The Good Employment Learning Lab trialed short interventions that develop the people management skills of line managers to find out ‘what works, for whom, and why?’. We wanted to know how line management development can create efficient teams and good work for staff and managers. Our findings culminated in the GELL Framework for Developing the People Management Skills of Line Managers. We had two Learning Labs: • The Greater Manchester Good Employment Learning Lab worked with the Greater Manchester Good Employment Charter and local authorities to make sense of the challenge of raising people management skills in a particular place. • The Adult Social Care Good Employment Learning Lab worked with Skills for Care, the NHS and local authorities to make sense of the challenge of raising people management skills in a particular sector. Both Learning Labs were also supported by the CIPD, ACAS, the Federation of Small Businesses and the TUC.The Good Employment Learning Lab was led by a research and management learning team from the Decent Work and Productivity Research Centre at Manchester Metropolitan University. We trialed short interventions that develop the people management skills of line managers to find out ‘what works, for whom, and why?’. We wanted to know how line management development can create efficient teams and good work for staff and managers. We are Engaged Scholars who follow Van de Ven’s (2007) call for researchers to identify research problems and develop research and impact with stakeholders. That is why we worked in partnership with organisations that know about real life management challenges and who commission line management training. We had two Learning Labs: • The Greater Manchester Good Employment Learning Lab worked with the Greater Manchester Good Employment Charter and local authorities to make sense of the challenge of raising people management skills in a particular place. • The Adult Social Care Good Employment Learning Lab worked with Skills for Care, the NHS and local authorities to make sense of the challenge of raising people management skills in a particular sector. Both Learning Labs were also supported by the CIPD, ACAS, the Federation of Small Businesses and the TUC. Our team included Human Resource Management (HRM) professionals who are experienced in supporting busy line managers. We drew on partner knowledge about common management problems, evidence-based management and realist evaluation to design interventions based on a theory of change and to identify ‘what works, for whom and why’ to develop line managers.

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