Matthew Rodger , Chief Growth and Commercial Officer , AMS
in conversation with ...
Alex Stephany , Founder and CEO , Beam
AMS ’ s Chief Growth and Commercial Officer , Matthew Rodger , and Beam Founder and CEO Alex Stephany discuss how to help more disadvantaged people into rewarding careers – and how AMS and Beam will be working together in the future .
What does Beam do and how will AMS be supporting them ?
Alex Stephany ( AS ): Beam is a new way to help some of the most disadvantaged people in the UK into stable jobs at great employers . Our platform uses crowdfunding to remove the financial barriers people face , from training to tools or even childcare .
Donations come from generous strangers who also leave messages of encouragement through the platform . We then support each person into a stable job with one of our amazing employer partners – from household brands such as Bupa and Ocado to scale-ups such as Getir and Zapp .
And our model works : our beneficiaries successfully start work 80 % of the time , making us one of the most effective employment programmes for hard-to-help people in the UK .
So who are the hundreds of people we work with at Beam ? Well everyone is different , but we are focused on working with people who live in homeless hostels or women ’ s refuges , having been victims of domestic violence . Despite these challenges , we hear time and again the great contributions they make as employees .
Matthew Rodger ( MR ): I ’ m a member of AMS ’ s board and the executive sponsor for social mobility , which is becoming a significant focus for the organisation . I first met Alex a number of years ago at The Up Group ’ s Digital Masters Awards , where he was giving the keynote speech . I was blown away by what Alex and Beam were doing and we ’ ve since worked to formulate a way we could work together .
AMS hires 2,000 people each year and we ’ d like to include support for Beam as part of our internal onboarding process . AMS will give each new joiner a Beam gift card , which is a prepaid donation they can put towards a homeless jobseeker on Beam ’ s website . The AMS board and I are extremely supportive of this and hope that it has a direct impact on social mobility .
AS : Beam is a relatively young organisation . Working with AMS employees alone should help us to double the number of people we support . Every penny donated on Beam ’ s platform funds financial barriers for people .
AMS employees will then be able to choose who receives their gift card donation , or let Beam allocate it to the campaign that needs it most urgently . The most inspiring part is that each new AMS employee will be able to follow the journey of the person they ’ ve supported , receiving email updates on their progress .
AMS will also be able to track the total impact of this partnership with a personalised impact page on Beam ’ s website , which will be updated in real time .
With the support of other values-driven businesses , we can help many more people still .
A job is so much more than just a salary . It ’ s about purpose , dignity , self-respect and being a role model for your children
Why is social mobility important to you ?
MR : Alex and Beam support people in extreme circumstances , but social mobility comes in many different forms . Some people need encouragement to believe they can succeed or develop their livelihoods in ways they hadn ’ t thought about . I was brought up in a council house on the outskirts of Glasgow and was lucky to have two loving , supportive parents , but I was pre-conditioned to think that if you wanted to get on in life , you had to get out of education and into employment as quickly as possible .
Over recent years , I ’ ve thought more and more about what would have happened had that supportive environment not been there . What if I hadn ’ t been pre-conditioned to get into work so quickly ? There are millions of talented people out there that have had a start in life that doesn ’ t support them to think they can achieve . How can we , as a society , create more interventions and opportunities to allow these people into a welcoming and supportive workplace ?
AS : My role models have always been people who have created social impact in their community rather than big business leaders . After working in technology for a number of years , I reached a point in my career where I wanted to use my skills to achieve positive change at scale .
I ’ ve also lived most of my life in London and homelessness is tragically present ; not only are there those sleeping rough , but also thousands in temporary accommodation . These are terrible places to live your life , especially for children of whom more than 120,000 have no permanent home . The typical user of our service is a single mother in a women ’ s refuge who has been the victim of domestic abuse .
A job is so much more than just a salary . It ’ s about purpose , dignity , selfrespect and being a role model for your children . It ’ s very gratifying to think of the multiplying effect of Beam on young people .
How can business leaders create change ?
AS : Everyone in the world is aware of the challenges we have , from climate change to widening inequality . As a society , we ’ ve written off a lot of people for a long time . This is terrible for individuals , but also for economies and society . There are lots of talented people who haven ’ t had the same opportunities in life as the rest of us to nurture their natural talents .
Businesses are highly influential and can make changes rapidly , so it makes sense that they should step up to the challenge . That could be funding homeless people through Beam , like AMS does . Or it could be hiring people facing social disadvantage into roles that companies need to fill – and we ’ ve placed people into so many roles from caring to driving to security , hospitality , retail and more .
As leaders , we need to look beyond CVs and experience if we want to see real change at scale . In the process , businesses can access new talent and show their employees that they want to be a positive force in the world .
MR : There are myriad things business leaders can point their attention to , but resources and time are finite . I ’ m under no illusion that they ’ ll have to pick and choose where they are going to make a contribution .
One thing is for sure – people entering the workforce today expect organisations to contribute . They will navigate towards businesses that place social mobility , diversity and inclusion , and ESG at their heart . From a social mobility perspective , there are huge shortages of talent labour in many areas of business . What leaders can do is open up pools of talent that they might not have considered in the past .
Clare Johnston , CEO and Founder , The Up Group
Four years ago , we announced that Beam would be the Digital Masters Awards first charity partner . We wanted to mobilise our ecosystem for an even greater purpose and collaborate with a charity that aligns with The Up Group . We quickly realised what a truly inspiring and worthy charity Beam was to work with . Not only are they a breakout tech-for-good company , but their whole purpose is to provide a crowdfunding platform to train homeless people and enable them to secure jobs at reputable companies .
I am proud to say that we have fully integrated Beam into our search process and that The Up Group donates £ 100 for every placement we make . We have had great feedback from our clients and candidates who have commented on how impactful our partnership is , through creating a positive social impact and improving the employment processes for people who have more barriers to overcome .