On the money
Sylvia's blog

Feb 23

Supporting Enterprise - Working with SMEs

“It seems that a lot of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in financial services have not yet realised what the National Skills Academy for Financial Services (NSAFS) can do for them. This is something I would like to change.

Large household names represent a significant part of the UK financial services industry but they still only represent one part of that industry. At the NSAFS, we make it a priority to target our ‘up-skilling’ agenda and the delivery of new talent at smaller businesses, as well as at the larger organisations.

Our Regional Employer Boards, which meet several times a year to lead on regional agenda, have several employers from SMEs among their membership, and actively encourage the participation of smaller businesses. Indeed, the chair of the South East Regional Employer Board is an IFA.

The regional focus of the NSAFS’ structure helps to represent SMEs on a strategic level. Where there are high concentrations of SMEs in certain regions, these can be reflected in the work we do locally as well as in our regional boards.

“Small IFA businesses now have a platform to source their education and development needs in a structured and coherent way”, Director, Sussex Independent Financial Advisers Ltd

I understand that the challenges of flexibility and time to train are very real for most small financial services businesses, and I think this understanding is key to the particular role the NSAFS can play for SMEs.

The Confederation of British Industry’s 2009 report on employment trends shows that during a recession, 44 per cent of employers reduce the amount of money they spend on training. Yet extensive training and development resources are not always available for SMEs in the first place.

I define the benefits of working with the NSAFS for SMEs as:

• establishing connections with other local financial services employers
• advice with keeping up-to-date on meeting regulatory demands
• independent support and practical solutions on training and development needs through the local Regional Director
• possible opportunities for accessing public funding for training

Soft skills for SMEs

Currently the NSAFS is running its Leadership and Management programme which has been predominantly targeted at SMEs in the London region. One of the big advantages of the programme is the flexibility which is integral to its structure. The combination of face-to-face workshops and 24 hour e-learning resources works to help solve the time and resource challenges which can face SMEs.

“I certainly found the course to be very beneficial and the feedback I have received from the learners is excellent.” Clare Gibbons, Whittington Management Services

Our programme focuses on the key areas: decision making, devising solutions, motivating to perform and communicating effectively. Built into the programme is a module on Treating Customers Fairly (TCF) which contributes towards creating a cultural framework which meets Financial Services Authority (FSA) requirements.

Navigating new approaches

The Navigator approach is another part of our work which has been developed with the SME audience in mind. Navigator has been developed specifically for financial services and is currently being piloted by a diverse set of industry employers.

The Navigator approach allows for a structured face-to-face fact find with employers. It helps to identify areas where the employer has a development need and then helps the National Skills Academy for Financial Services (NSAFS) present and recommend relevant and practical solutions.

There are four steps in the approach:

• Orient- demonstrating business benefits to the employer
• Discover- meeting employer for the fact find
• Plot- interpreting the results of the fact find
• Road map- agreeing the way forward with the employer

At the heart of Navigator is the Navigator Discovery Tool which is a structured, automated questionnaire to help gather facts and analyse results. A professional report is produced which is used by the NSAFS to support our independent advice on practical skills solutions.

“We have been delighted to trial the new diagnostic tool called the Navigator with our Leadership Group and we have found the results very interesting and helpful.” Helen Davis, Jelf Group

Navigator is particularly suited to SMEs who do not have the same resources as companies with large HR and Learning and Development departments.

Get involved

The NSAFS currently has 16 SMEs sitting on our Regional Employer Boards, 116 SMEs using or having used apprenticeships in the past 18 months through our training provider network, and 15 different companies who have gone through our Leadership and Management programme so far.

If you are an SME and you would like to get involved with the National Skills Academy for Financial Services, please get in contact with your local Regional Director.

If you would like to find out more about the Navigator approach please contact David Fagan or read more about it on our website.

Find out more about the NSAFS Leadership and Management programme.
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Sylvia.