The Means recently completed an initiative which researched whether employers in Southwark are willing to offer more jobs, apprenticeships and work placements to local residents.

This project, commissioned by Southwark Council, comes at a time when there is increasing evidence that businesses are beginning to understand the benefits of local recruitment and to support initiatives that allow them to recruit locally, whether as part of a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programme, or because there is a business case for it.

As part of this project, The Means looked at the “demand side” and engaged with more than 100 small and medium enterprises from across the borough to identify job vacancies, apprenticeships and work placement opportunities. In addition, the project researched how businesses are currently recruiting, whether they are engaging with existing public sector providers and whether they would consider employing more local people.

The Means brought together the three north Southwark BIDs – Better Bankside, Team London Bridge and Waterloo Quarter BID – to deliver an innovative pilot project around local employment, one of the first ever cross-BID initiatives in the UK. On the strength of the research exercise, the pilot included:

- A new brand – ‘EmploySE1‘
- A ‘Charter Mark’ for Employment Service Providers (ESPs)
- An ‘Employer Accord’ for local businesses
- A website through which employers can advertise opportunities to the ESPs
- A directory of ESPs in the borough

The potential of EmploySE1 was illustrated by the fact that in the course of the pilot, numerous employment opportunities were identified in BID member businesses, and several of these were successfully filled by local residents. The BIDs conducted their own evaluation of the pilot and decided to launch ‘EmploySE1’ as an ongoing project. It was launched by the Leader of Southwark Council – Cllr Peter John – in January 2011.