support the growth of managerial culture in small and medium-sized enterprises in Milan, Monza and Brianza, Pavia and Lodi in order to promote their global competitiveness. is theresearch goal "Management skills for the resilience of SMEs”: a study sponsored by Assolombarda, ALDAI-Federmanager e Fondirigenti and built by School (Lombardy confindustria institutions for education). The research focused on the identification of training needs of SMEs, with particular attention to the skills considered essential for the development of one's business. Furthermore, a focus has been placed on more difficult to find professionals in the job market. To get a comprehensive overview of the current situation, a field survey involving interviews with entrepreneurs and HR and training managers was conducted.
Outline training needs and human resource development within SMEs
The research results confirmed that the digital , sustainability are the two main strategic assets that companies must develop to improve their competitiveness to which a third transition must be added, the managerial skills. THE managerial skills are fundamental and necessary to manage and accompany these transformations. Management skills, in this respect, are considered one strategic leverage to accompany the "twin transition": management of change, leadership, teamwork and employee involvement are the tools for rooting the innovations linked to the introduction of the "blue & green" variables in the organization.
"Invest in the development of managerial skills is, increasingly, a strategic factor for competitiveness, in an economic scenario characterized by growing complexity - declared the vice president of Assolombarda with responsibility for University, Research and Human Capital, Monica Poggio -. And it is all the more so for SMEs, realities in which inadequate managerial levels are still found today: their ability to be resilient to changes also passes through the growth of the skills of entrepreneurs and managerial figures. Therefore, it is necessary management training and development programmes, built on the needs and specific needs of SMEs, capable of supporting the business and triggering processes that add value to the entire company organization. The more 'traditional' training, in this sense, must be accompanied by innovative models in a logic of consultancy support to company management”.
Important managerial skills to face the next challenges
What emerges from the research is that the managerial skills are considered the most relevant aspect among respondents, but SMEs believe that those currently owned are only partially adequate to face competitive challenges. Strategic vision, employee management and development, big data analytics and cybersecurity are some of the skills deemed crucial. Therefore, training plays a fundamental role as an enabler of the great transformations of the productive fabric.
“Enterprises, especially SMEs, are now called to accept the inevitable challenge of skills. Research shows, on the other hand, that organizations, in order to function and compete better, must become less and less 'centralised'. They also need more trained people able to use innovative tools and adopt new methods capable of supporting their decisions. From this point of view, managerialization represents a necessary horizon: it must start from the entrepreneur with actions aimed at strengthening skills in terms of strategy and management to promote a resilient approach in the context of the difficult economic situation we are experiencing. It is a path that, as an Association, we have undertaken thanks to the commitment of our dedicated working group. The aim is to raise awareness among SMEs about need to strengthen governance, also to lay the foundations for the generational handover, promoting business continuity” declared the president of Small Industry of Assolombarda, Paul Gerardini.
The critical issues for SMEs
However, the SMEs face several critical issues linked to their structural characteristics, such as limited managerialisation, reduced availability of financial resources and difficulties in attracting talent. These elements make the implementation of change complex, even if necessary. For example, only the 9% of SMEs have an adequate level of digital skills, and perceived barriers include the costs of acquiring new technologies, the difficulties in scheduling employee training and a lower propensity to innovate.
The positive notes
They emerge from the study some recurring good practices. Among these, there is the introduction of new hires by blocks, or the establishment of generational groups to simplify the monitoring of their growth over time, the planning of onboarding activities and on-the-job training to evaluate the effectiveness of the accompaniment and training sessions promoted by expert colleagues. In some SMEs a virtuous model of training needs analysis is being adopted, which starts from a bottom-up collection of information and is then integrated into the area of human resources and into overall company strategies. However, the research highlights the need to consolidate this model, considering that the human resources function in SMEs is often present in a minimal way.
The most sought after professionals
The research focused onfocus on the most difficult professional figures to find on the job market. nell 'technical-production area, difficulties emerged in identifying traditional and specialized profiles (production technicians, skilled workers, maintenance technicians, installers, turners, welders, CNC machine operators) but also specialized professionals (engineers, mechanical designers and draftsmen, electrical engineers and designers ) and managers (logistics, purchasing and supply-chain managers, production managers and plant managers, R&D and production planning managers). In the'commercial area, there is greater difficulty in finding professionals capable of integrating technical and commercial aspects ('technical salesmen', technical-commercial assistance experts) as well as area managers, product and marketing managers, business development managers while in theIT-digital area there is a lack of software experts, systems analysts, programmers, web designers but also experts in automation, additive manufacturing, IoT, digital twins, cyber security, data science & analysis, machine learning.
To meet your needs, the PMI have embarked on a path aimed at taking root in the territory and building long-lasting relationships with educational institutions. In this way, we try to reduce the gap between demand and supply of labor and skills. Most of the companies interviewed have consolidated solid contacts with professional schools, technical institutes and universities to identify the professional profiles necessary for their sector of activity.
