Ford has just rehired more than 300 quality inspectors it replaced with AI cameras, because the AI system could not see why systems were failing. That is the pattern this week from the stories we found. We have to look at the equity in our decision-making
Salary transparency is finally under government consultation, because hidden pay hurts women and lower-paid workers most. A new bill on workplace temperature exists because heat deaths this year have hit workers with no control over their own environment. A 23-year-old student had to build her own maternal health app because her course never taught how conditions present on Black and brown skin. Lidl is ringfencing interview slots for the long-term unemployed. And your Gen Z employees are planning retirements around a pension they do not expect to exist, proof of how little trust they place in systems built without them in mind. Every one of these is an equity gap hiding inside a system nobody built to notice it. The question is whether yours would show up before someone else has to point it out.
Stories From The Edges...
1. Will employers have to show salaries on job ads?
Huge news, and something we have been campaigning about for a long time. The UK government has launched a consultation on salary information on job advertising. This has long been proven as a way to address inequalities and help people to assess jobs to apply for. The CIPD researched this and found that charity and public sector roles are more likely to show this information. The consultation is happening between now and October. We will be watching closely to see what happens.
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2. Gen Z are planning for life without a state pension
For all the stories in the news about Gen Z, this is one that really caught our attention. People in this generation do not expect the concept of a state pension to exist by the time they retire. The implications are that people might start to try riskier investments, or not save at all. This shows mistrust in the system, and will widen the gaps in wealth even further. This generation will have seen what happened to the 'WASPI' women who did save money for pensions. An interesting look at equity which will force a different look at what happens when people retire.
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3. Do we need rules on maximum workplace temperatures?
How have you been surviving working in the heat? Hannah Spencer, Green MP, is introducing a bill on maximum workplace temperatures. With rising heatwaves, she is calling for the government to act. This comes as researchers have found that 2,700 people are thought to have died through heat-related causes in May. Depending on your work role, it shows us inequalities in a different way. From bus drivers to nurses, to builders and those working in the hospitality industry, do we need laws in place around this? The new bill proposes target indoor temperatures of between 16°C and 25°c. It is sometimes easy to assume that people can control their working environment or they are in cooled buildings. For many, that is not the case, and something that needs to be addressed.
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4. New health app to improve midwifery care created by student
A 23-year-old student, Ruby Jackson, has created Melanatal, an app designed to raise awareness of how maternal and neonatal conditions present on Black and brown skin. She developed this after seeing a total absence of diverse representation in the learning resources for her course. Jackson won the Priority Population Digital Health Challenge and secured a 12-month mentorship and support through Amazon Web Services Healthcare. She identified an inequality and developed a solution. Inspirational and shows us how solutions can be found to address gaps in healthcare.
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5. Ford rehires human engineers after AI fails to match quality checks
For all the news stories about AI replacing roles, it can be hard to find positive stories. This is one of them. Ford has talked about deploying AI across their systems. This included 900 AI-powered cameras to detect quality issues. Ford has now rehired more than 300 quality inspectors to make up for the pitfalls in automated systems. Many of those people who lost their roles were senior, experienced people who have the wisdom of designs created. This is an interesting shift that we may start to see in other industries.
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6. Lidl sets aside 10% of interviews at new stores for long-term unemployed
It can be very tough to secure interviews for those who have been unemployed for a long time. Lidl has designed a way of addressing the barriers to employment. They will ringfence a portion of interview slots for entry-level roles over the next twelve months for those who are unemployed. People will be fast-tracked to the interview stage without a CV. They are working with the Department for Work and Pensions on this. At a time when vacancies in entry-level roles are low, this is a brilliant initiative.
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Spotting these gaps after they have become headlines is not a strategy; it is damage control. The organisations getting ahead of this, like Lidl redesigning, are treating equity as a design principle, not an afterthought bolted on once something goes wrong.
If you want to build that same judgement into your own systems, before your AI strategy, your reward strategy or your wellbeing strategy becomes next month's cautionary story, that is exactly the work we do with People Leaders. We help you create genuinely equity-built strategy.
And now, the news from us...
Future Talent - the book will be out later this year!
Huge news from us: Mo has finished writing her new book, Future Talent - How Different People Will Be Tomorrow's Leaders. As we can see from all of these stories, equity and how this impacts different people and generations is the work we need to do. The book includes interviews from a wide range of people and organisations. The book includes a blueprint to work towards and lots of free resources to download.
Thanks to everyone who has contributed to the research. The book is already available for pre-orders.
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