Member Article

Emma's crusade to find work ends in success

A Bishop Auckland woman’s year-long crusade to find employment, which included applying for more than 1,000 jobs, has finally ended in success.

Emma Greaves, 21, owes her achievement to a partnership between West Auckland’s Atlas Washroom Systems and Ingeus, which delivers the government’s Work Programme in the North East. The two organisations joined forces to find the right person to fill an office assistant’s role at the firm and both agreed that Emma would be the perfect candidate.

“I desperately needed a job so that I could pay the bills that were mounting up but, because I have Crohn’s disease, my options were limited,” Emma said. “Jobs that are likely to cause stress or mean lifting heavy things are out of bounds, and employers seemed to lose interest in me when I was honest about my condition.”

Crohn’s disease is an inflammation of the lining of the digestive system and can be debilitating when it flares up. “In fact, the relief of being back in work has led to a noticeable improvement in my health and so I am able to concentrate on doing a good job here – and that’s my aim.”

Emma regularly attended her local Jobcentre Plus, and was referred to Ingeus for specialist employment support. Since Ingeus was formed in 2002, it has helped more than 200,000 people find jobs in the UK.

Chris Reed, who was Emma’s employment advisor at Ingeus, helped her improve her CV, taught her how to give the best impression during job interviews, and showed her where to look for the kind of jobs that really interested her.

“Emma had the right attitude and, despite her health condition and the continual knock-backs from her relentless job applications, she had a very clear determination to succeed,” he said.

Gerald Shervington is the managing director at Atlas, which manufactures and installs washroom systems in education, retail and leisure environments. “We have always adopted a traditional approach to finding new people for our business, and this is the first time we have called on the Work Programme,” he said. “The great advantage was that Ingeus took the time to understand our business and the role that we were looking to fill, and then screened candidates to ensure those we interviewed had the right skills and motivation to do the job. Emma was the natural choice and we’re delighted to have her as part of our team.”

“Getting a job has given me a chance to prove to my boss and to myself that I have lots to offer,” added Emma. “Whilst I was unemployed my confidence took a real knock, but having a job has given me a sense of purpose once again. Yes, earning a wage is good, but regaining my self-esteem is something that money just can’t buy.”

Ingeus is one of the UK’s leading welfare-to-work providers, delivering employability services to support unemployed people into lasting work. Ingeus offers a free recruitment service to employers which ranges from CV-sifting to hosting full recruitment days and continues to support new employees for up to two years once they start work, helping employers to increase staff retention.

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