Ventures WorkerTech Newsletter – August 2024 The latest update from Resolution Ventures 6 September 2024 by Louise Marston Louise Marston In August, we were delighted to welcome Aish Moothan, our new Ventures Manager, to the Resolution Ventures team. You’ll be hearing more from her in future months. We are also celebrating the first exit from the Workertech portfolio, as Breakroom have been acquired by U.S. company ZipRecruiter. More on that below, along with some great upcoming events and funding opportunities. Best wishes, Louise Marston Director of Ventures Breakroom’s journey Breakroom founders left to right: James Weiner, Anna Maybank and Tom Taylor We were really excited when we learned that Breakroom was being acquired by U.S. recruitment company ZipRecruiter. This is the first exit from the Resolution Foundation Workertech portfolio, and it was also the first direct investment that we made. The Resolution Trust first invested in Breakroom in 2019, at a really early stage in their journey. We had huge belief in the team – Anna Maybank Tom Taylor and James Weiner – from their earliest days, and were excited by their mission to make every job a good job. In this 2021 video, Anna explains what Workertech means to them, and how Breakroom has impact. What Breakroom has created is a brand new data source that can better inform workers about their choices in shift work – to make it easier to find a better job, whatever that means to them. Breakroom collects data from frontline workers on pay, hours, flexibility, work conditions, culture, and more to provide community-powered ratings for jobs. So you can find a list of the best employers in fast food. Or look up the best rated retail assistant employers. Or find a good job in Swindon or Sunderland. 20,000 people a month are completing the Breakroom quiz, and there are ratings for more than 6,500 UK employers. With the acquisition, Breakroom is now aiming to take their product to even more workers, and to launch the brand in the U.S. as well. With the team staying on, and there’s lots of potential for future impact here and we hope that this valuable tool for workers is going to soon be a household name. Latest insights from the Resolution Foundation Low Pay Britain 2024 Our annual Low Pay Britain report sums up the state of low pay work and looks at the key changes to employment rights that the Government has proposed. Looking in particular at proposed changes to zero-hours contracts, sick pay, unfair dismissal and the minimum wage, the report highlights some of the challenges and trade-offs in implementing changes, and ways the new Government can learn from the most successful recent policy change on low pay – the introduction of the minimum wage. Measuring Up? If you’re a keen reader of Resolution Foundation reports on the labour market, you may have picked up that there is currently some concern about how well the official job market stats are tracking the real-world. In this note, RF’s Adam Corlett and Hannah Slaughter explore what seems to have been happening, and what it means for our understanding of the labour market. Living Standards Outlook 2024 This annual report assesses the current status of household incomes, poverty and inequality, as well as their prospects over the course of the new Parliament. It looks likely that the last Parliament will turn out to be the worst on record for income growth, so the new Government have made growth a priority. This is an important focus, as without policy changes, incomes at the bottom of the distribution are projected to fall in each year of the new Parliament. Register now for our five event series in the run up to the October Budget. See all the upcoming Resolution Foundation events here. WorkerTech stories Landmark Ruling at Next In a landmark ruling, retail workers at British retailer Next have won a 6-year legal battle for equal pay, potentially leading to over £30m in compensation. The case revealed that 3,500 sales staff, predominantly female, were paid less per hour than the (predominantly male) warehouse workers. Whilst the tribunal acknowledged that the disparity was driven by cost-cutting and profit-boosting efforts, it ruled that Next failed to prove that the lower pay was not gender-based discrimination, rejecting financial considerations as a blanket defence against equal pay claims. Next plans to appeal the decision. Over 112,000 store staff are pursuing similar claims against major retailers like Asda, Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Morrisons, and Co-op. Rulings like this come at a time where there have been early signs of progress in terms of the gap between the proportion of men and women in low hourly paid jobs. In 1997, women were more than twice as likely to be in low-hourly paid jobs versus men. Data from 2021 shows that that gap had halved; 15% of women are likely to be on low hourly pay versus 11% of men in recent data. Making an Impact Some great thinking on impact investing out this month, including the latest from the Growth Impact Fund, and Sumerian Foundation’s Inclusive Investing review. JFF Ventures, a U.S. fund investing in the future of work and workforce development has a great impact report as well. Look out for our next impact report, coming later this year. Highlights from the Portfolio – EarlyBird CEO Claudine Adeyemi-Adams spoke to Sifted about ways that startups can work with government and the public sector. – TaskHer have been mentioned in a piece in Vogue magazine this week! Hardware designer Matilda Goad called Taskher “the most incredible resource”. Get involved We’re hosting a Workertech meet-up and drinks on Tuesday 1st October at the Resolution Foundation. Register now to come along and meet other Workertech founders, investors, experts and stakeholders in making better work in the UK. Apply for direct investment from Resolution Ventures. We accept applications from WorkerTech ventures on a rolling basis. Or you can book a slot in our office hours for an initial conversation. No Wrong Door pitch day – join us on Tuesday 10th September as the 15 selected innovators with ideas to improve employment support in London present their projects. Register here to attend. Future of Work investors NoBa Capital have a pitch day on 19 September. Apply by 6th September if you want to be considered. Co-operatives UK – the UK’s network body for organisations that operate as co-ops – is holding their third annual Co-op Hackathon on 1st – 2nd of October. This Hackathon is focused on creating connected digital infrastructure to boost the effectiveness of ethical co-operative businesses. It’s free to attend and will be taking place at Co-op UK’s headquarters in Lichfield, Staffordshire. Those wanting to attend can register their interest here.
