What you can do

A few months ago M, a regional manager from a large national employer, knocked on our office door. Did we have any refugees using our employment service who would make good recruits for his organisation?

I told him that we did, from time to time, but his organisation's online questionnaire that everyone has to fill in before they are allowed to complete an application form is culturally biased so none of the refugees we work with ever got through it. As a result we'd given up looking at their jobs.

He listened. He said that next time I had a candidate I thought was good, he'd do what he could.

As a result, I recommended someone a couple of months ago, we rearranged the hoops, we cleared sudden unexpected obstacles and a young refugee started work there two weeks ago. He is thrilled to have a job. M tells me they are delighted with his work.

Word of mouth being what it is, this morning we had two young people come to see us wanting jobs in the same organisation. We phoned M to ask whether there were vacancies. There were, he was in the area, he'd drop by. While he was with them, another three young people wanting jobs there came in. He saw them too.

His organisation is too busy to do all the paperwork before Christmas, but he'll move two of them on in January. One needs to improve his English first but has skills that are needed and he will be considered a bit later. A fourth lives further away, so M will contact his colleague in that area. The fifth is sleeping in a car at the moment and determined to have a job so he can pay a deposit on a room. M is shocked and impressed. He'll have a job before Christmas.


Black and white in colour 174