Employer Engagement
Employer Engagement is a key priority across all areas in Scotland, in a variety of different contexts, and encompasses issues such as how we tailor the ‘offer’ to and the ‘ask’ of employers both nationally and locally.
The need to develop a more effective and integrated approach to employer engagement nationally and locally becomes even more of a necessity as we move into a very tight fiscal environment.
There is not a ‘one size fits all’ approach to engaging with employers. The needs and capacity of small, medium and large businesses will be very different. Large employers generally have HR departments with staff time to dedicate; smaller organisations are less likely to have these. The
SME Diversity website provides a useful resource for employability practitioners to engage and support small and medium employers to provide jobs and progression in work for priority clients.
It is more than likely that in your local area a range of organisations and agencies engage in different ways and for a variety of purposes with local employers. This is likely to include Jobcentre Plus, Workforce Plus partners, Chamber of Commerce, Scottish Centre for Healthy Working Lives, Skills Development Scotland, etc.
Good practice for engaging with employers:
- Agree either a lead body for employer engagement within your employability partnership or a method for sharing the range of intelligence being collected from employers by the various partners
- If possible, provide a single point of contact for employer engagement
- Identify target employers to work with e.g. Small/ Medium Enterprise’s, public sector, key sectors or large employers to:
- Identify current and projected job opportunities and the nature and requirements of these
- Understand current recruitment practices
- Promote the benefits to employers of recruiting priority clients
- Support them understand the needs of these groups
- Provide support or signposting in terms of recruitment, training and in-work support
- Avoid jargon but be clear about the business benefits involvement in local employability approaches can deliver to employers