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The purpose of this article is to show how two specialist advisers from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) provide practical advice on corporate social responsibility (CSR) and diversity.

The article includes two best practice guides based on the experience and quantitative and qualitative research of the CIPD. The first half focuses on CSR, what it means in the workplace and how HR professionals can implement or encourage its take up in a strategic and meaningful way. The second half tackles diversity, explaining its role in the workplace and its importance to HR professionals in helping organizations gain competitive advantage.

The strategic importance of both issues provides HR with an opportunity to demonstrate its strategic value to the organization. People policies and people management are at the heart of CSR and diversity.

CSR and diversity are similar, in that they both have to be approached with serious intent that results in effective delivery. Purely paying lip service, or poor implementation, is most likely to have negative implications for the business. There are also differences between the two, a key one being that there are best practice approaches to guide HR professionals in approaching CSR, whereas diversity is a more complex concept that relies on approximate reasoning.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss significant changes in the concept and practice of employment relations over the last 50 years. It does so from both public policy and management perspectives and highlights the continued failure to align these two perspectives.

The paper draws on the author’s research as an adviser at the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, and his previous experience as a civil servant in the Employment Department. A range of published sources are relied on, including quantitative, survey based and qualitative, case-study and other evidence.

The over-riding need to tackle inflation led governments in the 1960s and 1970s to make repeated attempts to build a stronger legal framework around collective bargaining, and to intensifying incomes policies which brought governments into frequent conflict with the trade unions. This was followed by incremental reform of trade union legislation under Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s, to which there has subsequently been no serious challenge. The question is posed whether the author is nearing the end of the road for trade union voice in the UK, or whether there is scope for a “new deal” under which trade unions can join with other key stakeholders in making a positive contribution towards economic regeneration. Looking forward, the paper discusses shifts in trade union approaches to industrial action and major challenges for employers, including managing individual conflict and employee voice.

The paper suggests that the ambiguity of the term “employee relations” means the author needs to ask what are the specific challenges facing employee relations practitioners today. Employee relations managers are undertaking a wide range of jobs. Their current focus on employee relations reflects a shift from the defensive attitudes that characterised the earlier part of the period to a more positive one. The paper concludes by arguing the case for a national forum bringing together employers, trade unions and other key stakeholders to advise government on workplace issues.

The pursuit of equality and valuing of diversity are central tenets of much organisational thinking and public policy development. However, in this current age of austerity we are witnessing a number of existing and proposed “fairness initiatives” feeling the sharp blade of a cost‐cutting axe. This paper is a reflexive response that aims to examine a piece of action research in the field of industrial relations. It aims to take the professional UK association, the British Universities Industrial Relations Association (BUIRA), as a case study and consider how issues of equality and diversity have been viewed by the organisation both in theory and practice. Using a framework which acknowledges the need for multiple levels of analysis (macro, meso and micro) and which argues for an intersectional approach, the paper seeks to detail the measures adopted by BUIRA so as to augment its organisational responsiveness to various equality and diversity concerns. It also provides an insight into how the authors, as equality and diversity academics, reflected on the process of creating policy through their own research activities. A further aim of the paper is to highlight the scope and character of equality and diversity initiatives undertaken by BUIRA, and to discuss some of their implications for its membership – both now and in the future.

What began as a simple policy piece of research developed into a multi‐method, quantitative and qualitative, action‐based project. It also became a reflexive study of how and by what methods research is conducted. A quantitative and qualitative survey of BUIRA members was followed with interviews with past‐presidents of the organisation. Historical data in the form of a comprehensive 2010 retrospective on BUIRA were also consulted.

The authors' empirical material was analysed with reference to a theoretical framework that acknowledges the importance of intersectionality at all levels of analysis. The study's findings are discussed in relation to macro, meso and micro influences and reference is made to how these three levels intersect in examining views and perceptions in relation to equality and diversity within BUIRA. The main findings are that while BUIRA as an association has acted to combat perceptions that it is dominated by older White men who prioritise traditional elements of industrial relations (IR), this view still persists for some of the membership. The membership survey indicated that it was female, younger or less established academics in particular who held this view, suggesting that in challenging inequalities within the IR academic community BUIRA may still have a way to go.

A key implication is that representative organisations such as professional associations need to consider equality and diversity aspects that reflect the membership they serve. This has been acknowledged as fundamental in both workplaces and trade unions and now requires similar commitment from professional associations. Of course, the scope and character of initiatives are also context‐sensitive, as reflected by non‐linear progress in equality initiatives undertaken by these and other organisations.

The research offers an analysis of equality and diversity within a professional association which is an under researched area.

A new range of solid carbide cutters to meet the most exacting industrial conditions has been announced by the Fenn Tool & Gauge Co. The first items in the Fetoga range, as it is called, include two‐ and three‐flute slot drills and four‐flute end mills.