Engage, Deliver, Sustain: a coherent approach to employer engagement Richard Scothorne, Rocket Science Lucinda McAllister, Fife Council Grant McDougall, SDS

Outline Drivers and principles The model Components Evidence base Employer leadership and involvement Single point of contact Coordinated contact management Employer Standard Examples and impact RICHARD

Drivers Employers: Partners needed: Cluttered landscape around employability Wanted single point of contact and ‘no wrong door’ Needed effective ‘recruitment service’ Partners needed: Efficient way of engaging and transforming reach Way of delivering campaigns/offers To reflect the needs of employers in training/skills RICHARD

Principles Employer leadership, co-design and involvement Employers experience: Coherent and coordinated contact Highly responsive, professional, seamless service Partners work closely together to deliver Review and refine RICHARD

The partnership model Fife Economic Partnership and CPP link Coherent employer engagement Creating single point of contact ‘Employment standard’ – describing what employers are looking for Connecting back into schools Active promotion of offers and opportunities Joint effort around major job opportunities GRANT

The components Evidence based – what employers need Employer leadership and involvement Single point of contact Coordinated management of contacts Employer standard GRANT - - rapid slide – letting people read these points which will be covered in subsequent slides

Evidence base Evidence drawn from: All of these said that employers: Economic development surveys Scottish Business in the Community research Fife manufacturing study All of these said that employers: Want easier, obvious access Want organised approaches Want to know about offers/services Want responsive, professional recruitment service Want up to date, accurate information GRANT

Employer leadership and involvement Fife Economy Partnership Strong connection to CPP Other employer feedback mechanisms to check on progress: Regular surveys Feedback at Single Point of Contact GRANT FEP is business led and dominated and is ‘the voice of business’ in the CPP structure Keep up to date with employer experience of service through surveys and one-to-one contact

Single Point of Contact (SPoC) 2 full time staff plus analyst Expanding ‘clean’ business database Growing ‘knowledge management system’ with Q and As Rapid dissemination of offers and opportunities – to businesses and individuals Reached by phone, email, website Backed by client matching service LUCINDA building a key resource – initial cleaning reduced 12000 businesses to 2000 on database – now building back up Providing full choice of ways of contacting Staff recognise that they are the ‘face of the service’ - need to feel part of the team Need to have solid act BEHIND this – this is just the connection

Single Point of Contact LUCINDA

Coordinated management of contacts Coordinated account management Building relationships between partnership staff Enhancing engagement skills Capturing insights and intelligence Using them to identify needs and trends LUCINDA Account managers are critical – join up, drive the service, work closely with employer throughout Need to drive up the skills of front line staff – focusing on understanding and clarifying employer needs and then effective project management of delivery These staff constantly picking up insights and clues about needs and trends – we work hard to capture and use these

Employer Standard Based on local, national and international research Endorsed by Fife Economy Partnership Pinpointing the 6 personal characteristics of an effective recruit Actively promoting these to young people, teachers, parents, Colleges, training providers Creating a toolkit behind it: Link to CfE, Certificate of Work Readiness, Employment Readiness Scale Piloting with schools and employers in Levenmouth RICHARD

Examples and impact Amazon: recruitment process for inward investor Advertised all direct recruitment and signposted to agency jobs Designed and promoted pre-recruitment course Provided sifting and interview booking service Follow up with unsuccessful candidates – for second try Now developing MA Pathways and additional workforce training LUCINDA

Examples and impact Forth Replacement Crossing: coordination of catchment area recruitment process OF processed all advertised vacancies Promoting on the OF website Collating CVs Sorting and forwarding appropriate candidates and some arranging of interviews. Significantly more vacancies in pipeline (c300 – 400 operatives and 50 administrative staff) FRC recruitment lead: Her best experience to date, because of the account management approach backed by a significant resource for promoting, sifting and organising. LUCINDA

Examples and impact Renewables: promotion of training and job opportunities The Renewables Energy Awareness Courses SPoC took over 300 inbound calls about these Courses (236 bookings confirmed) These came to the SPoC from: Outgoing calls by the SPoC to over 1,000 employers in the energy sector across Fife  Promotion on the Opportunities Fife website.  Working with Jobcentre Plus to promote the opportunity to unemployed people. SPoC resource meant possible to target contacts to ensure that those courses which had places were filled. Those on courses contacted the day before to remind and confirm –leading to higher than usual actual attendance. LUCINDA

Examples and impact

Next steps College regionalisation – tackling inter and intra College competition Building on SPoC evaluation Embedding and sustaining the approach Work experience service: Tailored to pupil and employer Job Brokerage service SDS Skillsforce and link to Opportunities Fife GRANT

Questions and Discussion Richard Scothorne, Rocket Science Lucinda McAllister, Fife Council Grant McDougall, SDS RICHARD to lead