Kirklees Working Smarter Grants

Support of up to £1,000 is now available for local businesses to spend on developing their workforce.

Do you run a business in Kirklees?
Take advantage of this great opportunity to improve your company’s productivity, capability and competitiveness and ultimately grow your workforce by applying for a Working Smarter Grant.

The grants provide businesses with an opportunity to support the development of high performing work practices by paying for knowledge and expertise from a leading expert.

What type of projects does the grant support?
A working smarter project can take many different forms including creating and issuing an employee survey, developing a staff achievement award or setting up a formal appraisal system. You could use the grant to provide professional development to individual members of staff so that they are able to work smarter with their colleagues or increase performance in their job. A working smarter project should help to create the right conditions for your workforce to perform better.

You can use the grant to obtain support for projects in the following areas:

• design and/or development of induction, or workforce development programmes
• design and/or development of your human resources processes
• professional development of your staff e.g. leadership training, people management skills
• business improvement processes
• HR software purchases
• relevant accreditation

How much funding is available?
Businesses can claim up to £1,000 to work with an expert from any of our partners in the knowledge based or business support industries e.g. universities, colleges, private training providers, business support agencies.

Businesses are expected to match the contribution of the council. This can be financially or ‘in kind’ by committing staff time or resources to the project.

You will be provided with a copy of the working smarter framework which will give you other practical ideas for working smarter, some of which you can implement at no extra cost.

Who is eligible?
Kirklees based companies from any sector who employ up to 250 people.

How do I apply?
Download and complete the application form at www.kirklees.gov.uk/workingsmarter

There is no formal deadline but the funding is only for 2015-16 and grants will be given out on a first-come-first served basis, so the sooner you apply the better.

For more information visit http://www.kirklees.gov.uk/workingsmarter