Britain’s Workforce Crisis Needs HR Directors Leading From The Front
Britain’s labour market is declining in ways that concerns policymakers and employers alike. Unemployment has climbed to 5 percent, while more than nine million working-age people are now economically inactive - a level that brings the country back to the kind of labour-market strain last seen around the 2007/8 financial crisis.
But the data that lies beneath today’s unemployment numbers is more serious: long-term sickness is at its highest level in decades, accounting for more than 2.5 million people that are simply unable to work. The UK has experienced a steep and sustained increase in adults living with multiple long-term conditions, and the labour market is feeling the consequences. Many individuals are forced out of work not because their roles are inherently incompatible with their health, but because the support available is inconsistent, interventions are too slow, and workplaces often lack the structures to help people remain in their jobs when health issues emerge.
The Government’s Keep Britain Working review pointed directly at this convergence of health, work and inactivity. It emphasised that the systems intended to keep people in work or support their return to work are patchy, under-resourced and often implemented too late. One key insight was that many workers do not receive timely support or adjustments when health issues emerge; others feel unable to disclose their condition, meaning problems escalate instead of being addressed. The review also stressed that employers cannot wait for policy alone - workplaces must become proactive in designing roles, supports and cultures that allow people to remain in employment despite health setbacks.
In this context, one group of leaders within the private sector stands out as absolutely pivotal: HR Directors and senior human-resources executives. These professionals sit at the interface of four critical challenges: workforce health and wellbeing, training and reskilling, inclusive recruitment, and organisational culture. They witness daily how a role becomes unsustainable, how skills no longer fit evolving business needs, how an employee stops looking for work because of a health barrier. They are uniquely placed to translate national ambitions into workplace action.
In practice, HR Directors can ensure that health and attendance programmes are not peripheral but strategic. They can align wellbeing investments with business outcomes, redesign jobs to accommodate fluctuating capacity, and partner with training providers to reskill employees whose roles may no longer match demand. Many already are doing so - introducing early-support pathways for those with emerging health issues, and recruiting from talent pools long overlooked because traditional job requirements block entry for people outside conventional employment. These actions are not philanthropic; they are business-critical, because a smaller workforce and higher rates of inactivity mean rising costs, resourcing bottlenecks and diminished growth potential.
Yet to fully mobilise this capability, government must recognise HR Directors as essential partners rather than mere recipients of policy. The Keep Britain Working review calls for a new employer-state partnership, one where employers lead, employees remain engaged, and government enables and incentivises. That partnership cannot succeed if those who understand the workplace most deeply are excluded from the design and implementation of reforms. A national forum of senior people leaders, convened by government and empowered to drive practical reform, would bridge the gap between policy and practice.
If Britain is to pull itself out of this cycle of rising inactivity and sliding productivity, ministers must bring HR Directors into the room to help shape government policy and scale the best solutions that are out there across industries - not as an after thought, but as essential partners. The Government should establish a national working group of senior people and HR leaders from across all key sectors and across all regions , charged with shaping and driving the practical reforms needed to rebuild the workforce. And business, for its part, must empower its HR Directors to lead boldly.
The national mission to keep Britain working will succeed only if those who understand the workforce best are placed at the heart of the solution - and it’s time to elevate the role of HR leaders to help shape the ideas and deliver the solutions to this employment crisis.
