Call for HR support as government urged to invest in small businesses

The CIPD is calling on Government to invest £13m a year to provide HR support to small businesses, as new research shows that it could be a key part of efforts to unlock the UK’s productivity puzzle. The call is based on the evaluation of year-long ‘People Skills’ pilots providing HR support for SMEs in Hackney, Stoke-on-Trent and Glasgow.

People Skills was developed by the CIPD, the professional body for HR and people development, with support from J.P. Morgan through the JPMorgan Chase Foundation. It provided up to two days’ worth of free HR support to small firms, including face-to-face advice, a telephone helpline, online information and templates, as well as group training events.

The evaluation report found that, while much of the support provided by the People Skills initiative was fairly basic, such as establishing workers’ terms and conditions or job descriptions, there was evidence that this provided a foundation for boosting workplace productivity.

Ben Willmott, CIPD Head of Public Policy, said: “If policy makers are serious about addressing the UK’s long-standing productivity deficit – particularly among the nearly 1.3 million small businesses that employ between 1 and 50 people – then they have to start seriously thinking about how to improve management quality, which the Bank of England’s chief economist Andy Haldane has identified as a key area for focus.

“We calculate that about £40m from the Government’s National Productivity Investment Fund would support the £13m annual cost of running a People Skills-type service across all 38 Local Enterprise Partnerships in England for three years and could revolutionise the quality of business support for small firms.”

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