Centre for Decent Work and Productivity

About our research

We are a multi-disciplinary group of researchers with backgrounds in:

business psychology
employment relations
human resource management
leadership and management
social policy
work and equalities

Our vision is to identify what causes – and who has – decent and productive work, and what can be done to shape a bright future for the world of work.

Our funding

Several prestigious funders support our research activities, including:

Economic and Social Research Council
National Institute for Health and Care Research
Nuffield Foundation
Leverhulme Trust
Our knowledge transfer partners

Our impact

Our research translates into real-world impact. Our excellent track record includes our:

highly-rated REF 2021 impact case study on changing employment and practice in adult social care
regular engagement with parliamentary committees and government departments
close partnerships with a wide range of policy and practice organisations, who share our commitment to decent and productive work

Our expertise

We have expertise across a wide range of areas, including:

health and wellbeing at work
labour market transitions, skills and employability, including active labour market policy, graduate employability and vocational training
creating decent and productive work. including employment charters and good line management
employee voice, industrial relations and trade unions
equalities in work, training and education, including self-employment and entrepreneurship
business psychology

Our partners

As well as extensive collaborations with fellow academics, we have close working relationships with policymakers, companies and research centres in the UK, Europe and beyond.

We are partners with the Massey People, Organisation, Work and Employment research group at Massey University in New Zealand.