Toolkit for Innovative Recruitment - Innovative HR policy and practice

This project aimed to pilot new ways of making council jobs and training opportunities more accessible to hard-to-reach groups within the local community.

Local authorities in London are major employers in their area, and their potential influence in the local labour market is considerable.  In many cases the council is often seen as an attractive employer by local people.  However, actually getting a job can prove difficult for people who don’t understand the way that council recruitment processes operate, and there is often ignorance about the range of opportunities on offer.  This can lead to disillusionment from potential applicants and a lost opportunity for councils to access people with the skills and potential to contribute to excellent local service delivery.

Key players

LB Havering led the pilot exercise.  The lead within Havering was Mark Porter

Links to other projects

As the pilot in Havering concentrated on offering apprenticeships, this project links closely with the Apprenticeships project.

Results and next steps

The pilot project is now complete, and we hope boroughs will be able to learn from the attached documents what went well, what was not so successful, and get some good ideas about alternative approaches to recruiting from the local community. 

Many of the things Havering did were both innovative and did not cost them money – there are some excellent examples of working well with both private and public sector partners, where all parties benefited.

Capital Ambition is interested in other boroughs’ views, experiences, and alternative suggestions for targeting jobs at local communities – if you have anything to add, please contact Salli Reynolds by clicking on the email address above.

Download the Toolkit for Innovative Recruitment Opens in a new window

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Project id: CA112
Theme: Developing Capability
Status: Complete
Contact: CA-PMO@londoncouncils.gov.uk