SME Survival Consultancy & Toolkit
Fully funded road to recovery and growth
SMEs are the key part of the economic ecosystem of the UK. There are 5.8 million small businesses in the UK and there has not been a time in the recent history that SMEs and their leaders had to work harder to survive.
Grants, loans and furloughs could do only so much for the SMEs. By the end of April 2020, FSB reported 41 per cent of small firms had temporarily closed, while the ONS found that those businesses still trading, 24 per cent reported their turnover had decreased by more than 50 per cent.
Now that the country is coming back to normal, countless small businesses who have come forward during the crisis and volunteered and/or contributed to a local community organisation or charitable cause need help and support to continue to develop and grow in these uncertain times.
Umbrella Training is a small business and we feel that we are in a perfect position to support hospitality SMEs through these difficult times. We want to use not only our expertise as hospitality management consultants but also our experience as a small business to support others with future growth and development.
People are the most valuable intangible asset that businesses have. In times of crises, investment into people is the first budget cut. At Umbrella Training, we are aware of streamlining all budgets and working with limited resources and we are finding ways to continue supporting all hospitality businesses free of charge.
We have designed a fully-funded consultancy, toolkit and development programme to support SMEs to move forward by maximising on the existing resources and making them more creative, confident and efficient rather than cutting them altogether.
We believe that by making this investment into SMEs we will be supporting the growth of the industry; we will be keeping people in jobs and we will be projecting our organisational vision of careers in hospitality still being a great career choice.
Consultancy
Umbrella Training will provide a comprehensive 2-hour initial consultancy and explore current business challenges using a Schein problem-solving model of consulting.
The consultancy aims to understand the organisational needs and provide advice on how to build learning and development strategy around those challenges.
People Development Strategy
We will provide you with a clear learning and development strategy and a plan for people development that is all fully funded. The people development strategy will be comprehensive, and it will allow you to focus on the development of all of your team members.
The aim of the people development strategy is to not only improve succession planning and retention but also to support your team members with those development needs that can make a difference to how well the business is doing.
Your people development strategy will be aligned to your business goals and will support you with your recovery and growth during these difficult times.
Apprenticeships & Development Pathways
The strategy will result in building a clear development pathway for your teams. The development pathways will allow the team to understand the succession planning, see the career goals clearer and be more motivated to stay with the organisation.
The apprenticeship programmes will provide all your team members with structured training on how to provide better customer service experience, how to be better team leaders, managers and strategic operational leaders.
The apprenticeship programmes will be tailored to SMEs and your team members and leaders will join us on our open cohorts and exchange best practice and ideas with others. We hope that this cross-pollination of the ideas will bring great business improvement projects to your organisations and will make a difference in creativity and drive. All of the apprenticeships are fully funded through levy transfers.
Funding Opportunities through Apprenticeships and Traineeships
In addition to developing your current workforce, we are able to offer support to understand and access all of the additional grants available if you employ a new apprentice or a trainee. We are also offering a free recruitment service through Umbrella Employ.
Toolkit
We will be publishing an SME Survival Toolkit to support leaders in SME settings with how to reopen their premises safely, how to train and support their team members in these uncertain times and how to build those transferable skills needed now that budgets for job specialists have been cut.
The SME Survival toolkit gives practical tips from successful leaders in the industry, a how-to section and a list of helpful links. The toolkit should have the answers to basic questions that leaders in SME settings will have to answer without having access to resources that they might have had before the pandemic like HR consultants, recruitment and L&D consultants.
We hope that our SME Survival Guide and our consultancy services will help the leaders and team members within an SME hospitality business feel confident and safe and that will take their business forward in these uncertain times.
Contact us to find out more, book in your complimentary consultancy date and get your copy of the SME leader's toolkit.
