Addressing the CIPD/JSB’s annual employment law conference yesterday, Alan Johnson, Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Employment Relations Minister, calls for people management issues to be given greater priority in the boardroom. Johnson says, “We need to see managers at all levels putting people first and get people issues into the boardroom. It is critical today that the HR function is considered at the heart of an organisation’s business plan”.

Johnson continues, “As the CIPD’s ongoing work on the impact of people management on business performance shows, good people management means higher productivity notably through high performance working and greater emphasis on workplace learning”.

Johnson also refers to the forthcoming announcement on the independent review of Company Law, to be published very shortly. He comments, “The review of Company Law may help in this context. One of the issues the review has been looking at is how company reporting can best reflect the fact that companies are increasingly reliant on “soft” assets such as the skills and knowledge of their workforce while ensuring that companies report in a meaningful and informative way”.