Businesses looking to employ people from diverse backgrounds should sign up to Local Employment Partnerships (LEPs), according to a government minister.
Employment Minister Stephen Timms told Personnel Today that small businesses should follow in the footsteps of 619 other firms and use the service to improve workplace diversity.
“It’s in employers’ interests [to join the scheme]. In a tight labour market, to get the people that are needed, employers are increasingly recognising they have to look in communities they might not have looked at in the past,” Timms explained.
“I’d like HR people to recognise and embrace the scale of the opportunity that an approach to greater diversity in recruitment can provide,” he added.
Local Employment Partnerships aim to help the long term unemployed back into work and can provide businesses with potential staff who are ready to work and possess many different skills.
The government has set ambitious targets of helping 100,000 people back into work by 2009 and has already seen 3,250 re-enter work since the launch last April.
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