Boosting productivity is the greatest economic challenge facing the UK. There is now a strong consensus on the potential for synergy between (1) agile and high performing businesses/organisations; (2) high quality, inclusive and engaging work and (3) effective, efficient and prosperous societies. The key domain in which to drive engagement and productivity is the workplace - where managers and employees create economic value. The ESRC has correctly prioritised research on management practice and employee engagement (MP-EE) within this context. This proposal, to establish the PROPEL Hub (Productivity Outcomes of workplace Practice, Engagement and Learning), seeks to bring together all recently funded ESRC MP-EE projects through a process of co-production and co-creation, connect with other major ESRC investments and engage with world class scholarship on engagement and productivity, to maximise the synergies and impacts of ESRC-funded work in this space. The PROPEL Hub's Primary Investigator will be based at the University of Strathclyde, but all other ESRC MP-EE teams are active partners in this proposal. The approach agreed among and beyond MP-EE teams therefore represents excellent value for money for ESRC - combining limited resources to deliver additional value from existing investments, rather than imposing from the top-down an external hub co-ordinator unconnected to our projects. Our proposal is further strengthened by collaboration with Cardiff and Ulster Universities (so that the PROPEL Hub will impact, and learn from, practice in all nations of the UK) and by an active role for a major national workplace partner, the CIPD. The PROPEL Hub has five distinguishing features: 1. The Hub will be co-created by the five ESRC MP-EE projects and key partners. 2. The model adopted will be a spoke and hub model (as opposed to being a hub and spoke model), locating the research projects at the core of insight, engagement and impact. 3. The Hub will contain a major national partner (CIPD) with links to management, employees and workplaces across the UK. 4. The Hub will deliver genuinely UK-wide engagement and impact through the five ESRC project teams spanning Glasgow to London, along with two additional academic partners from Cardiff/Wales and Ulster/Northern Ireland). 5. The Hub is led by a team with extensive experience of, and expertise in, working in an impactful manner with employers, employees, entrepreneurs and policy stakeholders. Resources are sought to support the work of co-investigators at ESRC MP-EE institutions, Hub management support and knowledge exchange (KE) staff to help to maximise opportunities for collaboration and impact. The PROPEL Hub will drive new activity to bring together ESRC MP-EE teams to share learning, add value and facilitate opportunities for them to engage with other relevant groups and organisations, most crucially policy and business communities. Specific activities will include: MP-EE Masterclasses, bringing together ESRC MP-EE teams, international research leaders, and targeting an audience of business and policy leaders; MP-EE International Research Seminars, focusing on making connections between, or 'learning from difference' across the conceptual, methodological and empirical work of the ESRC MP-EE projects, and again engaging with other world leading researchers; Knowledge into Practice events and Engagement Hacks, where PROPEL Hub KE staff will engage directly with businesses and key stakeholders to share practical insights and solutions around engagement and productivity; and extensive online KE activity to extend the reach of our collaboration and establish a peer learning network. Formative, process and summative evaluation activities will capture the impact of the PROPEL Hub's engagement with academic, business and policy communities, and report on inter-disciplinary and/or international research collaborations or shared learning emanating from our activities.

According to a recent government report (DCMS 06/05/2020) the Voluntary Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) sector is "fighting for survival", with increased demand for its services, whilst simultaneously facing funding cuts estimated at £4.3bn (during March-May 2020), resulting in many VCSEs organisations estimated to be insolvent 'within weeks'. As the report states: "Social distancing is making delivering services harder and more costly. Reserves are running out. Smaller charities, in particular, are at risk of imminent closure". The core ideas for this project emerged through dialogue with DCMS, who are leading the government's response on how COVID-19 is impacting the sector, and co-designed with NCVO, the sector's leading infrastructure organisation. The project has three purposes. First, to provide realtime data and learning on how COVID-19 is impacting the whole sector and, significantly, varies across different organisations by size, structure and services offered. Second, to provide lessonslearned reports about how organisations on the impacts and responses to COVID-19, particularly focusing on the new working-practices and innovations which can be scaled across the UK. Third, to provide insights to aid long-term the VCSE sector's resilience. The project team brings a unique alignment of researchers specialising in the VCSE sector, HR and innovation, NCVO, who provide sector knowledge, guidance and access, through their research and policy team and 15,000 members. The outputs are a VCSE vulnerability barometer, providing real-time data of the impact COVID-19 on the sector, lessons-learned reports, enabling innovations to be scaled, a final project report and toolkit for resilience.

Whether you work in private business, the public sector, a charity or social enterprise you can probably relate to the challenges associated with managing a team. In fact, there is a wide body of research on the effect of different management styles on workers and organisations. The Government is interested in creating 'Good Work' which means work that is both engaging for the worker and productive for the business. Sometimes we all get frustrated if our work is not so good due to our line management. For example, if we cannot contribute the way we want to because we are not allowed to work flexibly, have a say in how things are done, feel stressed due to conflict or are not given work that uses our skills (or are not developed so we can keep learning and progress). Equally, anyone with management experience knows that managing people can be really challenging. Even experts believe there is no 'right way' to manage people. Yet, managers must manage and, often, line managers and owners of small firms do so under conditions of scarce resources and short-term pressures. In fact, many are 'accidental managers' who have pretty mixed feelings about their roles and receive very little support to reflect on, and develop, their skills. So what can be done to help managers become more effective at people management, for the good of themselves, their staff and organisations? That is the key question we are addressing in the Good Employment Learning Lab. It is what we call a 'tricky question' - it's not easy to answer because managers, workers, workplaces, sectors and places of management vary so much. We are tackling this challenge by forming a Learning Lab. This is a space where researchers, policy makers and managers collaborate to understand and address shared problems. They frame ideas for better practice and outline the 'theory of change' that is the logic of why they think this will work. They then experiment and evaluate 'what works'. At a deeper level, Learning Labs support long-term, trusting and creative relationships so researchers and practitioners can work together to learn via a process of Engaged Scholarship. We are zooming into two contexts to develop Good Employment Learning Labs: - The Greater Manchester Good Employment Learning Lab will partner with the Greater Manchester Good Employment Charter (a coalition of local government, employers, trade unions, workers and other experts who aim deliver good jobs in Greater Manchester with opportunities to progress and develop, and a thriving and productive economy, by promoting 7 principles of Good Employment). We will work in three Greater Manchester districts (Manchester City, Oldham and Salford) to run Workplace Trials to raise management capabilities and share this learning across Greater Manchester - and with other places - to support widespread learning about 'what works' in different contexts to improve people management. - The Social Care Good Employment Lab will also run Workplace Trials, but this time focused on managers of adult social conducted at home or in residential care. Some of these trials will also be in Greater Manchester, so we can compare findings with the Greater Manchester Lab. The Social Care Lab will also share learning nationally. Our third Learning Lab will raise capacity for researchers and practitioners to get involved in joint problem solving and research via Engaged Scholarship. Activities will including workshops introducing this method, sessions for early career researchers on 'Becoming an Engaged Scholar' and workshops for academics and practitioners involved in Practising Engaged Scholarship. The outcomes of the Good Employment Learning Lab will be new learning, new communities and new evidence-based ways of supporting people management. Each of our Labs will also produce an open access Digital Resource Bank that anyone interested in people management or Engaged Scholarship can use.