Fulfilment and Effective Voice: CIPD 2025 Insights for Scottish Employers

High workloads is a consistent theme across the board. Around a third of employees report that their workload is high, and one in five managers said they don’t have the time they need to manage staff. The survey also found that those in lower-paid occupational roles, including sales and customer services, were just as likely to report high workloads as those in higher-paid occupations. Job design and access to adequate resources seem impact workload pressure more than job seniority.

Employees who report insufficient training, inadequate equipment or a lack of suitable workspace are consistently experiencing higher workloads than those with good access to resources. The combination of inadequate resourcing, high demands, and skills mismatch may be symptomatic of employers and managers struggling to put in place systems to support a high productivity environment, and all contribute to job dissatisfaction, burnout risk, and disengagement.

Creating fulfilling work environments where employees feel valued and supported to deliver, especially where the demands of the role are high, has clear benefits for recruitment, retention, discretionary effort, and overall organisational performance.

Some practical steps to help create fulfilling environments at work include:

• Ensure workloads are manageable and fairly distributed. Review workload allocation regularly and encourage open dialogue so employees can raise concerns about excessive demands. Resource planning tools and regular check-ins can help identify pressure points before they escalate. Consider whether line managers feel confident in assessing capacity and delegating work effectively. Targeted training, clear guidance and peer support can make a significant difference. Explore whether technology can ease pressure by removing unnecessary administrative tasks. AI‑enabled tools, for example, can support note‑taking, meeting summaries, or routine documentation, freeing up time for managers and employees to focus on other work.
• Factor flexible working into resourcing models. With the Employment Rights Act (ERA) strengthening flexible working rights (see our ERA Hub for detail on this), many employers are already seeing an increase in requests for different working arrangements. While flexibility can help employees balance workloads with other commitments, employers need to ensure that flexible working patterns are properly integrated into staffing models to avoid overburdening staff.  Employers can still refuse a flexible working request under the existing eight statutory grounds. Ensure that managers understand these grounds and feel confident assessing requests fairly and consistently. Clear guidance, training, and a structured decision‑making process can help balance operational needs with employee expectations.
• Provide adequate resources and training. Audit access to equipment, training, and workspace to ensure employees have what they need to succeed. For managers, invest in leadership development programmes and allocate sufficient time for staff management responsibilities. Our second article on the CIPD report provides further guidance for providing training to enable employee career development.
• Where capability issues are identified, ensure that performance management processes are followed. In some cases, an employee struggling with their workload may indicate underlying capability concerns. Where performance issues arise, these should be managed in line with your organisation’s policies and procedures. Address concerns promptly and constructively, ensuring employees understand expectations and are given a fair opportunity to improve. Early, well‑structured intervention helps resolve issues before they escalate and contributes to a more fulfilling and productive working environment. With the qualifying period for bringing an unfair dismissal claim reducing from two years to six months from 1 January 2027, employees will gain protection far earlier in their employment, making fair, consistent and well‑documented performance management even more important from an early stage. You can find more detail on this reform in our ERA Hub.

Job autonomy is strongly associated with positive outcomes such as higher job satisfaction, reduced staff turnover, and greater discretionary effort. Autonomy can boost productivity and improve wellbeing. However, achieving this in practice can be challenging when balancing operational priorities and managing costs. Meaningful work is equally important: employees who perceive their role as purposeful report stronger performance, efforts that go beyond formal requirements, alongside lower intentions to quit and a greater willingness to recommend their employer. Meaning and purpose are therefore not abstract concepts but real drivers for organisational performance.

The report also highlights a mismatch between labour market demands and skills development systems, reflected in overqualification and skills misalignment. Ensuring that individuals can fully utilise their skills and qualifications is key to fair work, but can only happen where there is active consideration of this, and open dialogue with employees.

Some practical steps for employers include:

• Enhance job autonomy. Increase employee discretion over how work is carried out, while ensuring that any changes remain consistent with contractual terms, job descriptions, and health and safety obligations. Providing autonomy can reduce the risk of grievances linked to micromanagement or unfair treatment, while supporting employee engagement.
• Strengthen the sense of meaning and purpose. Connect individual roles to the wider objectives of the organisation, recognise contributions publicly, and design projects that allow employees to see the tangible impact of their work. As many employers begin to introduce the use of AI into day‑to‑day operations, it’s important to bring employees with you on that journey. Help people understand how AI may support their role, for example, by reducing administrative tasks such as note‑taking or routine documentation, and be clear about what training, guidance and safeguards will be provided. When employees feel informed, equipped and confident about how new tools fit into their work, they are far more likely to stay engaged and connected to the organisation’s wider objectives.
• Address skills mismatches and overqualification. Conduct skills audits to identify underutilised talent and ensure development opportunities are offered fairly and without discrimination. Where training is provided, ensure compliance with statutory obligations (including time off for training requests) and consider how upskilling supports succession planning and reduces legal risks associated with redundancy or role changes.
• Support career development and growth. Create clear, objective criteria for promotion and lateral moves to minimise the risk of bias or discrimination allegations. Ensure that access to training, mentoring, and development is equitable and that decisions are well‑documented to support transparency if challenged.
• Promote wellbeing alongside fulfilment. Recognise that meaningful work, manageable workloads, and flexible working arrangements contribute to both employee wellbeing and legal compliance. Employers have a duty to manage workplace stress, consider reasonable adjustments, and respond lawfully to flexible working requests. A proactive wellbeing strategy can reduce sickness absence, grievances, and potential liability under health and safety or equality legislation.

Having an effective voice at work means employees can genuinely express concerns, offer feedback, and influence change. It goes beyond simply having a suggestion box or an annual survey; it requires a culture where people feel safe to speak up and confident that their views will be taken seriously. Effective voice includes both formal mechanisms, such as staff forums, trade union representation, and structured consultation processes, and informal routes, such as regular team discussions or open‑door conversations with managers. Crucially, it also depends on how well these channels function in practice: the responsiveness of managers, the transparency of decision‑making, and the organisation’s willingness to act on what employees say. Our recent article on employee engagement explores this in detail.

The report found that the most common voice channels are one-to-one meetings with managers, and team meetings, available to around 50% of employees surveyed. 19% of employees say they have no voice channel at all at work, with the availability of voice channels considerably better in large organisations and the public sector. Almost a quarter of Scottish employees are members of a trade union or staff association. Among non-members, 40% reported that there was no union or staff association at their workplace.

These findings highlight some actions that employers can take to give their staff an effective voice:

• Introduce basic voice channels where none exist. Almost 20% of employees report a lack of voice channels at work, particularly in smaller organisations. This can be easily addressed at no cost, by introducing opportunities for one-to-one meetings with line managers, and team meetings where staff can engage in feedback.
• Prepare for strengthened trade union rights. The ERA introduces significant changes aimed at strengthening the power and reach of trade unions in the workplace. The changes make it much easier for trade unions to access workplaces and to seek statutory recognition, as well as increasing protections for trade union representatives and members. The reforms are outlined in our ERA Hub, and will inevitably mean that for some employers trade unions are likely to play a larger role in employee relations. The report states that 20% of employees in Scotland feel that management is not in favour of trade union membership, which may cause tensions in the future if left unaddressed. A positive and collaborative relationship with trade unions can be a real asset. Effective engagement can support stable employee relations, enable early resolution of workplace issues, and help organisations implement change more smoothly.
• Employers may wish to review their employee relations strategy, particularly where there is currently no recognised union. As part of this, it is important to assess how the organisation engages with staff collectively and ensures workers have an effective ‘voice’. Employers could consider putting in place employee bodies such as forums and councils where these would provide a more structured and inclusive mechanism for workforce engagement. Any such arrangements should be designed carefully. Our recent article looks at the trade union access reforms in detail and there is lots of information on our ERA Hub.
• In summary: look at the full range of voice channel options and ensure your employees have access and use the best channels for your organisation; actively engage your employees more often and in the right way, while ensuring managers are trained to have regular meaningful conversations; and consider how upcoming changes to trade union legislation may impact your organisation, and prepare for constructive dialogue.