Head of the Good Employment Charter, Ian MacArthur, speaks on the Covid-19 pandemic and its impact on Good Employment practice. The Scottish Bard, Robert Burns once said “There is no such uncertainty as a sure thing”, and I’m certain as we raised our glasses and toasted-in 2020, we all had hopes and plans for the year ahead, - but as Burns also said – "the best laid plans…"!

Guest contributor Donald Moore, Chair at Rowlinson Knitwear, discusses a recent decision to introduce lateral flow testing in the workplace. We were lucky to have the chance to establish lateral flow testing in our workplace, and are very grateful to Stockport Council for providing this for us. In fact, we are the first manufacturing organisation to do this in Stockport with the help of the council.

Guest contributor Annalise Lewis, Chair of GM B Local and Co-Founder of Pentameter, speaks on B Corp certifications. 2020 was relentless, ferocious and polarising, and strangely - came with the emergence of real opportunity for hope. This hope does not see a future empty of crisis but a deep and meaningful opportunity that includes compassion, community and renewal.

The Greater Manchester Good Employment Charter are delighted to announce four new Members of the Charter, the first of 2021. These employers have gone from ‘Supporters’ to ‘Members’, due to their continued employment excellence, and their demonstration of how deeply embedded good employment is within their organisation.

Guest contributor Joanne Holland, Employer Engagement Manager at Transition to Teach, discusses this funded programme delivered by Cognition Education. It offers free support to businesses and their employees in order to raise awareness of teaching as a credible alternative to those who may be facing redundancy, coming to the end of their contract or taking early retirement.

Guest contributor Alice Kinder, Solicitor at Anthony Collins Solicitors, discusses social mobility in our latest blog. As the world seeks to overcome the economic effects of the pandemic, many organisations are recognising the need to become more innovative and creative in their strategies. An important ingredient in this is diversity of thought, drawn from encouraging a diverse pool of talent. How can this be achieved?

Guest contributor Alexia Rhodes details a snippet of good practice from the Business Growth Hub. Like many firms over the last 9 months, all Business Growth Hub employees have been working from home since the outbreak of the pandemic. We had a wonderful office environment and many of us missed seeing familiar faces and having informal catch-ups and chats over a coffee. Our office space had no fixed desks for staff which meant that you could be sat next to someone new each day, which allowed staff to get to know people from other areas of the business and not just their team.

The Greater Manchester Good Employment Charter is proud to announce seven new Members of the Charter. Among other characteristics of good employment, Members of the Charter have inclusive and fair recruitment practices, recognise that “one size fits all” does not work when looking at flexibility of work, offer training and development opportunities which allow employees to grow their skill set, focus on improving health and wellbeing within their organisations, and pay all of their staff the real living wage.

Since February 2020, the Greater Manchester Autism Consortium has been running a campaign called the Greater Manchester Enabling Employment Campaign. This campaign has a single aim, to raise awareness of the strengths and gifts of autistic and learning disabled people within the workplace. The strengths are not only corporate social responsibility, or filling equality and diversity policies, but your business and organisation benefitting greatly from employing autistic and learning disabled people.