More than 100 UK employers back new covenant to get people into work

Supporting the Government’s core priority to reduce economic inactivity, the new ‘Social Recruitment Covenant’ is a pledge to adopt inclusive recruitment and employment practices to help people overcome the barriers to employment endemic in traditional recruitment practices.

The Covenant has been created by a collective of major UK employers called the Social Recruitment Advocacy Group, which includes well-known names such as Lidl, Ikea , Openreach, Currys and G4S. It is being launched at a special parliamentary event taking place today (6 November). 

The group, with more than 60 member and partners, has been developing best practice guidance around targeted, inclusive recruitment for different groups of people in need of support and working together to help employers reach and successfully onboard them. This includes prison-leavers, carers, neurodiverse people, older workers, long-term unemployed people, young people not in education or employment (NEETS) and many more.

More than 100 employers have already signed the Social Recruitment Covenant, committing to increase the role of social value in their recruitment and employment practices, known as ‘social recruitment’.

Kenny Boyle, SRAG Co-Chair and group MD at People Plus, said: “It is phenomenal that so many employers are seeing the benefit of applying the concept of social value to recruitment and employment practices.

“In the public sector, you find that social value is written in to contracts, but there are so many ways employers of all types and sizes can give back to a locality. Supporting people into work can have such a huge uplift both on individual family circumstances and benefits for wellbeing that cascade far beyond individual employees to the wider company and community.”

Former MP and Minister for Skills, Ann Milton, Chair of the Social Recruitment Advocacy Group, said: “We can see the Government means business on tackling economic inactivity and there are many avenues they can pursue to achieve this. The Social Recruitment Covenant is an approach which can be tailored to the needs of specific groups depending on the needs of the employer and the local community.

“We don’t specify which people you should be hiring, we ask you to commit to doing the work to make recruitment and employment practices more inclusive and to reach out to those people who might suit the work your company does or who are in your local community. And the companies in the SRAG network can support you to do that. The benefits of this approach go far beyond the individual, they are clear to see in the companies running these initiatives and can uplift many families and local communities.”

Why act now?

Social Value is becoming a critical aspect of how contracts for work are assessed and awarded, plus there is strong political will to reduce economic inactivity and reliance on benefits. Social Value is an opportunity for companies to benefit from different voices and perspectives, to enhance the communities they are based in and to contribute to strengthening the UK economy.

• People leaving prison

In the first quarter of the year 13,289 prisoners completed the custodial term of sentence and were released from prison. Ministry of Justice figures suggest 58 per cent of prisoners released from less than 12 months in custody reoffend within 12 months, and 35 per cent of those who have served a sentence of more than 12 months reoffend within a year (excluding life sentences).

While there are several complex and often interlinked factors a person my reoffend, the likelihood of that can be reduced by both having a place to stay and having a job. 

Averaged over a year, that’s around 53,156 ex-offenders needing to re-enter the workforce (not taking into account early release schemes).

• Autistic People

Research from the National Autistic Society indicates approximately 1 in 100 people are autistic, but just 15 % of autistic adults are in full time employment and 9% in part-time employment. Around two thirds of autistic people have relatively low support needs and would likely be able to work in supportive environments if employers open the door to flexible ways of recruiting.

• Young People

As of August 2024, figures from the Office for National Statistic point to an increase in the number of young people aged 16-24 not in education, employment or training with the total estimated to be 872,000.

The Government’s touted Youth Guarantee could help here. Some signatories to the Social Recruitment Covenant are already helping to train and employ young people, enacting the very thing the Government is seeking to encourage. The Covenant is one avenue for employers to commit to supporting and employing young people, made easier by joining Social Recruitment Advocacy Group which provides expert advice from people with lived experience and those who have developed and run their own programmes already.

What kind of changes might an employer make?

Some of the changes can be universal and require only small adjustments, such as providing interview questions in advance, a practice John Lewis recently adopted.

Others may be more targeted to certain groups and might involve a more radical overhaul or company procedures, for example, eschewing the standard interview model for work trials which allow people to demonstrate their suitability for a role in a more practical and less pressured situation.

For employers willing to adapt their recruitment and employment practices to account for different types of people and experiences, the rewards can be huge: for the company the individual and the wider community.

For every employer who wants to take that step the SRAG has many ways to support them on that journey, from toolkits co-produced by people with lived experience, to group events and shared learning. Joining SRAG allows employers to talk to some of the biggest companies in the UK while they plan and deliver on making their organisation more inclusive.