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Management and Leadership
Skills Development
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Background information and answers to key questions Click below for answers to the following questions What is the Skills for Business network (SfBn)? What's the problem this M&L programme addresses? What does the long term picture look like - where are we trying to go? What's the purpose of this particular programme? So what exactly is this programme, what's in it? What's different about this programme compared with previous Boards? What’s the value of this programme to SSCs and employers? What’s the value to Partners of this programme? Who are our key partners and stakeholders? How does the link in with the SSA work? What other programmes will we link to / capitalise on? How will we link effectively to M&L programmes in the Regions and Countries? How will we communicate the work? How will we ensure all SSCs who want to be are engaged and up to speed?
The Department for Trade and Industry has reported that 36% of managers are not proficient to do their jobs. When you consider that 14% (4.5 million) of the working population has management responsibilities the skills gap is enormous - a massive 1.6 million managers who need to be developed. Against this background organisations are losing millions of pounds - for instance in low productivity, poor communication, lack of team working, not being able to recognise the symptoms of stress or having the skills to deal with conflict. And this from the recent CfE 'Skills in Context' conversation document ". . comparisons against the market economy make for even more depressing reading, where output per hour worked is almost 40% below that of the US. To quote John Van Reenen, “John Doe in the US could take Thursday and Friday off and still produce as much as poor John Bull in the UK toiling away throughout the working week.” Sticking with the slightly less depressing total economy, we observe that just over half the gap with the US . . is attributable to skills and physical capital, with just under half attributable to Total Factor Productivity – in short it comes down to different ways of organising firms or applying technology. For example, where there are two businesses of the same size, inputs, market opportunities, etc., but one is based in the US and one in the UK, the US business will produce 130 widgets and the UK 100, and half of that difference will be attributable to how the US business more effectively deploys the resources it has. Obviously, businesses don’t run themselves; they need the skills to identify, resource and exploit opportunities, as embodied in their management team. Therefore in considering our productivity gap with the US a significant part is a reflection of the relative skills and capabilities of UK leadership and management." Click here to download full CfE document
What's the evidence there really is a problem?
What does the long term picture look like - where are we trying to go? Our vision for the new programme will be closely developed with the SSCs and be based on the aggregate findings from their Sector Skills Agreements (SSAs). But in broad terms our aim is to make a significant improvement in the effectiveness of UK managers over the next few years. In short we need to address the problem outlined above. This is an enormous challenge akin to trying to 'boil the ocean'! It's essential therefore to understand what we can do ourselves as the SfBn and who we can influence to assist; to find other organisations with resources with whom we can join forces. So the picture in 2010 would have SSCs having achieved these aims:
Depending what emerges from the SSAs, it's likely that this work will be focused on small and micro businesses. A consultation exercise run with our employers, partners and stakeholders supports this. Depending on how you define this segment they represent about 50% of UK employment. Our current projects (Action Learning for Leaders and Solutions 4 Business) specifically address this segment. In addition, many of our partners (DfES, DTI, SBS and many of the regions and Countries) have a similar focus. More at 2007/8 Strategy and Action Plan
What's the purpose of this particular programme? Given that we accept there is a real skills gap with many UK managers and this is backed up by authentic evidence, we have outlined and are further developing a picture of how this may be improved. So, in short, the underlying purpose of this programme is to get us from here to there. And, given the limitation of the network's resources, a further purpose is to maximise the effectiveness of our efforts. For example, we plan to focus on the aggregate output of Sector Skills Agreements (SSAs). In this way we can often divide our costs over many SSCs to achieve much improved value for money. We can approach other funders with the authority delivered by our employers through the SSAs. And we can share ideas, programmes and best practice. We believe the whole can indeed be greater than the sum of the parts. More at 2007/8 Strategy and Action Plan
So what exactly is this programme, what's in it? Although it's currently 'under construction'. It builds on the success of the M&L and Business Skills Boards and learns from their experiences. It capitalises on the products and services that have been developed as well as the network of partners and influencers that has been established. All this will continue. But more importantly it now focuses very clearly on addressing the aggregate M&L skills needs emerging from the SSAs. We will test all elements of the developing programme against these criteria. More at: 2007/8 Strategy and Action Plan
What's different about this programme compared with the previous Boards? Compared with the work done by the Management and Leadership Board and the Business Skills Board the current programme will provide:
What will be delivered by March 08? Details at 2007/8 Strategy and Action Plan
What’s the value of this programme to SSCs and employers? It’s highly relevant: M&L skills development is the number one shared area of concern from the emerging SSAs. It should lead to reduced costs: For those M&L themes that are common to many SSCs it will be possible to share the research base, best practice and any products and solutions that exist or are developed. This can lead to faster time-to-market with solutions: shared access to projects and products will allow us to help employers solve their development needs more quickly. It will provide improved access to resources: One of the key goals of the programme is to identify and then engage with available budgets and programmes from DfES, DTI, Countries and Regions There will be greater access to partners: The M&L Lead team have access to the Advisory Panel, L&M Projects Board and others. We will have greater impact with partners: Having a shared M&L strategy based on the aggregate output of SSAs will give us more authority in negotiations with partners. More at: 2007/8 Strategy and Action Plan
What’s the value to Partners of this programme? It’s highly relevant to their own work: M&L skills development is the number one shared area of concern from the emerging SSAs. Partners are responsive to the authoritative voice of employers and are looking for a manageable number of key issues to address. It’s authentic: The SfBn M&L strategy is based on aggregate output of SSAs. It will provide improved access to SSCs and resources: The M&L Lead team will represent the network, be able to identify key staff, available budgets and programmes from SSCs. Partners are looking for an effective way of engaging with the network. It will lead to reduced costs: We are willing to share our M&L research base, best practice and IP. This can lead to faster time to market with solutions: shared access to projects and products will allow partners to help employers solve their development needs more quickly. More at: 2007/8 Strategy and Action Plan
Details at: 2007/8 Strategy and Action Plan
Who are our key partners and stakeholders?
As can be seen in the map of our working environment above (click to enlarge), we live and work in a complex world. In the map we've shown the closely linked SfBn and Employers in the middle with multiple contacts to the other key players. Our funders This M&L programme is funded by the SSDA which in turn is funded (mainly) by the DfES. We work closely with the DfES L&M team and in particular the L&M Project Board which meets roughly once per quarter and is jointly chaired by the DfES and DTI. Also invited to that Board meeting are representatives from the Chartered Management Institute, Investors in People, QCA, Learning and Skills Council, Small Business Service, Regional representatives, ACAS, and UfI. This is an excellent way of understanding the various programmes that we can capitalise on and promote the work that we are doing. L&M Advisory Panel We have been involved with the setting up of this high level panel which reports to Ministers on L&M development issues. Read more here. We now have a representative on the Advisory Panel. The Regions and Countries Over the last couple of years devolution has meant that responsibility and budgets have moved to the Regions and Countries. For example the Business Link organisation in England is now funded by the Regional Development Agencies. It's crucial therefore that, in England, we develop closer links with the RDAs and the Regional Skills Partnerships and the equivalent organisations in the devolved administrations. Our team will be working much more closely this year with the SSDA Regions and Countries staff. Other organisations We also seek to ensure we are aligned wherever possible with expert bodies such as CIPD, UfI and IiP. We have a special relationship with the Management Standards Centre who are our expert body partner for the M&L NOS .
How does this link in with the SSA work? It is a critical requirement of the new programme that it is firmly based on the aggregate output of the emerging SSAs. We believe that this will give the new work the authenticity of being truly the 'voice of the employer' based on a major piece of research with our employers. To facilitate this, the SSDA recently restructured its approach to all sector work to make it more in line with emerging themes from SSAs (This approach was outlined in Mark Fisher's letter to SSC CEs 28 May). The SSDA commissioned work to identify a number of cross cutting themes emerging from SSAs of which management and leadership was a high priority. Of course SSCs are free to pursue sector specific solutions to M&L independently through their SSA. But is envisaged that our programme will address the aggregate M&L requirements coming from the SSAs while capitalising on the best and most relevant of the work that has been done so far. We believe that this will endow the programme with the combined weight of all 25 SSCs and allow us a much stronger voice. Colin Reeve of the SSA team will work closely with us on developing this material and we will call on the services of the Champions to ensure the voice of every SSC is heard. Here are some working documents produced in the spring/summer of 2006. We will update these as new information becomes available. Mark Rayner's review of SSCs and summary conclusions: Consultant: Brian Keegan Consultant: GHK
What other programmes will we link to/capitalise on? Our underlying principle is to not re-invent the wheel but to capitalise on other programmes where we can add the unique value of our employers' voice. We don't have the resources to mount major UK wide campaigns but we do have intellectual property, products and services we have developed that can be of great value to others and guide their thinking and programme development. An obvious opportunity at the time of starting (summer 2006) is the Train to Gain programme.
We will work closely with the Regional and Country Managers to discover the most productive areas and develop plans to exploit our relationships and added value.
How will we link effectively to M&L programmes in the Regions and Countries? Over the last couple of years devolution has meant that responsibility and budgets have moved to the Regions and Countries. For example the Business Link organisation in England is now funded by the Regional Development Agencies. It's crucial therefore that, in England, we develop closer links with the RDAs and the Regional Skills Partnerships and the equivalent organisations in the devolved administrations. Our team will be working much more closely this year with the SSDA Regions and Countries staff. Alan Butcher of the Regions team has been nominated to liaise with us on the work.
How will we communicate the work? We are currently developing a plan that includes the following elements:
How will we ensure all SSCs who want to be are engaged and up to speed? A quarterly Forum is run by SkillsActive - see http://www.sfbn-mandl.org.uk/ for details.
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