Chartered Management Institute (CMI) – Written evidence (FFF0019)

About the Chartered Management Institute (CMI)

The Chartered Management Institute (CMI) is the professional body for managers, working with business and education to develop more skilled, confident and successful managers & leaders. We have a membership community of over 168,000 aspiring and practising managers, and more than 120,000 people are currently studying on one of our management & leadership programmes. Backed by a Royal Charter, CMI is the only organisation able to award ‘Chartered Manager’ status

CMI’s charitable mission is to increase the number and standard of professionally qualified managers & leaders. To accomplish this, we work with over 800 partners, including universities, colleges and employer providers, in every region of the UK, to equip managers with the skills they need to succeed.

Summary

There are now many challenges that public services need to meet - these include: increased demand from citizens, adoption of new technology and collaborative structures, fiscal constraints and the need for greater operational resilience and redundant capacity (learning from the experience of the pandemic). One of the key criteria that will determine whether the public service workforce is fit for the future is whether it can meet these challenges and deliver the increased productivity and performance that public services need. Management skills are vital to boosting public service worker productivity, providing skills to lead and manage change, and to support lower-skilled and new entrants to the workplace.

In order for public services to meet these management training needs, public service organisations should consider fully utilising management apprenticeships (including degree apprenticeships), professionally recognised bitesize training, and encouraging a culture of lifelong learning through professional body membership.

Recruitment, retention & training

The challenges of workforce productivity and the role of management skills to tackle these

1. One of the key challenges facing public services is workforce productivity.  With demand on public services already high, and rising, and changes in the economy putting pressure on public finances, these services will increasingly be expected to deliver more for less. In order to remain agile in rapidly changing operational circumstances, transferable skills have never been more important for public service workers - to enable them to effectively manage rapid change. These skills include cross-cutting skills such as management & leadership skills.
2. Boosting management and leadership capabilities within public services can help deliver the productivity gains we need and enable public services to run more efficiently and effectively. Evidence from the Government’s Business Productivity Review demonstrates that good management and leadership skills are key enablers of productivity by unlocking important drivers of growth such as capital investment, technology adoption, on-the-job learning and efficiency improvements.

3. The Covid-19 pandemic has exacerbated existing challenges of slow productivity growth within public services: the ONS found that public sector productivity was 8.1% lower in 2021 than in 2019. This followed the first annual fall in public service productivity in 2019 in almost a decade. They also found that, over the course of the pandemic, growth in productivity inputs (labour such as number of hours worked) has considerably outpaced growth in productivity outputs (gross value added of said labour).
4. Professional bodies such as CMI should play a role in boosting public service capabilities. CMI’s Professional Standards set out the skills and behaviours we expect to see the best managers and leaders exhibiting - and which sit at the heart of our qualifications. These skills include the ability to lead change, manage its impacts, use technology and continuously improve processes- all of which will be crucial to transform how organisations are run beyond the pandemic. Our Professional Standards are valued by our partners as they are developed in consultation with employers, align to the mark of quality associated with Chartered qualifications and are delivered in partnerships with employers, universities and colleges.
5. The rigour of the Professional Standards comes from our regular review process, where we consult with managers and leaders representing a wide range of sectors and businesses. This not only ensures the behaviours taught through a CMI qualification are sought-after by employers, but it also allows us to respond to emerging needs - recent editions have placed a greater focus on agile work, deploying innovation and delivering workplace diversity and inclusion. As noted in Paragraph 13, this process allows us to teach the skills which our learners identify as making them more productive in their workplace. It is this meticulous approach and the skills it identifies which support our partners across NHS trusts, Police forces and the Armed Forces.

The value of management skills to individuals and organisations

6. In addition to boosting the efficiency and effectiveness of public services, a key enabler of productivity is maintaining employee wellbeing. Management skills are important to boost the resilience of public service staff working in increasingly challenging and pressurised environments. Lorna McEwan, Chief Inspector at Manchester British Transport Police, completed a CMI Level 5 Certificate in Management Coaching & Mentoring in February 2021. She outlined the benefits to her personal resilience of studying her qualification during the pandemic:

“The biggest thing I’ve learned about myself as a manager and a leader through the pandemic is my personal resilience. I was coming into work on the odd day feeling flat or low and I think I was being a bit hard on myself sometimes, which could then translate to me being hard on my teams…

My approach has changed from learning and speaking to other managers and leaders that I’ve met along my leadership journey. Where something has lit that leadership fire in you and you’ve done that extra bit of work or research, you then have those tools to navigate through the uncertain times.”

7. Management skills are also essential to support low-skilled workers and new entrants into the workplace - but organisations often report skills gaps in these areas. The Department for Education’s 2019 Employer Skills Survey found a lack of management and leadership skills reported by employers as a factor in 57% of skills gaps - and there are key consequences to these skills gaps. CMI joint research with the Learning & Work Institute found that 60% of managers involved in onboarding low-skilled workers during the pandemic said they have found it harder to support new recruits to adjust to new ways of working, and to work more flexibly.

8. Creating a workplace culture that encourages continuous learning & development should be a priority when looking to foster innovation within public services. Managers have a central role to play in encouraging their employees to engage with learning & development that will boost their skills and productivity: and should clearly communicate this with their employees. Employees agree: 93% of low-skilled employees CMI surveyed agreed that when taking up a new role, it is important to have a manager that supports you to develop technical skills.
9. Another way to ensure that public services run efficiently and innovate their working processes more effectively is to encourage greater diversity and inclusion in their workforces. OECD research demonstrates that creating more inclusive workplaces leads to greater efficiency and productivity in public sector workforces such as civil services. Qualifications that can enable and encourage greater diversity across all levels of management in organisations are one way to deliver this efficiency and productivity boost to public services.

The value of management degree apprenticeship qualifications

10. Training for public service workers in management skills needs to use innovative methods such as management apprenticeship programmes. This is important in order to boost training capacity within public services, and to give as many public sector workers as possible the ability to undertake skills training that will boost their productivity.
11. Management apprenticeships are ideally suited to tackling management & leadership skills gaps, because they are employer-led, designed to meet real skills needs now and in the future, and combine work and learning. They also teach the theory as well as the practical application of core competencies including: influencing others, managing change, problem solving, business improvement and project management. Courses with CMI’s Professional Standards embedded within the courses are applicable across all sectors and job functions: facilitating transfer between the public and private sector. Finally, they represent an attractive, sought-after route for job seekers who can earn whilst they learn - they should be used to entice more talented people into public service careers.
12. Investing in management apprenticeships in public services directly benefits learners, by equipping them with core competencies to be successful at work. CMI evidence found that 90% of our management apprentices agreed that their apprenticeship helps them to develop the skills they need to be more productive at work. The research also found that management apprentices had gained skills in the following core competencies from studying their management apprenticeships [1]:

-         Communicating and influencing (92%)

-         Managing yourself (92%)

-         Developing people and capabilities (91%)

-         Making decisions (88%)

-         Providing purpose and direction (87%)

-         Leading change and innovation (86%)

-         Achieving results (86%)

-         Building relationships and networks (84%)

-         Managing resource and risk (83%)

13. Dr Deepak Ravindran, a Medical Consultant at Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation trust, completed a Level 6 Chartered Manager Degree Apprenticeship alongside his day job. In this article, he outlines the benefits of management apprenticeships and the differences that it has made to his ability to deliver complex projects:

““Apprenticeship programmes are an important way to upskill staff, but they are good for employers, too, because they provide an organisation with new ideas, skills and innovation — and, ultimately, a better company culture…. After my apprenticeship I think I’ve become a more reflective practitioner who is better able to understand and collaborate more effectively with colleagues.”

“By understanding the needs of patients and stakeholders in different organisations, I’ve been able to co-author a policy paper, secure funding and people engagement to support those with long COVID. I don’t think that outcome would have been possible without my new management and leadership abilities.”

14. Management apprenticeships are useful qualifications to boost the representation of under-represented groups in the management pipeline - as 50% of CMI management apprentices are women, and 44% come from the 50% most deprived areas in the UK.[2] By encouraging the greater uptake of management apprenticeships by diverse groups (including those from economically deprived areas, women and ethnic minorities), we would be able to diversify management within public service organisations, make those services run more efficiently.

Tools to deliver effective upskilling

15. In order to deliver effective upskilling within public sector workforces, it is important to take into account time and agility constraints on staff. Enabling staff to learn in bitesize chunks through modular learning courses would boost the ability of public services to up- and re-skill the workforce at pace. Given the high and pressurised workloads facing public sector staff, shorter and bitesize courses may be particularly helpful to fill skills gaps given they are more easy to fit alongside existing work commitments.
16. One way to approach these challenges is to offer short course provision such as CMI’s Bitesize programmes in management & leadership. They are modular in structure (allowing learners to choose the topics most relevant to their professional development needs) and contain practical advice that is applicable to workers across different job functions. These courses cover topics such as managing change, managing equality, diversity & inclusion, leadership for a digital age, conflict resolution, data driven decision making and project management.
17. Involvement with professional bodies, including Chartered professional bodies such as CMI, also encourages workers to engage in lifelong learning. For members and learners, professional bodies provide access to a network of like minded individuals, allowing them to strongly identify with management as a profession. At the same time, professional bodies distribute learning resources which enable the development of  an individual culture of lifelong learning. The beneficiaries of this lifelong learning are both the employees themselves and the organisations they work for. In CMI’s case, we provide members with extensive resources for CPD (continuous professional development) including a suite of events covering a large number of topics, and our online learning platform ManagementDirect.

The value of Chartered qualifications

18. Chartered qualifications offered by Chartered bodies (such as ‘Chartered Manager’ status) set a high standard within professions such as management, and have clear tangible impacts on both individuals and organisations. These skills are valuable to the running of effective public services - the Government should also note the status of British Chartered qualifications both nationally and internationally. The opportunity to work towards this qualification should become an employee benefit.
19. The evidence of the economic impact of ‘Chartered Manager’ status is clear - research CMI conducted with Oxford Economics found that Chartered Managers boost their business revenue by £62k each year and £310k over 5 years. Whilst revenue boosted is not relevant in all contexts, the innovation that sits behind this highlights what a Chartered Manager could do to streamline service provision, implement cost-saving ideas, and reduce costs associated with staff turnover. CMI’s own research also found that 95% of managers achieving Chartered Manager status said that their qualification demonstrates their use of managerial skills to achieve organisational results, with 81% also saying that since they became a Chartered Manager, they had used their managerial  skills to lead people and manage change.
20. Chartered qualifications such as ‘Chartered Manager’ status are also similar to the widely recognised international best practice ‘Chambers of Industry & Commerce’ model from Germany.  Both the German Chambers of Commerce and British Chartered qualifications include employer-informed skills training, a Chartered ‘mark’ of quality and high quality progression networks. In order to effectively replicate these practices, the Government should seek greater involvement of Chartered bodies in the design of professional qualifications - as many of them have existing Professional Standards that map out the specific skills needed for the professions that they represent. CMI is ready to help public service organisations to provide the management training for their staff to work more productively, and to lead & manage future change.