People Skills+: An innovative management and leadership approach to boosting SME productivity

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"The People Skills project is explicitly aimed at developing methods for enrolling 'hard-to-reach' SMEs - lower-productivity firms which lag significantly in people management.Firms taking part in the programme will be offered an online diagnostic, which will then put them in touch with independent local HR providers who can work with them to adopt existing management practices - bringing them up to speed with the basics and improving their leadership and management capabilities. In certain cases this may also involve adopting HR software.The project will therefore increase the awareness of business practices, increase desire for adopting better practices, make the costs and benefits of doing so clearer, and provide trusted advice from local partners.The project will generate significant quantities of evidence to support future policy-making. Firstly, we will gather data on which messages are most resonant with 'hard to reach' firms, improving the evidence base on how they can best be encouraged to enroll in productivity improving programmes. Secondly, we will gather data on firm's awareness of HR solutions and why they take up or do not take up particular solutions. Finally, we will also gather information which will allow BEIS to evaluate the longer term effects of HR advice on firm-level outcomes, giving insights into the potential for improving SME productivity through improving this aspect of management."