Yorkshire is still plagued by low productivity so how do we fix that? - Anthony Painter

Nonetheless, Yorkshire faces stubborn blocks in the race to be one of our country’s most prosperous regions. According to the Productivity Institute, Yorkshire and The Humber region ranks close to the bottom of the UK’s twelve regions for productivity performance, sitting at number 10.

The Institute’s findings last year found that while economic inactivity rates and levels of direct investment from abroad have improved, the region faces challenges regarding skills and a shortage of employers who are investing in training for their teams.

Those skills gaps and lack of training are having an outsized impact on managers, an essential group to drive regional productivity.

CMI's 2023 Labour Force Survey data analysis found that out of Yorkshire and the Humber's working population of 2.6 million, around 588,000 hold managerial positions. Our research suggests that 470,000 of those managers are “accidental managers,” bosses promoted without prior management and leadership training.

The research also tells us that we might be promoting people based on the old ‘it’s who you know, not what you know’ approach, with nearly 46 per cent of managers surveyed believing colleagues are promoted based on internal relationships rather than ability and performance. It’s no wonder they might, in turn, be ill-equipped to lead and manage teams effectively.

While one in three (34 per cent) of managers in Yorkshire prioritise a safe and positive work culture, our research shows that toxic environments led roughly the same percentage of people (35 per cent) to leave their previous jobs. One in three also cited a negative relationship with their manager as a key factor in their decision to resign.

Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor and MP for Yorkshire’s Leeds West and Pudsey constituency, echoed these sentiments in her recent Mais lecture, highlighting the urgent need for improvement. In front of an audience of business leaders, Reeves raised concerns that "when we compare ourselves to our faster-growing competitors, it is clear that we have been underperforming across all the factors of growth,” including with “comparatively poor management capability."

But there are fixes to be found. They lie in enshrining better management skills in future growth plans—both nationally and regionally—and using existing routes to upskilling, such as higher-level management apprenticeships, to nudge greater employer take-up.

It will pay off. Previous CMI studies show that organisations that invest in management and leadership development programmes see a 23 per cent increase in performance and a 32 per cent increase in employee engagement and productivity.

Furthermore, managers who receive formal training are substantially more confident (83 per cent vs. 71 per cent) in their abilities and are more likely to trust their teams, lead change initiatives, and call out bad behaviour—all crucial to driving business and public service improvement and hence productivity.

The new Government will need to lead by example by investing in the people who manage our vital public services and demanding the same from companies wanting to do business with the public sector.

Anthony Painter is director of policy at the Chartered Management Institute.