It seemed like a good idea at the time. It is a good idea. But sometimes you have to be careful what you wish for.
What we’re wishing for is two or three employers to take on a couple of unemployed people. This has been a long time in the planning. Six years or more during which we’ve piloted one business that employs people who are homeless, in recovery, ex-offenders or just long-time out of work. We’ve raised the funding, written the plan, done the research. In that order. Arse upwards. It’s what social entrepreneurs call ‘organic’.
Anyway, the research meant we could prove that we knew what we were talking about. We gathered responses from people with so-called workless backgrounds in the Bath area. We know about their job aspirations. And we know what is holding them back. (Download the report, Aspiring to More, at http://www.cleanslateltd.co.uk)
Our big idea is to be a temp agency for unemployable people. So we need to know what employers think. Would they ever in a million years take someone on with a history of offending, homelessness or drug misuse? Or in what circumstances? We really believe many jobless people will step up to the mark once the opportunity is placed before them.
The feedback was encouraging and a couple of possible employers emerged and, slightly greedy for more, we asked those contacts to ask their contacts.
It was difficult to tell whether one email response was apologetic, sympathetic but frustrated or a simple ‘no’. It was a shame because warehouse work is probably a good place to start for some of our guys. And it would be great to have our first employer placement in the hard-nosed, no-nonsense private sector. Someone to stand on a pedestal and sing our praises. But the UK Sex Toy Superstore?
It’s not what I imagined.
Luckily or unluckily, the ‘no’ was still a ‘no’. It turns out that not only would they not want to take someone on with a criminal record, they were still smarting after their own robbery a year ago. ‘Thieves create a buzz’ was the headline after burglars swiped ‘six boxes of used sex toys’. I know, I know, that’s too much information but the salient point I wanted to make is that it goes to show that employers are already contending with the issues that some of our Temp Workers will have. This one may not be the best example but how many businesses already unwittingly employ ex-offenders, problem drinkers, and staff with mental health problems. Why does it seem like such a leap to knowingly take someone on with any of those issues, especially if it’s confronted and dealt with?
What we’re wishing for is two or three employers to take on a couple of unemployed people. This has been a long time in the planning. Six years or more during which we’ve piloted one business that employs people who are homeless, in recovery, ex-offenders or just long-time out of work. We’ve raised the funding, written the plan, done the research. In that order. Arse upwards. It’s what social entrepreneurs call ‘organic’.
Anyway, the research meant we could prove that we knew what we were talking about. We gathered responses from people with so-called workless backgrounds in the Bath area. We know about their job aspirations. And we know what is holding them back. (Download the report, Aspiring to More, at http://www.cleanslateltd.co.uk)
Our big idea is to be a temp agency for unemployable people. So we need to know what employers think. Would they ever in a million years take someone on with a history of offending, homelessness or drug misuse? Or in what circumstances? We really believe many jobless people will step up to the mark once the opportunity is placed before them.
The feedback was encouraging and a couple of possible employers emerged and, slightly greedy for more, we asked those contacts to ask their contacts.
It was difficult to tell whether one email response was apologetic, sympathetic but frustrated or a simple ‘no’. It was a shame because warehouse work is probably a good place to start for some of our guys. And it would be great to have our first employer placement in the hard-nosed, no-nonsense private sector. Someone to stand on a pedestal and sing our praises. But the UK Sex Toy Superstore?
It’s not what I imagined.
Luckily or unluckily, the ‘no’ was still a ‘no’. It turns out that not only would they not want to take someone on with a criminal record, they were still smarting after their own robbery a year ago. ‘Thieves create a buzz’ was the headline after burglars swiped ‘six boxes of used sex toys’. I know, I know, that’s too much information but the salient point I wanted to make is that it goes to show that employers are already contending with the issues that some of our Temp Workers will have. This one may not be the best example but how many businesses already unwittingly employ ex-offenders, problem drinkers, and staff with mental health problems. Why does it seem like such a leap to knowingly take someone on with any of those issues, especially if it’s confronted and dealt with?
Still, I think we got off lightly. The sex toy warehouse might not have been the most advantageous first placement. But still, I can’t help feeling we got told where to stick it.
