Member Article

Partnership is the right ingredient as jobs created

A partnership between a North East welfare-to-work organisation and Asda has resulted in 15 formerly unemployed people finding work.

Pertemps People Development Group (PPDG) was approached by Asda Import Centre in Teesport as they needed help to recruit local people for roles in its distribution centre supporting the company’s network of supermarkets.

Members of staff from PPDG met with Asda’s personnel team to develop a bespoke recruitment programme. The final result was a tailored ‘routeway’ plan that outlined exactly how PPDG’s employment coaches would work with its out-of-work clients to get them to the interview stage at Asda.

The distribution centre’s operations manager Ray Brown said: “As a regional employer we want local people to work for us but found it difficult to attract people with the skill-set we needed. “The support PPDG provided us has been invaluable as it not only saved us a lot of time in the pre-interview sifting stage but it provided us with job-ready candidates.

“Our hope is that over the next year we will work alongside the organisation to look at more innovative ways to bring the unemployed back into the work place. For instance, through direct employment or a ‘work experience’ programme that allows unemployed individuals the opportunity to become familiar with work again.”

PPDG worked with its clients through interactive workshops over a week long period. This included a basic skills assessment, ice breaker activities, questions and answer sessions, as well as a mock interview. This was a successful process as it helped to motivate the candidates and strengthen their skill-set in preparation for the interview.

Martin Graham, employer liaison coordinator of PPDG, said: “The in-depth nature of these workshops was something we haven’t carried out before and we are really pleased at how well the candidates responded. In fact, this has led to us redeveloping some of the training we provide to our clients as we now want them to be more interactive.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .