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

“人员技能项目的明确目标是制定方法，招收‘难以接触到的’中小企业——生产力较低、在人员管理方面明显落后的企业。参加该项目的公司将获得在线诊断，然后将与独立的当地人力资源提供商联系，后者可以与他们合作，采用现有的管理实践-使他们快速了解基础知识，提高他们的领导和管理能力。在某些情况下，这可能还涉及到采用人力资源软件。因此，该项目将提高对商业实践的认识，增加采用更好实践的愿望，使这样做的成本和收益更加清晰，并提供来自当地合作伙伴的可靠建议。该项目将产生大量证据，以支持未来的决策。首先，我们将收集数据，了解哪些信息最能与“难以接触”的公司产生共鸣，从而改善如何最好地鼓励它们参与提高生产率计划的证据基础。其次，我们将收集公司对人力资源解决方案的认识的数据，以及为什么他们采取或不采取特定的解决方案。最后，我们还将收集信息，使BEIS能够评估人力资源建议对公司层面结果的长期影响，通过改进这方面的管理，深入了解提高中小企业生产力的潜力。”

"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."