You are in a strong position to help employers to employ people from the priority groups. In many respects you have a ‘captive audience’; the employers you are working with are already engaged with the Healthy Working Lives Awards scheme and have already committed to developing systems and procedures that will benefit their staff and business.

You could consider that your first task is to ‘sell’ the employability criteria as an attractive option. Remember that for the Silver Award this is an optional criterion and employers may need to be convinced of its benefits. Employers will be required to undertake the employability criteria for the Gold Award (either when first going through the award or on renewal) although they may still need some persuasion not to put it off to a later date. Employers are unlikely to change their procedures for purely altruistic motives. Therefore, it will help if you are able to show employers how recruiting from priority groups will provide real benefits for their business.

The key benefits include:

• Provides access to a much wider group of potential employees
• Brings news skills to the business and helps the business to better understand the needs of customers
• Some companies report low rates of sickness absence and high retention rates
• Provides training and professional development opportunities for other staff
• Increases competitiveness as a supplier to large organisations with a focus on Corporate Social Responsibility

Another benefit for employers is that developing systems and procedures to support the recruitment of people from priority groups could also contribute to the criteria for other aspects of the award and benefit the workforce as a whole. For example:

• Considering the adjustments that may be needed when recruiting staff with disabilities could help with the criteria for ‘Supporting staff attendance’.
• Training managers on how to support staff with health problems will be of benefit both when recruiting staff and for supporting existing employees.
• Raising awareness among staff of mental health issues will help with the criteria for ‘Mentally healthy workplaces’ as well as helping to increase understanding of the issues that new staff with mental health problems might be facing.

Click here for a summary of some of the available evidence of the business benefits of diversifying the workforce.