FEATURE INCLUSIVE RECRUITMENT
SECOND
N ik Nelberg didn’t set out to hire someone who had spent time in prison. What he wanted was a person with grit, who was determined to work hard and who had their sights set on career progression. The truth is Nelberg, Managing Director of Earl & Calam Design and Build Ltd in Greater London, had been struggling for some time to find good people to hire. The constant battle of finding someone with the relevant skills, coupled with disappointment when they could not deliver to the standards Nelberg needed, had started taking a toll on the team. Not to mention the wasted time and money. “When we first started having problems trying to employ good people, we became belligerent and stressed,” Nelberg explains. “We were advertising for skilled people but were ultimately paying people without the skills we needed and they were causing us unnecessary problems.
Employers who hire with an open mind could give diligent
“We stopped advertising for skilled people and started advertising for labouring positions, but we offered a chance to upskill, first as a general labourer and then to progress to a trade apprenticeship and a career in construction. “We took each person on face value; their past wasn’t an issue. It was how they worked with us and if we could see us moving forwards together,” Nelberg says. It was during this recruitment drive that Nelberg met Connor Gridley who answered a labouring advert on the Indeed website, took the job and has since proven his capabilities.
workers with a desire to apply
themselves a vital lifeline – and help to plug the skills gap at the same time
Connor Gridley is seizing the opportunity given to him by Earl & Calam Design and Build Ltd
Master Builder 32
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