Inspiring to learn today a hybrid version of @Growing_Talent ran during the height of #Covid in Sept 2020 was so successful.
Chloe, Courtney, Shelley, Sophia, Ryan and Vanessa are still onboard 2 years later!
They took a chance on Growing Talent with great results for them and their London employer – a global financial services firm.
Being unemployed is tough. Getting employers to see you for your skills, abilities and attributes rather than your label ‘single parent’, ‘unemployed’ etc seems impossible.
Exciting meeting with @DavidSteeds & @Maddiemum @JCPinSthLondon yesterday planning @Growing_Talent 2023. Four programmes will run throughout the year enabling forward planning for all involved. Targeting London based employers and unemployed people looking for a different journey into work.
In these challenging times, now more than ever this unique collaboration is needed to deliver positive results to all.
Thanks to all involved over 9yrs Growing Talent has run changing lives by delivering real social mobility
What will the next year hold for Growing Talent?????
Who knows! One thing is for sure, we’re ready to roll that bowling ball!
Growing Talent has predominantly run within nuclear parts of national/international employers providing on site services to Growing Talent’s funders.
This started to change yesterday with the ‘King of Connections’ – also known as Andy at ISS, a strong supporter of Growing Talent, who connected Growing Talent with Anna, relatively new to the position of Head of Social Value at ISS in a meeting yesterday.
Anna’s clear interest in the uniqueness of Growing Talent was amplified by ISS’s ‘Empathy Envoy’, also known as Melinda, who joined us to share with Anna some of the experiences her team had encountered and the life changing differences they had been part of – all in addition to their day jobs.
Andy explained to Anna that accounts outside the funders could take part and make a real difference to those that need a chance as well as gaining a positive impact on their team.
Anna agreed to attend our Recognition and Relaunch Event in January and said she would spread the word to decision makers along with Andy.
Within an hour, I’d received accepted invitations from some of these decision makers to attend! How awesome is that?
The power of people who make things happen rather than just talk the talk is awesome and makes such a critical difference to those vulnerable people on the Growing Talent journey – especially during these tough economic times!
For many global companies, taking part in Growing Talent is a challenge because it disrupts the global recruitment policies in place.
Growing Talent is a mentoring journey for both employers and their potential unemployed new talent which delivers a mutual ‘test drive’ to see if the permanent role on offer is right for both parties.
Due to the unique partnership over nine years with JobCentre Plus in the UK, participants retain their benefits, have their travel paid, get paid by the employer, undergo a week of orientation and holistic workshops including qualification in the accredited i-act Managing and Promoting Positive Mental Health and Wellbeing aligning with ISO45003 psychological safety in the workplace and a dedicated mentor for the journey. This raises their empowerment and confidence before they start the four week mutual test drive with their employer.
What’s not to like?
With all these positive elements to Growing Talent, Lauren had a role she knew would be appropriate. After securing UK managements’ approval, she then had to tackle the European heads! No easy task – but she did it!
Lauren made it happen and you can see just how confident and awesome Lee is from the photo above with Lauren. Feed back from Lauren and her team is Lee is learning so quickly and picking up things fast. He’s a positive addition to the team – and this is just a few days into the journey! From Lee’s view, he’s enjoying it and has no complaints.
It not easy to start a new job during train strikes – but Lee made it happen too!
Vision, determination and passion = positive real results. So, let’s all ‘make it happen’!
Amongst very many others. Of course the smallest detail can have the biggest impact so it’s important to know what the goal is of the event upfront. Then it’s easy to work out the intricacies such as budgets, speakers, awards/gifts etc.
Luckily, the unique event I’m planning is the Recognition and Relaunch of Growing Talent – neither has been done before.
Pre Covid, we held annual graduation ceremonies for everyone who had completed Growing Talent over the previous year coming together in London to celebrate with their respective employers.
Covid brought many changes across the board for everyone – in work and at home. Whilst we switched to virtual delivery for an employer who was looking to hire in permanent national roles working from home, the traditional route to employment outside the home has changed.
The two years plus of uncertainty we lived under during Covid, didn’t end when the heat of Covid diminished. Covid was quickly followed by the war in Ukraine, the consumer crisis, and now the prospect of rising taxes, meaning the pool of talented unemployed people who want to work has dwindled, leaving employers with multiple roles to fill.
This lack of confidence on both sides needs a unique tool to bring each together. That tool for many will be Growing Talent.
Earlier this year, Growing Talent was revised to make clear benefits for both the employer and prospective employee. Below are the highlights for each:
We have some confirmed speakers already for the event on 16 January 2023 including:
David – senior group manager for London and Essex at DWP. David has been instrumental for years in supporting the flexibilities needed for Growing Talent to be a success within JobCentre Plus and spread the word amongst his large, diverse, geographically spread team.
Jamie & Pedro – known to Growing Talent as the ‘dream team’. Supporting and cheerleading Growing Talent since the beginning, they have put their heart and integrity into guiding everyone they’ve met on Growing Talent over the years into some awesome careers. Not easy to do when you have a booming successful recruitment branch to run as they do with Pertemps and Red Personnel in London. They will be sharing why they do this from an employers viewpoint.
Ella from MasterFix Properties will be speaking from a dual view. Earlier this year, Ella was selected to join Growing Talent by Paul, Head of Talent at MasterFix who was looking for a Talent Co-Ordinator to join his team. After successfully completely Growing Talent, Ella returned with Paul to the next programme to select more talent to join the London team.
The line-up of this unique event will of course grow over the coming weeks.
A schedule will be published of when Growing Talent will run in 2023 giving time to employers, JobCentre Plus and the charities we work with to prepare.
If you are a London based employer with permanent roles to fill in 2023 and want to recruit a more diverse way, why not get in touch to find out more?
After a full-on orientation with Lee and Lily on Growing Talent 31 they ended this stage of their journey by completing the global, accredited, workplace designed Managing and Promoting Positive Mental Health and Wellbeing course.
The orientation chapter of Growing Talent’s 31st programme is now completed and a new chapter begins – their mutual test drive with their respective employers to see if the permanent role ring fenced for them is a great fit for both parties.
Check back to see how both get on with #Honeywell and #ISS.
Test driving anything before you commit to it makes logical sense – doesn’t it?
Why doesn’t this apply to a job?
Well, it does at Growing Talent. A role is ring fenced upfront for you which you train in before being employed. Learning all aspects of the role, team, client, culture of the business before being employed.
After selection and before going on site, a week long ‘boot camp’ of empowering workshops are delivered, building confidence and a qualification in positive mental health and wellbeing.
In addition to being paid by the employer during this ‘test drive’ period you retain your benefits and have your travel paid.
What’s not to like?
To apply: must be over 18, have Right to Work in the UK documents in place and be able to give details for a minimum three year checkable history. For the global course in mental health and wellbeing, access to a desktop/laptop is crucial.
All jobs are permanent, based in Central London within corporate or operational environments
Interested to learn more? Join our virtual information session – details in the feature pic.
Growing Talent gives the space, nurturing, coaching to enable confidence to flourish and true abilities to be revealed.
She is thriving under the guidance of her manager Pedro at Pertemps and, from her third appraisal, is clearly giving equal support to the team and candidates in her care.
An inspirational journey of growth over a few short weeks.
It takes a leap of faith to ask your staff – all levels – ‘what’s going well, what could be better and what solutions do you feel would fix things’.
That’s exactly what a global financial services company did in the UK over August. Just look at some of awesome results delivered:
1. The company got some fantastic ideas they can implement relatively cheaply. No huge fees for external consultants!
2. The staff felt empowered, valued, listened too and were far better connected with peers across all services and departments.
3. Staff stepped out of their comfort zones and recognised they could rise to any challenge and achieve more than they previously felt possible.
4. Senior management got to see the hidden talent of their staff.
Instead of doing the usual staff survey, the company organised a challenge. Working in teams each region presented their thoughts and solutions to a panel of senior management on a given subject. In this instance, the subject was ‘Better Connections’ – how well connected are we with each other across the business?
The prizes were individual awards of vouchers for a leading online retailer but, way more impressive, the commitment of implementation nationally of the winning ideas.
The winning team was the London region for their tangible ideas with the Southampton team a close second for their innovative, passionate ideas.
I had a small input on this journey which enabled me to see the awesome integrity, commitment and passion of the teams.
So, if we know and accept our greatest asset in the world of business are our people, why aren’t we regularly asking and listening to their ideas? Not all ideas will be viable – but many will be. Just think of the positive impact on the business with committed, engaged, staff who know they belong.
Anna, the lead at JobCentre Plus for Growing Talent asked if I could record the information session planned for 26 July. Easy to do using Zoom but of course there’s GDPR to consider for all the participants joining!
So, armed with the little knowledge I have of I-movie, I recorded the presentation on Zoom then edited it using I-movie to deliver the video below for Anna to send to her London based customers who might miss the information session.
Of course all the great film directors have nothing to worry about from my efforts! However, stepping out of my comfort zone and using software I wouldn’t usually, has been somewhat empowering!
It’s surprising what we can achieve when we silence our self-doubting minds and just do it!
Growing Talent – London based opportunities for the unemployed with hidden talent & employers!
