Boosting the productivity of businesses through innovating workplace practices

The challenge

Employers across the UK and beyond face the challenge of how to generate improvements in productivity and innovation in their organisations. One area we know is a crucial enabler of improvements in innovation and productivity is effective workplace practices and people management.

The Strathclyde contribution

To enable employers to utilise the latest evidence to inform their workplace and people management practices Strathclyde researchers have been turning the insights of cutting-edge workplace research into actionable intelligence that can drive business innovation. They’ve also been connecting employers with researchers to share and embed these insights.

This is all part of the work of the ESRC ‘PrOPEL’ (‘Productivity Outcomes of workplace Practice, Engagement & Learning’) Hub, led by the Scottish Centre for Employment Research at Strathclyde Business School. The Hub brings together a team of inter-disciplinary researchers in nine universities across all four nations of the UK, with a range of businesses and organisations including close collaboration with the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, the UK’s professional body for people managers.

The research team have conducted high-quality research on the productivity and wellbeing impacts of different workplace and people management practices, ranging from employee engagement strategies to training in conflict resolution, from workplace wellbeing programmes to hybrid working.

The impact

The Strathclyde team has led the impact and engagement actions that emerge from the work of the PrOPEL hub, including helping researchers to engage with employers and other stakeholders and use their research to inform improvements in workplace practice.

The team has engaged with over 3,000 business and policy stakeholders, people managers and employees through more than 70 ESRC PrOPEL Hub events and activities online and in person. They’ve produced a whole series of resources to equip individuals and businesses with insights and guidance to drive improvements in productivity through employment and people management practices.

This is leading to real and tangible improvements in productivity across a range of organisations, underpinned by the evidence and engagement activities led by the ESRC PrOPEL Hub. In turn, these improvements to workplace practice are benefiting the productivity of organisations and the wellbeing of their employees.