Francesca Brosan discusses three ways employers can make work a more enjoyable experience for everyone
A few weeks ago, I had an exhilarating morning sitting next to the minister of state for employment, Damian Hinds, and talking with him and a room full of HR directors about work.
Yes, I said ‘exhilarating’. It’s not just because I love my job – it was exciting because it’s always interesting to hear first-hand from the government what it is doing to improve the lives of working people. And, no matter what your politics, most governments in western Europe still try to do the best thing – you just may not agree with what that is.
The energy, commitment and desire to help that emanated from the group I was with was palpable. Representatives from some of the UK’s, and the world’s, biggest employers were there: supermarkets, hotel chains, fast-food restaurants. Some of the companies that employ some of the cleverest people on the planet were also there, including consultancies, universities and law firms. Some of the employers – such as non-profits, charities and membership organisations – focus their efforts on helping others. It was a rich mix, but they all had several things in common.
First, there was broad agreement on the need for role models. Whether you are trying to get young people into employment, ex-offenders into work, or a more diverse gender and ethnic representation on boards, people find it much more helpful if you can show them someone who’s made a success of it. It’s a bit like the classic case study – or, for those of us raised on Blue Peter, a ‘here’s one I made earlier’ – an example of what you are talking about made flesh. Simply put, we need more role models, and we need to make more of them.
An HR director from Sweden noted that mothers who are held up as ‘role models’ in the UK are often those who don’t work, and as a working mother she’d felt pressure that she wasn’t a ‘proper mother’, and didn’t care enough about her children. She’d found herself apologising for having to go to work.
But in Sweden, she said, the question would have been: why aren’t you working? Having been on the receiving end of such raised eyebrows myself, this in my view is the right question. Non-working husbands are very rare (still). But a certain section of women in society are perpetuating the myth that success is having married someone rich enough for you not to need to work. Her point was that, to get more women into senior roles in all walks of life, we need to have the right role models. I couldn’t agree more.
Second, participants agreed on the importance of giving people work experience. The minister is not in favour of unpaid internships and there are horror stories from all types of companies that should know better – but the simple truth is that the best way to get a job is by having a job.
Giving work experience to people is one of the best ways to help people when you can’t actually give them a job. A month working on Vogue can set you up for further opportunities in publishing. A month in an ad agency might help you work out just which bit of the business is most suited to your talents. Before you take a first step into an industry, it’s really hard to understand the differences between roles, and what each one involves – let alone which of them might suit you. A positive work experience is like a talisman you can carry with you into the world of work.
Third, there was talk of the need to improve workers’ digital and social skills. From the young people entering the workforce to the older people who are still in it but didn’t grow up with computers, everyone needs to be able to interact with devices. And although young people have obviously grown up in the digital world, and you can teach them to make fast food relatively easily, teaching them to interact with customers well is another thing. In fact, older people are better at it, which is why they tend to be favoured as drivers for home grocery deliveries. They like interacting with people, having long ago done away with any teenage angst. Soft skills are probably the most valuable ones you can learn from work experience.
Several of the big employers in the room talked about the initiatives they were running to train their staff, both young and old, and were keen to share that training with people who were not employees but who might need it – which was extremely encouraging. Here was a room full of people who want to help other people, and see employment and skills as a way to do so – about as far away from the unscrupulous portrayal of some businesses by some media outlets as you can get. It’s time more of us shouted about the positive impact that work can have on our communities.
Francesca Brosan is chairman and co-founder of Omobono, a global creative and technology agency