Emma Wordsworth on how Veolia puts its money where its mouth is when it comes to apprentices
When Veolia Environmental Services decided to dramatically increase the number of young people coming into the business, it was met with cynicism in some quarters. As HR director Emma Wordsworth recalls, some of its managers put the new initiative down to the company “trying to do something nice for society”.
“When we announced a target of 300 apprentices we were faced with some resistance from managers. Not because they didn’t want an apprentice, but because they were concerned it would mean their business was less efficient,” says Wordsworth. “But it’s opened their eyes to what young people can offer. Where it was the HR team pushing apprenticeships on the business, now it’s more two-way.”
It’s still early days for the recycling and waste management giant, which last year launched its “Back to Business” strategy, focused around apprenticeships and work experience placements for Neets (Not in Education, Employment or Training). But the young people who have joined the business are already starting to prove they are more than a nod to corporate responsibility.
“It’s definitely having a good impact on our business: we can see the different skills and attitudes young people bring into the workforce, such as innovation and being challenging and questioning,” says Wordsworth. “These are positive skills that people should embrace – they shouldn’t be scared of them.”
Veolia first started to change its approach to employing young people on a small scale around four years ago, to address skills shortages within engineering through apprenticeships, as well as having a graduate scheme and internships, both of which have since been expanded.
“Our biggest business challenge is to have sufficient people for growth and for them to be ready for the jobs we need,” Wordsworth says. “Engineering is one of our biggest challenges, so we decided we needed to grow our own.”
The company was able to draw on that success when it started to look at what differentiates it from its competitors as a business. It can’t always compete on price but, with many local authority clients, youth employment was an area where it could stand out. “We decided we did this well anyway, so we wanted to expand it to work in partnership with our clients and to reap the benefits internally that we have seen from our engineering department.”
A challenging internal target of always having 300 apprentices learning new skills was launched and, working with its in-house training facility Campus Veolia, the company introduced a number of apprenticeships, including schemes for HGV drivers, waste operatives, engineers, mechanical engineers, HR, procurement and horticulture. This year, that target has been surpassed, with the figure standing at 314, just over half of whom are external candidates, predominantly aged under 24.
Alongside this, the Veolia Re-start work experience programme kicked off for Neets (although the company sees this term as having “negative connotations”). This year, 36 young people have done some unpaid work experience as part of the DWP Youth Contract scheme. Of these, half were given some additional, paid, fixed-term work (generally eight weeks) and 11 secured a permanent job.
“It was a challenge when we first started the programme because it’s difficult to get the candidates,” admits Wordsworth. “But we refined the selection process and the type of candidates we were looking for. It really has been a successful programme.”
Mark Heesom, general manager of the Birmingham contract, agrees that engagement levels on the Neets programme can be variable but says: “To balance that, one of these guys now works with us full time and is proving to be absolutely fantastic.”
When it comes to apprentices, however, the experience has been more consistently positive. “Contrary to what you frequently hear in the mass media, the apprentices’ attitude to work is very positive,” he says. “We have had to work with some more than others to instil our expectations of what is acceptable in terms of workplace etiquette and skills, but it has not been a significant issue. If they have got the potential, we will invest in them. We accept there are certain elements that we do need to bring out of them.”
That’s something that chimes with Wordsworth: “In the past, our managers maybe expected everyone to turn up in a shirt and tie but when you are recruiting a young person with no work experience as a waste operative, that may be a bit ambitious. And actually it doesn’t matter because you are going to give them a uniform – so maybe you shouldn’t look at their style of dress and judge them on that.”
Employing young workers: Why other businesses should follow suit
New CIPD research outlines five reasons for organisations needing young workers.
1 Growing talent and workforce planning With an ageing workforce, young employees represent tomorrow’s leaders
2 Unique skills, attitudes and motivation Young people bring a wealth of ideas and challenge existing thinking
3 Workforce diversity Diverse organisations harness different perspectives, skills and experiences
4 Employer brand Employing young people can boost your reputation
5 Cost-effectiveness Investing in and training young people now is cheaper than buying in skills later
Source: The Business Case for Employer Investment in Young People published as part of the Learning to Work initiative. bit.ly/YoungInvest