Building Resilience and Innovation Through Staff Engagement (RISE)
The Productivity Through Innovation project is offering a series workshops and business-specific consultancy on building resilience and enabling innovation in SMEs through engaging your staff.
This support is funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and is at no cost to eligible SMEs.

The offer

The programme of support has been specifically developed and will be delivered by HR experts from Nottingham Business School.
This initiative will help SMEs to understand what employee engagement is, explore the challenges that they face, and provide practical and tailored support on how they can build resilience and enable innovation by improving staff engagement.
The programme starts on 6 October 2022, and is made up of 3 phases:
- Virtual workshop
- Individual diagnostics
- In-person, broad-based workshop.
The initiative will:
- equip leaders with an understanding of how to improve the strategic narrative around staff engagement, based on RISE principles
- enhance line manager understanding of how to engage their staff
- help businesses understand and improve staff retention
- identify skills and knowledge gaps and develop initiatives to address them
- increase the prospect of bringing in new, fresh talent
- promote appreciation and practical ideas of how to promote employee voice
- improve business strategy and performance, taking account of Staff Engagement Pillars
Who is it for?
This programme is aimed at business owners, decision-makers, HR practitioners, people with responsibility for managing staff, or those with an interest in employee engagement.
Programme dates and content
Phase | Dates | Content |
---|---|---|
Phase 1: Virtual workshop focused on participating SMEs | 6 October 2022, two hours (1 pm - 3 pm) |
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Phase 2: Individual diagnostic with participating SMEs | October - November 2022, arranged directly with participants |
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Phase 3: Workshop | 14 December 2022, four hours (11 am - 3 pm) |
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Finally, a detailed report will be provided to each participating SME which will include a detailed analysis of the company-specific diagnostics provided by the research team, and make recommendations for the future.
Who is eligible for support?
- SMEs based in Derby, Derbyshire, Nottingham and Nottinghamshire.
- Maximum 250 employees, with a suggested minimum of 50 employees
- An annual turnover under EUR 50 million or annual balance sheet less than EUR 43 million.
If you do not meet the above criteria or are unsure, please contact us regardless as we may be able to signpost you to other support available.
To enquire or sign up for the full support
We have capacity to support 8 SMEs on this programme.
To enquire about signing up for the support, please email dave.shipley@ntu.ac.uk.