Catalyst Issue 10 | Page 15

Matthew Rodger , Chief Commercial and Growth Officer at AMS , opened the conversation by sharing his personal story of growing up in a council house in Glasgow , where he thought that “ university was for posh kids ” and felt “ an obligation to earn a living as quickly as possible ”.
Despite this , the support and care of his family meant that Rodger grew up believing he could achieve whatever he wanted and that his chances in life were the same as anyone else ’ s . But the more he worked on AMS ’ s social mobility agenda , the more questions he found .
“ What if I didn ’ t have a loving upbringing ? What if I believed I had no chance and that society was conspiring against me ? That ’ s what we ’ re here to talk about today : the millions of talented and deserving people who believe they have no chance , or who are unwittingly being put into an environment which lessens their chance at success ,” he said .
The discussion was then opened up to the panel – moderated by AMS Strategic Diversity and Inclusion Advisor Tim Campbell – who asked speakers what social mobility meant to them .
Emma Walker is Regional Manager Scotland at social enterprise Auticon , which helps place autistic people in permanent IT roles . She highlighted the fact that only 16 % of adults with autism are in full-time work , despite 77 % wanting to be . For Walker – whose eldest son has autism – social mobility is about allowing people to be themselves and acknowledging that everyone has strengths . “ Neurodiversity shouldn ’ t be scary . It ’ s about looking at it as an ability , not a disability ,” she said .
James Fellowes , Co-founder of Bridge of Hope , agreed that the biggest challenge for social mobility is actually getting disadvantaged people into jobs .
“ Charities are very good at getting people job-ready , but they don ’ t actually get them into work . The biggest form of social mobility is actually putting them into a job – that ’ s the missing link . It ’ s creating a bridge between charities who get people ready to work and the employers who have the jobs ,” he said .
Bridge of Hope focuses on matching people who have been to prison with employers , with more than 65,000 candidates already finding support .
Chance Bleu-Montgomery , Partners Support Manager at Prosper 4 Group ( part of Bridge of Hope ), has a different take . As an ex-offender himself ( although he prefers the term ‘ returning citizen ’) he believes that “ social mobility is everything ”.
After an abusive childhood , Bleu-Montgomery ended up in prison aged 16 , followed by a spell in a mental health hospital . Following the death of his sister , his life unravelled and he found himself back in prison .
“ I sat down and asked myself ‘ do you like who you are ?’ and the answer was a solid ‘ no ’. I wasn ’ t willing to live with myself , so I had to change . I spent four years dealing with my childhood trauma , five years at the Open University giving myself the education I never had , and years on personal development .
“ After years of hard work , I sat down on my bed and cried tears of joy . I felt free for the first time in my life . There was no more anger . I was heaving with forgiveness and self-respect . I ’ d become the person I ’ d always meant to be ,” he said .
For Bleu-Montgomery , the way we perceive returning citizens and other disadvantaged people needs to change . It ’ s not just about helping them – it ’ s about including them .
“ Allowing people to feel included is so important . When people say ‘ we need to give people a second chance ’, I always say ‘ how do you know they had a first one ?’. I didn ’ t have a first chance . This is my first chance and I ’ ve taken it with both hands ,” he added .
So what practical changes can organisations make to create more inclusive talent pipelines ?
For Walker , changes can be both big and small . Little adjustments such as allowing flexible working hours so that people with autism can travel outside of rush hours , providing a dedicated desk space instead of hotdesking and offering noise-cancelling headphones can make a huge difference to how individuals feel at work .
However , the biggest change needs to be in mentality . Many of the traditional ways we attract talent provide barriers to neurodivergent candidates . Job descriptions often have ambiguous terms such as ‘ good team player ’, which makes candidates deselect themselves .
Screening processes often work against neurodiverse people , who may have gaps in their CV due to needing a break from work or moving jobs as a result of unsupportive employers . They may also find interview processes uncomfortable or challenging , while recruiters are often unsure of how to deal with neurodiverse candidates .
“ Think about equality of opportunity , not equality of treatment ,” Walker said . “ Recruiters often think that treating everyone equally is the fair approach , but really it ’ s about giving people an equal opportunity to showcase their skills .”
Fellowes emphasised the business benefits hiring more diverse candidates brings – and not just from a corporate and social responsibility perspective .
“ There has been a ton of research that compares overlooked groups such as ex-offenders with ‘ normal ’ employees , and pretty much every metric shows that the former group beat the latter . They work harder and make others in your team work harder . And they don ’ t leave . They have grit and perseverance . Forget the social responsibility angle ; why are you not proactively hiring from this talent pool when they improve your business ?” he asked .
For Bleu-Montgomery , engaging effectively with returning citizens is about understanding the person , not the persona . He advised employers to ask candidates why they ended up in prison and to think about this . What was their childhood like ? What support systems and opportunities had they had previously ?
“ When I mentor returning citizens , I ask them ‘ what was your dream job ?’ Not one says ‘ drug dealer or thief ’. These are people who want to be something else , but the opportunities are not open to them in the prosocial world . In the antisocial world , they are entrepreneurs and do what is available ,” he said .
“ When we match these people and bring them into workplaces , to them it ’ s not just a job ; it ’ s a new start . It ’ s an opportunity to be the person they were always meant to be and to build a network of support around that ,” he concluded .

Catalyst AMS In Conversation

C

Exploring hidden

talent and untapped potential

Matthew Rodger , Chief Commercial and Growth Officer , AMS

James Fellowes , Co-founder , Bridge of Hope

Emma Walker , Regional Manager Scotland , Auticon

Chance Bleu- Montgomery , Partners Support Manager , Prosper 4 Group

Melanie Barnett , Managing Director , Client Services PSR UK & Ireland

Tim Campbell , Strategic Diversity and Inclusion Advisor , AMS

Play video

How can talent leaders create a fairer , more inclusive recruiting experience while also tapping into the strengths of individuals who are often excluded from our workforce ?

This was the theme of AMS ’ s latest roundtable , Social mobility : the talent pool , hidden talent and untapped potential , which brought together business leaders and social mobility experts with first-hand experience of the challenges many people face in building their careers .

Matthew Rodger , Chief Commercial and Growth Officer at AMS , opened the conversation by sharing his personal story of growing up in a council house in Glasgow , where he thought that “ university was for posh kids ” and felt “ an obligation to earn a living as quickly as possible ”.

Despite this , the support and care of his family meant that Rodger grew up believing he could achieve whatever he wanted and that his chances in life were the same as anyone else ’ s . But the more he worked on AMS ’ s social mobility agenda , the more questions he found .
“ What if I didn ’ t have a loving upbringing ? What if I believed I had no chance and that society was conspiring against me ? That ’ s what we ’ re here to talk about today : the millions of talented and deserving people who believe they have no chance , or who are unwittingly being put into an environment which lessens their chance at success ,” he said .

The impact of social mobility

The discussion was then opened up to the panel – moderated by AMS Strategic Diversity and Inclusion Advisor Tim Campbell – who asked speakers what social mobility meant to them .
Emma Walker is Regional Manager Scotland at social enterprise Auticon , which helps place autistic people in permanent IT roles . She highlighted the fact that only 16 % of adults with autism are in full-time work , despite 77 % wanting to be . For Walker – whose eldest son has autism – social mobility is about allowing people to be themselves and acknowledging that everyone has strengths . “ Neurodiversity shouldn ’ t be scary . It ’ s about looking at it as an ability , not a disability ,” she said .
James Fellowes , Co-founder of Bridge of Hope , agreed that the biggest challenge for social mobility is actually getting disadvantaged people into jobs .

Allowing people to feel included is so important . When people say ‘ we need to give people a second chance ’, I always say ‘ how do you know they had a first one ?’

Chance Bleu-Montgomery , Prosper 4 Group

“ Charities are very good at getting people job-ready , but they don ’ t actually get them into work . The biggest form of social mobility is actually putting them into a job – that ’ s the missing link . It ’ s creating a bridge between charities who get people ready to work and the employers who have the jobs ,” he said .
Bridge of Hope focuses on matching people who have been to prison with employers , with more than 65,000 candidates already finding support .

First chances , not second

Chance Bleu-Montgomery , Partners Support Manager at Prosper 4 Group ( part of Bridge of Hope ), has a different take . As an ex-offender himself ( although he prefers the term ‘ returning citizen ’) he believes that “ social mobility is everything ”.
After an abusive childhood , Bleu-Montgomery ended up in prison aged 16 , followed by a spell in a mental health hospital . Following the death of his sister , his life unravelled and he found himself back in prison .
“ I sat down and asked myself ‘ do you like who you are ?’ and the answer was a solid ‘ no ’. I wasn ’ t willing to live with myself , so I had to change . I spent four years dealing with my childhood trauma , five years at the Open University giving myself the education I never had , and years on personal development .
“ After years of hard work , I sat down on my bed and cried tears of joy . I felt free for the first time in my life . There was no more anger . I was heaving with forgiveness and self-respect . I ’ d become the person I ’ d always meant to be ,” he said .
For Bleu-Montgomery , the way we perceive returning citizens and other disadvantaged people needs to change . It ’ s not just about helping them – it ’ s about including them .
“ Allowing people to feel included is so important . When people say ‘ we need to give people a second chance ’, I always say ‘ how do you know they had a first one ?’. I didn ’ t have a first chance . This is my first chance and I ’ ve taken it with both hands ,” he added .

Neurodiversity shouldn ’ t be scary . It ’ s about looking at it as an ability , not a disability Emma Walker , Auticon

Inclusive talent programmes

So what practical changes can organisations make to create more inclusive talent pipelines ?
For Walker , changes can be both big and small . Little adjustments such as allowing flexible working hours so that people with autism can travel outside of rush hours , providing a dedicated desk space instead of hotdesking and offering noise-cancelling headphones can make a huge difference to how individuals feel at work .
However , the biggest change needs to be in mentality . Many of the traditional ways we attract talent provide barriers to neurodivergent candidates . Job descriptions often have ambiguous terms such as ‘ good team player ’, which makes candidates deselect themselves .
Screening processes often work against neurodiverse people , who may have gaps in their CV due to needing a break from work or moving jobs as a result of unsupportive employers . They may also find interview processes uncomfortable or challenging , while recruiters are often unsure of how to deal with neurodiverse candidates .
“ Think about equality of opportunity , not equality of treatment ,” Walker said . “ Recruiters often think that treating everyone equally is the fair approach , but really it ’ s about giving people an equal opportunity to showcase their skills .”
Fellowes emphasised the business benefits hiring more diverse candidates brings – and not just from a corporate and social responsibility perspective .
“ There has been a ton of research that compares overlooked groups such as ex-offenders with ‘ normal ’ employees , and pretty much every metric shows that the former group beat the latter . They work harder and make others in your team work harder . And they don ’ t leave . They have grit and perseverance . Forget the social responsibility angle ; why are you not proactively hiring from this talent pool when they improve your business ?” he asked .
For Bleu-Montgomery , engaging effectively with returning citizens is about understanding the person , not the persona . He advised employers to ask candidates why they ended up in prison and to think about this . What was their childhood like ? What support systems and opportunities had they had previously ?
“ When I mentor returning citizens , I ask them ‘ what was your dream job ?’ Not one says ‘ drug dealer or thief ’. These are people who want to be something else , but the opportunities are not open to them in the prosocial world . In the antisocial world , they are entrepreneurs and do what is available ,” he said .
“ When we match these people and bring them into workplaces , to them it ’ s not just a job ; it ’ s a new start . It ’ s an opportunity to be the person they were always meant to be and to build a network of support around that ,” he concluded .

The view from AMS : Melanie Barnett , Managing Director , Client Services PSR , UK & Ireland

In a world of increasing inequality , helping to improve social mobility is hugely important . At AMS , we believe that everyone , irrespective of their background , should be given the opportunity to achieve their full potential . Unfortunately , the UK has one of the poorest rates of social mobility in the world . This means that people born into low-income families , regardless of their talent or hard work , do not have the same access to opportunities as those born into more privileged circumstances .

Social mobility is a key focus for both AMS and , specifically , Public Sector Resourcing ( PSR ) as we continue to support central government with its social mobility agenda . That ’ s why working in partnership with Auticon and Bridge of Hope helps us unlock talent beyond that of traditional routes to market , creating a fairer and more inclusive workforce .