‘Free'Job-ready candidates for retailers

Following a pilot with Morrisons earlier this year, a new innovative service that offers free recruitment to multiple retailers has been launched by employment charity Shaw Trust.

SADOR (Source, Assess, Develop, Onboard, Retain) finds and supplies job-matched employees who are trained and ready to work from day one, together with full back-up support both pre and post job start – and it’s absolutely free to retailers.

Shaw Trust works with long-term unemployed candidates, who through circumstance find it difficult to get back to work. The five stage recruitment programme matches the candidate to the job, provides training and work experience tailored to the employers organisational requirements and environment before supporting the candidate into work.
The Charity has worked with Morrisons for over 20 years supporting its equality and diversity programme, finding work placements for disabled and disadvantaged people. The organisation was eager to build on the partnership by offering an enhanced service and trialled the pilot at its Derby store during a seasonal recruitment drive.
“The pilot conversion rate was impressive, with 70 per cent of candidates put forward being offered jobs” said Kylie Warburton, employer engagement director at Shaw Trust, which helps to find jobs for around 22,000 people every year .
“Morrisons secured the services of job-ready, eager to work employees who were thoroughly tuned in to the company culture and had already worked in-store during the work trial stage.
Mickey Greenhalgh, Morrisons Head of Retail HR development, believes that this is an example of corporate social responsibility working at its best:

“Morrisons firmly believes that everyone has talent and it is through programmes such as SADOR that we are able to offer support to help realise that talent. As a major employer in towns across the UK we want a workforce which supports and reflects our local communities.

It’s a view supported by figures from the CIPD’s Recruitment, Retention and Turnover Report (2009), which sited the average recruitment cost of filling a vacancy per employee at £6125 and highlighting the financial impact of recruiting unsuitable people.

“Poor recruitment detracts from the bottom line” continued Mickey, “and so first and foremost, we need the right people”. The SADOR programme has proved to be very effective.

“Our new employees were assessed and trained before they started. Shaw Trust offers a complete development and onboarding process to support the employee and continued work support. We are getting some great colleagues through the door and I hope that continues.” The programme has been such a success that Morrisons is now planning to roll out this new approach to recruitment across 6 new store openings during 2010.

In addition to adopting the SADOR programme, all Morrisons colleagues are offered long-term career prospects via training for a nationally recognised QCF Level 2 qualification in Retail Skills, as part of its Fresh Food Academy. Through the Academy we aim to train 100,000 colleagues by mid 2011. In addition, every new colleague who starts at Morrisons will have the opportunity of training for this nationally recognised qualification.

Morrisons also demonstrates a strong heritage of internal promotion with a ‘shop floor to top floor’ philosophy. In the last two years over 800 people have been promoted from ‘the shop floor’ to Supervisory and Management positions including Department Managers and over 200 colleagues have been promoted into Senior Management positions such as Store General Manager.

Kylie Warburton concludes:
“SADOR provides employers with access to a job matched and trained talent pool, aiming to maximize employee productivity and retention, the success of which is evidenced by the results.

“From our point of view, we are enabled to support even more disabled and disadvantaged people into work with enlightened employers who want a corporate social responsibility programme that they live, rather than keep on a shelf.”

Changing lives
Hannah was forced to give up her job as a Health Care Assistant when she was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia, but she is now enjoying her first job in ten years thanks to the partnership between Shaw Trust and Morrisons.

“I thought I would never work again, and I was so fed up. Now I have a new lease of life and I feel human again,” says mum of four Hannah, 47, who has a part time job as a cashier in Derby. (Full case study available.)


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Notes to Editors

SADOR recruitment process
Step 1: Shaw Trust sources candidates most suited to the employer vacancies; Step Two: each candidate is assessed inc. competency analysis matched directly to the employers’ requirements and sector specifications. Step 3: Short listed candidates participate in intensive development activity, tailored to the retailer’s unique business. Step 4: 2 week supported job trial in store to support further development and onboarding the candidate into practicalities of work and Step 5: retention supporting including in work support, mentoring and further development activity.

Shaw Trust is a national charity, formed in 1982, which has supported almost 370,000 people with disability or disadvantage on the journey to work and greater independence. We do this not only by delivering government programmes, but also through our own self-funded initiatives, and by campaigning to change attitudes at all levels. Across the UK more than 1,600 staff now oversee a diverse range of more than 200 projects. For more info, www.shaw-trust.org.uk

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