All employability organisations aim to support clients to find and sustain employment, and the engagement of employers is crucial to the success of this process. However, employer engagement can be a somewhat neglected area of work.

Focusing on supporting clients as they move towards work is a key priority, but without the involvement of employers, employability advisors may find it much harder to help clients make the transition to the workplace.

SMEs are very significant in the Scottish labour market, accounting for around 40% of all jobs in the private sector and could be a important source of job opportunities for priority groups. However, SMEs are much less likely than large companies to get involved with employability organisations and initiatives from a sense of altruism or as part of a corporate social responsibility approach.

SMEs will want to use services that can clearly help their business thrive. For this reason, it is vital that employability organisations and advisors are able to effectively market and ‘sell’ their services.

You should try to understand what SME employers need from your organisation and how you can make the recruitment process easier and more effective for them. Your starting point with an SME employer could be to consider what you can do to benefit them rather than what they can do to help you and your clients.