Building a case for work inclusion

With building projects in some of the more deprived areas of the UK, Wates is all too familiar with the problems of unemployment and the negative effects on the local community that come with it (rising crime, deterioration of health and significant costs to the economy).

Wates’ Building Futures work inclusion programme seeks to brighten the outlook in those communities and with 89% of participants (in 2012) saying that the programme boosted their job prospects, the family-owned building group is certainly doing something right. Other participant comments include ‘had a fantastic time’ and ‘feel loads more confident about going for jobs now’. However, it’s hard statistics that show that this back-to-work programme is working.

Wates’ Building Futures initiative came about in 2005 when the company first moved into the affordable housing market. “We were working in deprived areas where there were high levels of unemployment and we wanted to develop our role as a responsible contractor,” explains Louise Hyde, group community investment manager, who heads the award-winning project at Wates.

Building Futures is a 2-week programme which gives participants a mixture of employment and practical skills with a view to pursuing an entry level job in the construction sector. The two weeks are made up of one week of ‘trade taster’ skills and one week of employability skills, such as learning how to write a CV and honing interview techniques. The programme provides participants with a QCF (Qualification Credit Framework) Level 1 Award in Building Crafts. This is underpinned with a 6-month tracking post programme to provide on-going guidance and support into employment or training. Hyde advises other companies looking to run similar programmes to ensure that training on offer is accredited. “Accredited training provides greater opportunity for delegates to find work,” she says.

Wates aligns the programmes to its current building projects that often result in bespoke ‘trade taster’ sessions depending on the site’s project such as asbestos awareness at a recent site in Luton.

Skills training is also sometimes geared towards the user gaining an CSCS Card – which you need if you want to work on any building site in the UK.

Each 2-week programme ends with a community project where participants put their newfound skills to use, usually a mini-makeover of a local community area or a landscaping project. On average, working alongside the participants are five Wates employees and other stakeholders including supply chain clients.

There were 115 participants in 2012 that equates to more than 1200 volunteer hours. On average 200 hours of staff time is invested in each Building Futures programme so to date that is over 10,000 hours.

Wates’ bespoke community investment tool has calculated that the average cost of a 2-week programme works out at £20,000 (including in-kind investment time of clients, supply chain and other partners). This equates to a total community investment of over £1m since launch.

The programme is not designed purely as a recruitment project for Wates as opportunities are extended to its supply chain too. Since 2006, 700 people have been through the project and 57% of those are now in employment or training. However, it does allow Wates to ensure a future skilled workforce and the company says the programme has helped it – and supply chain partners – save on recruitment costs. The average agency fee is £6500 per employee and to date between them Wates and its supply chain have directly recruited 139 staff from the programme. This represents a cost saving of almost £1m.

Building Futures is also proving an important factor in staff retention. According to a recent Ipsos Mori employee survey, 78% of employees believe Wates ‘makes a positive difference to the world we live in (communities & environment)’ compared to 68% and 60% in the previous two years. Also 86% believe Wates ‘takes its social and ethical responsibilities seriously’ and 88% are ‘proud to work for Wates’.

Wates runs Building Futures as a national programme, 10 to 12 times a year. In 2012 the company entered a national delivery partnership with Ixion Holdings, a not for profit organisation that is part of the Anglia Ruskin University. Ixion Holdings has a strong track record in the delivery of pre-employment training to unemployed groups, with end-to-end services that provide a full journey from engagement through to sustainable employment.

The partnership with Ixion Holdings has enabled us to scale the programme to have more impact and find new ways of doing things, explains Hyde.

Ixion Holdings also gave Wates access to employment referral providers and allowed Wates to access government funding. Indeed, the government now funds 70% of the programme with Wates’ charitable arm, Wates Giving, match funding the rest.

Another benefit of going into partnership with Ixion Holdings has been that the programme now has the resources to track the progress of participants, up to 12 months after they have taken part. Ixion Holdings holds follow-up workshops as well as offering one-to-one guidance.
Hyde maintains that Building Futures brings added value to its clients as well as supporting the company in winning bids: “Our approach is a very strong reason for working with us in the affordable housing market.”

One of the biggest initial challenges centred on how to embed the idea into the company and the business to buy into the entire project. It’s now part of the culture of the company, says Hyde. “For us, a key driver has been that the ethos is driven from the top down. At senior level, there is buy-in. It has become part of our culture by the fact it is a sustainable model. We focus on positive quality outcomes not just the numbers completing the two week programme.”

“We are now looking for Building Futures to evolve into different areas of the business: Building Green Futures for our work in the energy sector and Building Retail Futures which will align with our commercial work. Hopefully these will take shape in 2014,” adds Hyde.