The CIPD Trust has teamed up with St Giles Trust and Offploy, who work with people with convictions. The Trust is matching 20 experienced people professionals with 20 people from this group, who are giving up their time to mentor them to stay and succeed in their roles.
This month the first pairs start their six-month programme of mentoring to help rebuild confidence and skills so that mentees become comfortable and settled in the workplace.
Matching people with convictions with experienced people professionals
The Trust's expert people professional mentors will:
- help rebuild confidence and skills
- manage workplace challenges
- build resilience.
Creating more inclusive and better places to work
Both St Giles and Offploy know that hiring people with convictions creates more inclusive and better places to work.
They understand that mentoring can empower people from this group to remain and succeed in work, giving more organisations the experience and confidence to hire people with convictions.
With 1.1 million unfilled job vacancies in the UK, embracing this untapped talent pool can be a solution to resourcing and a great driver for positive change to recruitment perceptions.
Employers say people with convictions have strengthened their workplaces
Two retailers, Greggs and the Timpson Foundation, have been hiring from this untapped talent pool for many years and say they are a huge asset to their businesses.
At a CIPD Trust panel session at this month’s CIPD Festival of Work, Greggs and the Timpson Foundation explained how this group of people have strengthened their workplaces.
They said:
- Businesses should hire people with convictions as they are hardworking, loyal and reliable colleagues.
- Customers approve of hiring people from this group and want businesses to do the right thing.
- Getting a job is one of the key factors in supporting those with lived experience get their lives back on track and with the cost of reoffending around £18 billion a year, supporting them in work makes sense.
The mentoring pilot is set to break down barriers and overcome stigma
The Trust aims to prove that it makes a difference for this group of people to have a people professional mentor by their side at work to break down barriers and overcome stigma. If successful, the Trust wants to roll out the programme to many more people. Currently there are 60-70,000 people who leave prison each year and having a job is one of the key things that help them to turn their lives around and secure a better future.
