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While Rishi Sunak’s’ Help to Grow ‘program continues across the UK, a new study by Agility in Mind examining UK business leaders’ growth priorities found that only a third of UK business decision makers have heard of’ Help to Grow ‘ ‘and know what it means.

Agility in Mind is a Devizes-based corporate agility transformation consultancy whose research, in partnership with Censuswide, has interviewed senior business decision makers in the UK. The study found that a quarter knew nothing or very little about the Help to Grow program, and another 39% said they knew nothing about the details despite hearing about it.

The Help to Grow program, launched in June, is a 12-week program available to business leaders through leading business schools across the UK. In addition to full-time employment, it is supposed to be manageable and was announced as part of the budget in March 2021.

However, the government’s desire for financial growth based on the program was not made a top priority for UK business leaders this year. The results of the Agility in Mind study showed that “Skill Development” and “Team Productivity” top the list of top UK business leaders for growth of 36% and 35% respectively over the next 12 months.

These priorities were noted versus growth in profit, which was highlighted by less than a third (31%). After explaining the premise of the program to respondents, UK business leaders believed that the primary goal of a government program like Help to Grow should be to increase the productivity of teams and employees, with 35% taking this as one desired outcome of such a plan, compared with 31% who top earnings growth and sales.

Andrew Jones, CEO of Agility in Mind, said, “If the program is called ‘Help to Grow’, what does it do to help you grow? Rishi Sunak’s role as Chancellor will mean that his goal for the initiative is likely to be aimed at growing the economy.

“To do this, however, there are a number of other factors UK business leaders want to prioritize before they can start thinking about profit, as our data shows. At the top of that list is the desire to find new ways to make the team more productive and expand their skills. “

When considering the benefits of a program like Help to Grow, UK business leaders didn’t think of ‘leadership’ or ‘innovation and product development’ in the top seven areas where they needed help.

Jones continued, “Where UK business leaders would welcome guidance on how to increase the productivity of teams and employees, it is interesting to note that they do not care as much about how to improve their leadership or innovate what they offer. If improving employee productivity is something they want to increase, it won’t be achieved by simply telling employees to “be more productive.”

“New ideas and a collaborative approach to people management are better first stepping stones to achieve this – you will then be able to win the hearts and minds of the team, inspire them by including them in the company mission and throughout perform better all the time organization to achieve community goals. “