West Yorkshire’s SMEs are quietly demonstrating that tackling the UK’s productivity challenges doesn’t require waiting for macro-economic levers to take effect. They’re proving that targeted, research-backed business support can deliver measurable results right now. Since February 2023, the West Yorkshire Business Productivity Service (BPS) has supported over 300 SMEs with a fundamentally different approach to business support. Rather than offering generic advice, this programme, delivered by Exemplas in partnership with Leeds Beckett University (LBU) on behalf of West Yorkshire Combined Authority deploys research-validated diagnostics and frameworks specifically designed to help firms develop the management capabilities that underpin productivity growth.
We have been looking back at what this programme has achieved, what SMEs have told us, and what this means for productivity and growth across the region.
Like many strategic programmes, BPS began with a simple ambition: to help SMEs understand where productivity gains could be made and give them the confidence and clarity to act on them. What’s emerged is a compelling picture of businesses not only identifying opportunities for improvement but truly embedding change.
A programme built around SME needs
Participants on the programme responded to a survey, which captured the views of c100 clients. From the feedback, it’s clear to see SMEs rated every stage of the programme highly. The highlights include:
- The process of accessing the service: 4.5 out of 5.
- The support from our Exemplas Productivity Managers: 4.7 out of 5.
- The diagnostic itself: 4.4 out of 5.
- Overall satisfaction in the service: 4.7 out of 5.
- A staggering 99% of participants said they would recommend the service to others
This level of endorsement is rare. This tells us SMEs genuinely valued having structured, expert-led support to make sense of their productivity challenges, which in turn enables these businesses to achieve their growth ambitions, driving local economic growth across West Yorkshire.
What SMEs told us matters most
When we look at the areas of support businesses said were most important to them, three priorities stand out clearly:
- Access to finance for growth
- Support for investment in new digital technologies
- Staff training
These priorities reflect the reality of running and growing a business in today’s landscape: access to capital is tight, technology is evolving rapidly, and staff capability is a make‑or‑break factor in operational performance.
But perhaps the most striking finding is that 95% of businesses plan to improve productivity beyond the areas identified in their Productivity Improvement Plan. This tells us that the momentum created through the BPS doesn’t stop with the diagnostic, it continues well into the organisation’s own strategic planning. This is positive news for wider growth, as productivity gains at firm level translate directly into economic gains for the region. When hundreds of SMEs streamline processes, strengthen management capability and invest in new technologies, the result is higher output, stronger supply chains and increased resilience across the economy.
A region-wide picture of impact
Between March 2023 – March 2026, the BPS has engaged:
- 449 businesses, producing 316 diagnostics and 304 Productivity Improvement Plans.
- 98% of participants implemented the recommended improvements across their business.
- 62 businesses have already reported demonstrable increases in productivity.
The service has reached companies across all of the five West Yorkshire local authorities, from manufacturing and food production to creative, digital and professional services, with a strong representation across micro, small and medium-sized businesses, and with a high proportion with turnover over £10m.
Early follow-up studies are showing impressive, measurable quantitative improvements in the productivity indicators that businesses baselined in their Productivity Improvement Plans:
- A 13% increase in direct labour productivity.
- An estimated 31% overall increase in productivity.
This represents not just business‑level success, but meaningful contributions to West Yorkshire’s GVA, tax base and long‑term competitiveness.
The bigger picture: what this tells us about SME productivity
If one theme emerges clearly from three years of BPS delivery, it’s this: SMEs want clarity and confidence in how they improve productivity.
Across the data and feedback, several consistent messages stand out:
- Businesses crave structure. The PIP gives them a roadmap rather than a list of issues.
- Measurement builds momentum. Once KPIs are established, change accelerates.
- Investment follows evidence. When SMEs understand their productivity challenges, capital decisions become easier and more justifiable.
- External guidance unlocks internal change. Whether it’s validating existing thinking or offering new insight, the involvement of our Exemplas Productivity Managers, Neil Harriman and Jonathan McMullon, and LBU Productivity Experts, gives businesses the confidence to move forward.
- Productivity is contagious. Most SMEs don’t stop at the PIP. They build on it, iterate, and expand improvements across the business.
Our Programme Manager, James Smith, comments on the success of the programme:
“Delivering the Business Productivity Service has been a privilege. Working in partnership with Leeds Beckett University’s Productivity Experts on behalf of West Yorkshire Combined Authority, we’ve supported hundreds of SMEs to understand what productivity really means and how to improve it. The programme has proven to be a powerful educational tool – helping businesses see the relationship between outputs and inputs, and equipping them with a bespoke diagnostic and thirty targeted metrics to monitor performance, collect meaningful data, and identify the levers that truly drive productivity gains.
Our Productivity Improvement Plans have helped firms make smarter strategic decisions by showing how much can be achieved through better use of data and more focused improvement activity. Ultimately, one of the key takeaways from this work has been seeing just how hard businesses are having to pedal to stand still, given rising costs across energy, wages, materials and more. It’s rewarding to know that through improved productivity, we’ve helped many business owners meet these challenges by producing more output and profit from fewer inputs.”
Looking ahead
When SMEs are given the right tools, the right support, and the right framework, productivity isn’t an abstract concept, it becomes an achievable, measurable and repeatable reality.
At a time when many SMEs are battling rising costs and tight margins, productivity support acts as a stabilising force, enabling firms not just to survive, but to continue generating jobs, investment and growth. That stability is essential to wider Government economic goals.