By Pernille Sederberg & Claus Brygger Jacobi
There is a need for new methods to get everyone into the labour market and at the same time secure qualified employees for industries that lack manpower. According to calculations by Dansk Erhverv, the lack of labour cost Danish companies at least DKK 49 billion in 2022. We have worked on this challenge in the project Varig tilknytning til arbejdsmarkedet (Permanent affiliation with the labour market) in the period March 2021 to March 2023 with grants from the EU’s social fund and decentralized business funds.
Through the project, a strong partnership has developed a new scalable employment model, together with more than 60 companies. 160 unemployed candidates have been in a course at a company, of which 90 candidates with a view to part-time work participated and 40 landed a job (employment from 1 hour per week and up to approx. 20 hours per week). Furthermore, 70 Ukrainian refugees participated, of which 40 got a job. The project’s target group is unemployed candidates who, due to various challenges, are far from the labour market and cannot apply for a job themselves. For example, linguistic, psychological or social challenges. Several of the candidates lack work experience. Consultants from Roskilde Municipality have been job coaches for the candidates throughout the project.
Through the project, the participating companies have been given a tailor-made workforce, which, among other things, freed up resources among the company’s full-time employees. In addition, the companies had existing employees trained in good-quality induction and up-qualified to ensure good onboarding. Overall, the project contributed to strengthening the companies’ social sustainability.
Strong partnership & co-creation
As the operator of the project, Corolab highlights the co-creation process and the strong partnership as crucial for our success. The project’s partner group consists of Roskilde Municipality, the educational institutions University College Absalon, CLAVIS, Hf and VUC Roskilde-Køge, Roskilde Technical College, Roskilde University, ZBC and Zealand. Furthermore, the companies Chr. Hansen (now Novonesis) and Kaffe Karma participated actively in the partner group. In addition, 60 companies have contributed to the qualification and development of the model and, among other things, have included – and employed – unemployed candidates from Roskilde Municipality.
The companies wanted to strengthen their social responsibility and, in this connection, used themselves as a test platform to contribute to the new employment model. During the project, they participated in network meetings for knowledge sharing and mutual inspiration, had close follow-up from the job centre’s consultant for the first six months of employment and were given the opportunity for a tailored skills boost for the new employees. In addition, the company has completed various courses as part of buddy training to upskill their employees in receiving, onboarding and retaining candidates from the job center in short internships and jobs.
Chr. Hansen is one of the companies that has actively participated in the project. They chose to be involved to help vulnerable citizens get included to the labour market by offering part-time jobs in the company. Through the project, Chr. Hansen has trained 10 buddies from various departments to be ready to welcome the new employees, had 6 citizens in company internships (unpaid through the municipality) and, as mentioned, hired 4 new employees in part-time jobs. The company’s motivation for participating has been, among other things, to work with the mindset, primarily in relation to how the company is able to work with other types of employees and how both managers, employees and buddies are able to support the new employee in the right way. This requires close cooperation with the job centres, who have a good knowledge of the individual citizen/employee. In addition, it is important to work at all levels in the company and create the right part-time jobs for the selected candidates.
Lotte Gerup, Senior Department Manager, Quality Control, Chr. Hansen, states: “Among other things, it has given value to the company that we have opened up our departments and worked to pass on what we do in terms of tasks and our culture. Everyone in the company thought it was an exciting task. This has created an expanded diversity in good conversations, and, above all, we have hired new employees that we need in the company“.
Another company that has made a positive difference is Roskilde Kongres- & Idrætscenter. Stine Eisen, head of sustainability and in-house production, says: “At Roskilde Kongres- & Idrætscenter we have strong focus on the social bottom line, and we support helping the vulnerable where we can. We are proud of that. In this way, the project’s focus harmonizes well with several of our values. We would like to contribute to helping more people enter the labour market and at the same time contribute to the development of a new employment model. It not only makes a difference for the individual to be associated with the labour market again, but it is also sustainable for society in the long run“.
What is special about the new employment model in relation to getting more companies to hire?
University College Absalon has followed the project closely, evaluated and made recommendations to other companies that want to include candidates, for example in part-time jobs.
A key learning has been that success is not only about whether a candidate is motivated, qualified and prepared to work. A fundamental prerequisite for success is that the companies are prepared to support candidates based on their needs- even when the going gets tough. It is important that the manager engages the rest of the organization to accept and include the candidate in the company, combined with a readiness to be persistent. It requires that you as an organization think of inclusion as a more long-term investment that may cost some resources at the beginning – and as part of the company’s strategy for social responsibility.
The following three elements are highlighted as essential in the new employment model:
- A cluster of local companies that help the candidates in the process at the company
- ‘Handholding’ efforts of buddies, who include the candidate in companies, and by the consultant who does extra close follow-up (every week for up to 6 months)
- Tailormade skills development in connection with business processes.
The cluster is a central part of the project’s model and consists of local companies that have entered into a partnership agreement on participation in the project. Throughout the project period, cluster meetings have been held continuously, with various professional features and presentations as well as presentations from the cluster’s own participants about their experiences from the project. The purpose of the cluster meetings has been to create mutual inspiration and to create a network for the participating companies. The cluster’s activities have been supported and facilitated by Corolab, which among other things had the task of recruiting companies to participate in the project and the cluster’s meetings.
We recommend, the cluster is supported by a neutral party – a network coordinator who is responsible for recruiting companies, communicating job openings to the job centre’s consultants, arranging meetings and contributing to the maturation of workplaces to think in terms of part-time jobs and include candidates.
The next element, buddies, have proven to be an asset to support the candidates in sustainable employment and at the same time strengthen the companies’ inclusion capacity more generally.
The buddies supported the new employees with gradual competence development and independence in the performance of tasks, so that the new employees could take on more tasks along the way and increase the number of hours in employment. In addition, the buddies supported relationship building with colleagues and inclusion in the working community, which also supported situated learning (learning at the workplace). Furthermore, the buddies can support the new employees in opening up about their barriers and functional limitations, so that the necessary precautions that they need and are entitled to can be taken. The buddies have worked closely with each candidate’s consultant from the job centre.
Through the project, we have developed a training program for buddies and supported with ongoing meetings for active buddies to exchange experiences. The buddy training included an introduction to what the buddy role entails, what types of challenges the candidates may have and what can be done to support the candidates. The training was carried out by project coordinators and psychologists from the job center and researchers from University College Absalon and facilitated by Corolab. In addition, two researchers from Roskilde University have further developed the methods by tailoring buddy training to the individual company/industry as a supplement to the team-based buddy training. This through uncovering the work culture aspects of the candidates’ meeting with the labour market and the individual company/industry.
In parallel with courses at companies, educational institutions have contributed with tailored skills enhancements, which are both organized based on the company’s need for task solving and the candidate’s need for gentleness. The competence lift has, for example, taken place 1:1 at the company or in smaller groups at the educational institution. For example, CLAVIS has provided individual linguistic competence enhancement at the companies where candidates with Danish as a second language have been employed in part-time jobs. A teacher from CLAVIS has, for example, been taken out to the workplace and has taught the candidate there, on location. This has proven to be particularly effective, because the content of the skills training has been individually and level-wise adapted to the individual’s learning requirements and because they have been linguistically targeted to that specific vocabulary that the candidate has encountered in the workplace and has had a need and motivation to learn in order to be able to maintain attachment for the job.
Head of education Mette Brandt, CLAVIS, states: “It is very visual and concrete teaching in relation to the vocabulary they need to master in order to keep their part-time jobs. CLAVIS has used digital image-sound-based learning technology with the creation of individual vocabulary lists based on the work processes and the workplace- and task-specific vocabulary that the individual has needed to learn. It can especially make a difference for those with learning difficulties and those who do not benefit from the usual offers“.
Other tailored skills enhancements include food hygiene, cleaning, IT, forklift and first aid.
Good advices for business success
Maturation of the company is an important parameter for success in bringing in unemployed candidates with various challenges on the labour market. In larger companies, the challenge might be to stabilise candidates in suitable work and anchor the good work in the organisations. This is why we recommend that you work with buddies in a kind of ambassadorial role. One option could be for a buddy to attend team or department meetings and talk about the good stories and the importance of good onboarding.
Furthermore, it is important to gain more knowledge about opportunities for, for example, part-time jobs (from 1 hour and up to approx. 20 hours per week) and skills development. Close cooperation between company, educational institution and job center is essential as also participating in cluster with other companies for inspiration and exchange of experience.
Read more about the project here.
