The launch of the Jobs Foundation Employer Taskforce

Some of the biggest businesses across the UK have united to tackle Britain’s worklessness crisis, bringing the private sector together to provide a solution on how to move people across the UK from inactivity into employment.

AXA, BT, Shell, Marks & Spencer and NatWest are amongst a group of nearly 30 leading companies that have come together to form the Jobs Foundation’s Employer Taskforce. This initiative, driven by a recognition amongst Britain’s biggest employers that the scale of the crisis demands collective action, will put businesses at the heart of the solution to get Britain working.

This comes as Work and Pensions Secretary, Pat McFadden, announced in a keynote address this week that it is the Government’s ambition to transform Britain from a “welfare state to a working state”.

The Employer Taskforce, chaired by Octavius Black CBE, will bring together companies that have spent years developing effective approaches to recruiting and retaining people who face barriers getting into work, looking at how they recruit and retain individuals and building this into a framework for other businesses to follow.

This initiative will culminate with the launch of the Jobs Foundation Pledge this Autumn: a practical framework to give businesses across the country the tools and knowledge to hire people currently locked out of the labour market, including the long-term sick and young unemployed.

Black said:

“’The Jobs Foundation Pledge is being designed with the UK’s pioneering employers – both large and small – to provide a national beacon for companies who want to get workless people into meaningful work. As a result, companies will be able to fill their skills shortage, the economy will grow and more people will lead healthier, fulfilling lives.”

Amanda Vaughn, Chief People Officer at AXA UK & Ireland said: 

“Being part of programmes like this as well as the Government’s Keep Britain Working Review allows us to help unlock opportunities for people of all backgrounds.”

As McFadden noted on Tuesday, the biggest issues facing our welfare system are the challenges of youth unemployment and the growing number of people on long term sickness benefits, which has risen by nearly 700,000 since COVID. The total rise in inactivity and unemployment is equivalent to losing the entire working population of Leeds, Manchester, Liverpool and Edinburgh combined.

Any mission to move people from inactivity or welfare into employment will require businesses to work together at scale on recruiting from welfare or inactivity. The Jobs Foundation Pledge will help solve the current worklessness crisis by enabling businesses to better recruit and train people from these groups. 

The Government’s new hiring bonuses and apprenticeship reforms, including £2,000 bonuses for SMEs taking on young apprentices, create a direct commercial incentive for businesses to hire. The Jobs Foundation Pledge is designed to help companies take advantage of these incentives while doing so responsibly and effectively.

As well as learning from general best practices, the Pledge will include learnings from the M&S’ Marks & Start programme, Pret’s Rising Stars scheme, and Greene King’s Supported Internships programme, which are specifically targeted at supporting various disadvantaged groups into work.

This builds on the Jobs Foundation’s own research, including Two Million Jobs and Ladders of Opportunity, which identified best practice in hiring, training and retaining people who face barriers getting into work. They found that this expertise, while abundant, remains frustratingly fragmented across British business.

Chief People Officer of Marks & Spencer, Hayley Tatum MBE said:

“Businesses across the country have the knowledge and insight on how to successfully support people into work. If we are to do this at scale across the country, it’s vital that businesses can learn from their peers about what works. We’re delighted to be working with the Jobs Foundation on leading this mission.”

The Jobs Foundation is an independent charity set up to champion the role of business as a force for good. Founded by Georgiana Bristol and Lord Matthew Elliott in 2023, the charity is backed by nearly 1,500 businesses as part of its Business Council. 

The Jobs Foundation’s CEO, Georgiana Bristol said:

“A good job is the number one thing that we can give people to help them live a prosperous and happy life. The expertise to give more people that opportunity already exists within British business, but right now it isn’t being shared, and it isn’t being scaled. We can’t wait to change that through the Jobs Foundation Pledge.”