The CIPD and conciliation service Acas have urged the government to help address what they dub the UK’s people management skills deficit.
Both organisations believe the government could be doing more to communicate to employers the business case for developing people management skills, so that firms across sectors can take advantage of the economic upturn. They have also urged the new Department for Business, Innovation and Skills to allocate a greater proportion of public funding on skills specifically to small- and medium-sized businesses.
Speaking at the joint ‘Reslience through recession’ conference last week, Jackie Orme, chief executive of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), said: “Now is the time for government to use all its efforts to help drive up the standards of good people management.”
She added: “Business needs to recognise the potentially costly truth that employees join good organisations, and leave bad line managers.”
Acas chief executive John Taylor said: “Line managers increasingly play a vital role in developing and supporting learning at work and they are at the heart of effective stress, conflict and absence management.”
The CIPD and Acas launched joint guidance last week on how to be a better boss, including how to manage the team, conflict and yourself.
