions available including awareness raising seminars for senior leadership, staff surveying tools to gauge where your workforce is currently, support in auditing your work culture and practices and even budgeting and financial wellbeing training for staff.
“If you’re based in Newcastle, North Tyneside or Northumberland all of this is fully funded by the combined authority there too.
“As businesses, and leaders, we have an important role to play in making sure that all staff, their families and the communities they live in are thriving. Why not get in touch with Society Matters and speak to them about the ways they can help you start on this all important journey.”