SME Productivity: a course for policy-makers

7 - 18 December 2020 Novel estimates of employment by firm size, suggest that the number of employees within SMEs in the formal sector almost doubled in the 132 countries for which estimates are available; with SMEs’ share of total employment rising from 31 to 35 per cent. SMEs and young firms are also often more dynamic with respect to employment growth. Despite this, there are persisting decent work deficits in these contexts, particularly in developing and emerging economies. Often, they show significantly lower levels of productivity than large enterprises. In SMEs low productivity often coexists with poor working conditions, low market share, a low skilled workforce and ineffective management practices. This training course was specifically designed for policy makers and practitioners involved in the design and implementation of policies and related interventions affecting the productivity and working conditions of SMEs, such as decision makers and managers representing governments, workers’ and employers’ organizations, productivity organizations and SME agencies. OBJECTIVES The objective of this training course focused on enhancing the skills of policy makers and practitioners in assessing and designing policies to improve productivity and working conditions in SMEs. The course focused on inspiring policy makers and practitioners to adopt a systemic approach to SME productivity that encompasses an effective combination of macro and meso-level policies, the creation of a conducive business environment and the strengthening of SME support institutions, together with intervention at the enterprise level. Special attention has been given to strategies that promote productivity at the corporate level and ways to scale-up corporate-level productivity programmes. CONTENT The course was delivered by ILO and OECD specialists with the assistance of trainers from the International Training Centre of the ILO. It has also incorporated relevant experiences from other national and international agencies. The important topics that were covered included: - Drivers of productivity and working conditions in SMEs - SMEs: Socio-economic relevance and constraints - Productivity and how it is measured - SME policies for productivity enhancement - The role of industrial policies in productivity enhancement - Enterprise-level interventions to enhance productivity in SMEs - Access to finance for SMEs - Innovation policies for SMEs - Skills development policies and strategies for SME productivity - Sharing the gains of productivity enhancement