Small business must look to jobless for new staff, says Griggs

Published on Monday 14 July 2008 21:47

SMALL businesses should take on more unemployed people from the government's New Deal programme, according to one of Scotland's leading business figures.

Russell Griggs, chairman of private training provider A4e and head of the CBI's small business council, maintained that companies had benefited from the original New Deal scheme, introduced by Gordon Brown as chancellor in 1998.

And Griggs claims that the up-dated Flexible New Deal (FND) – which the department for work and pensions (DWP) will introduce next year – offers even more opportunities for small businesses to benefit.

Griggs told The Scotsman that small businesses need to consider the FND programme as a way of taking on new people in the changing labour market.

"It's not something that we talk about regularly around the dinner table," Griggs said. "It's not one of the top-ten issues. But everybody says they have skills shortages.

"If your labour market is changing and becoming more diverse – from immigration or from age – then you need to look at your recruitment policies but also at whether you need to change the culture within your workplace."

His company says it had helped 474 people back into work through the New Deal programme in the past year and currently has about 150 people on the scheme.

Griggs said the government's FND means Scotland will be split up into larger areas.

Edinburgh, for example, will be coupled with the south of Scotland, while the Highlands will be paired with Glasgow. He said bigger contracts for training providers should increase help for job-seekers in rural areas.

"DWP has made it clear that one of the challenges is not to let the myriad of smaller sub-contractors suffer," Griggs said.

"We will do that by working with partners, including smaller training firms and people in the third sector (charities and voluntary bodies]. It's about putting together a big partnership – we couldn't deliver it all ourselves."

Griggs, a former executive director of Scottish Enterprise, added: "Part of the challenge for us now is to get down into the small and medium-sized enterprises.

"That will happen as we look for key training partners. One of the key criteria will be how potential partners are engaged with local businesses."

The success of the New Deal programme could be judged on how far and wide it has spread, Griggs said.

"I think New Deal has been a success because governments around the world are asking companies to take the New Deal model and put it into their country," he explained. "That's what we've done in Israel, Germany, Australia and South Africa. I think the move to Flexible New Deal is the next step on, taking people off state benefits."

Griggs said: "More and more big employers now understand they have a 'corporate social responsibility' and so they want to take a percentage of their workforce from the unemployment register.

"Things like the Commonwealth Games, the new aircraft carriers and the M74 extension will give us opportunities to work with big employers. When we get down to Dumfries & Galloway, where there are fewer big employers, my guess would be that we'll be looking at forestry. You have to look at where people are looking for labour."