Employer Engagement Team - Print version

Support to employers

Based at the flagship Coventry Job Shop, Coventry City Council's Employer Engagement Team provides a free bespoke recruitment, training and wellbeing service.

The Employer Engagement Team can support employers' recruitment by:

• Supporting with Job Description and advertising creation
• Multi-platform advertising of vacancies
• Sourcing suitable candidates against the Job Description, making use of the Coventry City Council Job Shops pool of over 25,000 registered customers
• Pre-screening to ensure candidate suitability
• Carrying out all required pre-screening activities such as any tests, pre-interview activities and telephone interviews
• Sourcing suitable pre-employment training to meet employer needs
• Arranging final interviews as required
• Supporting with work trials, work experience and general employment opportunities

In addition to recruitment activities, the Employer Engagement Team can support employers to increase their productivity through evaluating their employee wellbeing, with support to sign up to the West Midlands Combined Authority Thrive at Work Charter.

Please contact the Employer Engagement Team for support or find out more about the Job Shop [https://www.coventry.gov.uk/jobshopvacancies].

Youth Works Recruitment Grant Funding

Youth Works - Developing fresh, new talent in the city

Youth Works gives you the opportunity to build the skills of a young person within your business and invest in your future workforce. Coventry City Council have introduced a recruitment grant funding opportunity for local businesses to access (subject to eligibility).

£3000 grants are available to employers who recruit candidates registered on our Your Vision Your Future programme and are paid in 6-monthly instalments of £500. This funding can be used in any way that will support your new employee. For example, subsidising wages or paying towards training and qualifications.

Eligibility criteria

• Opportunity must be a minimum of 20 hours per week
• Starting wage must be at least £11 per hour
• Candidate is paid through PAYE as part of your organisation's payroll
• Company must employ less than 250 employees and be based within Coventry and Warwickshire
• Company must complete the Youth Works application form and pass due diligence checks
• The successful candidate is sourced through the Coventry Job Shop Your Vision Your Future programme
• Applicants will be aged 16 - 29, living within CV1 - CV6 and not in employment, training or education.

To make an enquiry or for more information please complete and submit the form below

Youth Works Recruitment Grant Funding form [https://myaccount.coventry.gov.uk/service/Youth_Works_Recruitment_Grant_Funding_Form]

Employer recommendations

Jon Freedman, Chairman of CFS Aero:

In the past we have been impressed with your operation as you have not just sent us anybody who meets the basis description but have spent the time a trouble to select people who also have the right attitude

Louise Pendleton, Recruitment Manager, Sitel:

The results have been amazing. Through events at the Job Shop the Employer Hub found the people had just the skills we were looking for. We would advise any employer looking to recruit or train to work with the Employer Hub and Job Shop as they have access to lots of good local people and more importantly, their service is completely free

Barinder Chahal, Director, Bludog:

We have been working with the Employer to recruit employees for the last 5 years. The communication and support which is provided is second to none and they are able to provide high quality pre-screened applicants for any type of job role.

The feedback I have received from employees who have used the services has been incredibly positive and they feel that they would have struggled to secure employment without the help of the service. I would recommend the Employer Hub to any employers in the Coventry area for any recruitment, and I will continue to use their services going forwards.

Kallum Goodfellow, Project Manager, Affinity Tech:

The adviser from the Employer Hub team has been invaluable to Affinity Technologies recruitment process, she has been a true trojan with finding us the correct candidate for our industry and the companies ever changing requirements.

The Employer Hub team have helped tremendously, not only by forwarding on applications and candidates but putting the correct candidates through a vigorous pre-screening process and the end result was that all final candidates were all of a high standard.”

Redundancy support for businesses

We understand that making staff redundant is a difficult decision to make but support is available. Our team of dedicated advisors are on hand to discuss restructures, redundancies, training and much more. We are able to support organisations from all sectors, both with large and small scale redundancies. This Coventry and Warwickshire Redundancy Support service is free and confidential.

Redundancy support sessions

We have held virtual redundancy support sessions previously which have worked successfully, and feedback received has been extremely positive. We work with an extensive number of partners to provide a wide variety of support options across Coventry and Warwickshire to create a structured timetable using Microsoft Teams to showcase and present our services to your employees.

Ongoing support

At the Job Shop we are also able to provide ongoing support to your employees who have been or are at risk of redundancy. We can provide a wide range of support to Coventry residents, of all ages, who are looking for work or training. We engage with partners and employers across the city, so our customers have direct access to a variety of local vacancies and accredited training opportunities. Once registered with our Job Shop support service, we can provide:

• Employability Workshops
• Assistance with creating a CV and completing application forms
• 1-2-1 appointments with an experienced Job Coach
• Support in preparing for interviews
• Welfare benefits, back to work calculations and basic debt advice
• Training and support to develop your skills for work in a range of sectors
• A fortnightly newsletter with up to date events and vacancies.

Additional support services

The Employer Engagement Team Support Service includes:

• Information and advice regarding the local labour market
• Support through the entire recruitment process; from job-listing to interview
• Screening and short-listing of candidates
• Interview support and free use of interview facilities
• On-going support for you and your new recruit
• Skills, training and apprenticeship advice

Other support services we can direct you to:

• Exceptional clusters of innovative businesses with immediate access to markets and supply chains
• A wealth of internationally recognised knowledge and sector focused support organisations [http://www.coventry.gov.uk/downloads/download/4775/sector_profiles]
• A great central UK location and a relocation support service [https://www.coventry.gov.uk/info/1286/coventry_a_first_choice_for_your_investment]
• A range of business support including grants and loans [https://www.coventry.gov.uk/info/1287/business_finance_and_funding] and start up support [https://www.coventry.gov.uk/info/1284/support_for_new_and_existing_businesses/3939/business_start-up]
• A user friendly commercial property [/commercialproperty] search facility
• An international trade and investment strategy and action plan.

Thrive at work - workplace wellbeing award

The Thrive at work workplace wellbeing awards [https://www.coventry.gov.uk/thriveatwork] are the West Midlands county standard of good practice and a quality mark for health and wellbeing in work.

The awards support employers across the West Midlands to improve the health and wellbeing of their staff, engage and communicate with employees more effectively, and help to achieve a range of business and organisational outcomes.

Collaborate to Train

Collaborate to Train is an ESF funded three-year project and is being delivered through a consortium of the major stakeholders in education, training and business engagement across Coventry and Warwickshire. In Coventry, one of the project partners is the City Council and activity is being delivered by the Employer Engagement Team located in the city centre Job Shop [/jobshop].

Business engagement is especially targeted at small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and looks at ways to help them get involved in education and training, through providing work experience placements and working with schools.

What we can offer

Collaborate to Train is of particular benefit to Coventry school’s careers leads who we can support to increase employer engagement with careers events and activities.

For businesses Collaborate to Train is a great way of linking you to schools, helping to inspire your future workforce.