Engaging employers in pre-employment activity can bring real benefits for them, your organisation and your clients. But its success can depend on you having clear, consistent and planned processes for this type of involvement.

Remember that this is often an employer’s first experience of your organisation and your clients, and without careful planning there is a real risk that it will be a bad experience for the employer that will put them off any further involvement.

Think about the type of support that an employer will need from you and make sure that it is in place from the start. Ask them if there is any additional support that would make the process easier for them.

For Example:
Staff who become mentors/job coaches for your clients will need appropriate training and ongoing support from your organisation.

Different companies will have different interests and capacities so, where possible, try to have a range of different ways that employers can become involved. Think about opportunities for one-off or time limited involvement as well as ongoing commitments.

For Example:
A company with only a small number of staff may find it difficult to commit to ongoing staff involvement in interview skills training but they may be able to commit to initiatives such as giving talks to clients that do not require a huge time commitment.

Take work placements seriously - placing a client with an employer for work experience should be considered in the same way as finding them a job.

Try to make sure that you:

• Match clients to appropriate placements that areed to their skills and interest.
• Put structures in place for providing in work support to both client and employer.
• Develop mechanisms for effective feedback to both clients and employers.

Develop clear lines of communication and keep in touch with the employer and all relevant members of their staff.

Try to make sure that you:

• Staff responsible for supervising work placements and/or mentoring clients know who to contact if there is a problem.
• Employers are kept up to date with new initiatives.
• There is a way for employers to make suggestions about other ways they could become involved.

Don’t always expect it to lead to recruitment and don’t try to push an employer into a type or level of involvement that they are not ready for. Some employers can be encouraged to increase their involvement over time but different companies will have different levels of capacity and overloading an employer will only put them off.

For some employers, involvement in pre-employment activity will be an incremental process that could lead to recruitment of your clients. For some, this type of involvement may be the limit of their capacity, but this does not mean that they cannot be a valuable resource for you and your clients.