Demand-Led Approaches

A demand-led approach in employability means that the approach is driven by a clear and highly responsive sense of employers’ needs. Employability organisations will need to get closer to employers to: 

• Provide employers with the type of recruits they need
• Help employers appreciate the benefits of recruiting from priority client groups (they might never have recruited or considered recruiting from these sources before)
• Understand labour market requirements, employers’ needs and how they can best be met
• Ensure a good match between employer recruitment requirements and clients’ skills and attitudes
• Develop  effective, ongoing, trusted relationships with employers

• Ensure reliable, value for money responses are developed 

Demand-led approaches can deliver a range of benefits, including:

• Effective job matching: employers are best placed to know what qualities recruits need to succeed in their workplace; providers can deliver training that responds to these need and provide appropriate recruits 
• Employer participation: employers will be particularly interested in the business benefits of recruiting priority clients, i.e. Resource savings (time and money), Increased productivity, Contribution to corporate social responsibility, Pre-employment screening, Training (pre-employment and in-work) and, through it, the provision of appropriately skilled staff, and Aftercare.
• Reducing duplication: through co-ordinating the efforts of several organisations, leading to greater clarity and less confusion for employers
• Performance: treating the employer as a customer and delivering outcomes for them provides an impetus for providers to do more to help clients access jobs; not just complete training programmes
• Challenge: meeting employers’ needs paves the way to ask them to alter their recruitment processes to help priority clients compete on even term.

• Building Trust: employers will be more willing to work with partners who they feel understand them and meet their own needs rather than simply the needs of the agency.

For Clients...

• Motivation: the prospect of a real job with a specific employer can have a positive effect on individuals’ motivation and hope
• Vacancies: opening up actual jobs offering pay and progression; and increasing the likelihood of employers recruiting from the pool of local workless candidates
• Individual participation: employer involvement during the training period reduces early leavers