HR at the heart of SME performance: an interview with Dr Jill Miller, Research Adviser, CIPD

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide an interview with Jill Miller, author of the recent CIPD study, “Achieving sustainable organization performance through HR in SMEs”. Design/methodology/approach – This is an interview. Findings – The interview discusses the findings of this study, and offers practical insights for both SME owners/founders and HR practitioners working within SMEs. Originality/value – This article outlines the key “inflection points” which occur along the SME growth journey, and makes recommendations on how to be prepared to overcome them. It links to a practical tool developed by the author to aid the understanding of where an SME is situated on the growth journey, making it possible to anticipate the inflection points before they occur.