Rise Up!

What I love about Growing Talent‘s ‘Getting to know you’ you events for employers and applicants is the level playing field it creates and the visible change I can see and know applicants feel by the end of the four hours.

Yesterday saw Adil, Alex, Adrian, Chris, Emmanuel, Gerald, Jay, Jayesh, Karen, Matt, Mercy, Ola and Troy walk into the room a little unsure about what lay ahead.

And who can blame them?

Growing Talent is different – no cvs, no formal job interviews – instead we build connection between applicants and employers BEFORE the recruitment stage.

My goodness, how their confidence rose as the morning went on.

It was only fair to put our awesome employers under pressure with a bit of public speaking first, sharing their journey, what went right – and wrong, how they dealt with that, what they currently do and top tips to impress any employer.

Mark BaxterStorey, Gemma Portico, Gina and David CIS Security Limited, Daisy and Lois SPS UK & Ireland, Elliott and Michael ISS A/S were superstars in sharing their knowledge.

After a Q&A session, I rudely evicted the employers for the room to return an hour or so later.

The applicants and I had a discussion on why they personally aren’t working, what is missing for them and what they need most. You won’t be surprised to hear lack of self-confidence was a major theme and an area Growing Talent was designed to build.

The next pressure hit was how to improve London in our London Challenge?

The ideas flowed. These were whittled down to a combination of ideas that could work. In small groups, our awesome applicants had around 45minutes to come up with a plan. What was their idea, why was it needed, who would benefit and how could it be developed.

I don’t know many managers who would be up for this sort of challenge with so little time for prep – do you?

The employers returned to watch the London challenge ideas and give some feedback. Joining them was David #NGBailey

Confidence was rising. Not surprising when speaking about something we’re passionate about. If only all humans could passionately believe in themselves – they would be unstoppable!

After networking over refreshments with the employers, the applicants were left to decide if they would return for the next stage on 14 April.

Check back to find out who does!

Thanks to everyone behind the scenes who made this happen including the magician of getting stuff done Adrienne Simpson the awesome reception and security team (with Alex Portico and Tina CIS Security Limited – graduates of Growing Talent) greeting the new applicants with huge smiles of encouragement. 👏 👏 👏

Special shout out to Mark and the team at hashtag#NGBailey who always shift the room around for me 👏 👏 👏

Thanks also to our observers Adam Bushell, Simon and Becky 👏 👏 👏

Lastly to the #JobCentrePlus teams across London who now have to process fares etc – more paperwork! Thank you David Steeds for always having a plan! 👏 👏 👏