The ‘war for talent’ is about values – “the values a company holds and the values of work it promotes”.

From skills and immigration to child care, flexible working, automation and health, CBI DG Tony Danker challenged business to act when dealing with “the genuinely new landscape” facing the UK, not only as a result of the global pandemic but of “several tectonic plates” that have shifted in the last three years. “If we as business leaders don’t start leading the change, we will end up chasing it. And I know that’s how many of us feel already,” he said in his opening remarks.

For instance, he said: “Younger workers especially are looking for value and purpose in their jobs,” said Danker. “And they’re more than ready to challenge the organisations they work for on that. Be it interrogating firms’ net-zero credentials, commitment to equality, diversity & inclusion or public advocacy.

“But a lot of this is also about the values we hold as bosses towards employment – it’s no longer just they work for us,” Danker warned. “We have to work for them.”

In his opening keynote to the Future of Work conference, he outlined three principles for winning in the talent market: progressiveness, work as a platform for a better life and a ‘new deal for the workplace’.

Progressiveness is not about politics, Danker emphasised but “a reality check on the modern world where people… vote for employers. Across the political divide, they share common expectations for a firm’s behaviour towards them and to the world around us”.

Taking a light poke at the government, he went on to say: “The political arena is no longer the primary of societal discourse. That has shifted to… work.”

Second, he described the platform for a better life as “Where we get a good job with work that’s meaningful and rewarding. Where we get paid well, then trained or retrained for a better job and better pay. Where our physical and mental health are factored into our working lives and our employment relationship… Where flexibility in our world outside work is not exceptional but default.”

Third, he described a new deal for the workplace as “a truly mutual value exchange of what the employee gives and gets that goes way beyond terms and conditions. The return for bosses… is this: loyalty, discretionary effort, leadership.

“If we want these – not merely employees who clock in – we have to earn them.”

The CBI Future of Work Conference is being held today in London.

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