Jonathan Payne is Professor of Work, Employment and Skills and Director of the People, Organisations and Work Institute (POWI). His main research interests include the political economy of skill, workplace innovation, UK skills policy, low wage work, job quality, and digital automation.
He has published extensively in these areas and is a co-author of ‘Skills in the Age of Over-Qualification: Comparing Service Sector Work in Europe’ (Oxford University Press, 2016).
Prior to working in higher education, Jonathan was a teacher in mainstream secondary schools. He has extensive teaching experience and is currently module leader for the postgraduate MA/PGDip module in ‘Employee Resourcing’.
He is a member of the editorial board of the ‘British Journal of the Sociology of Education’ and an associate member of the research network on Skills, Knowledge and Organisational Performance (SKOPE), for whom he was a lead researcher between 1998 and 2012.
He has advised policy makers on skills utilisation, lifelong learning and workplace innovation in Scotland, England, Finland and Norway.
He is currently researching the impact of digital automation on jobs, skills and wider job quality, and is the principal investigator on a Leverhulme-funded research project entitled: ‘Digital technologies and job quality: do trade unions make a difference?’ ((£166,000, May 2020-January 2023). The study draws upon interviews with trade unions in selected sectors in Norway and the UK.
He is also conducting a project looking at the role of third sector organisations in helping the unemployed into work which examines the scope for a ‘co-designed’ approach to developing personalised packages of support, along with the role of employer engagement.