A North-East resident for almost 35 years, Ian Coull has worked extensively in the Transport sector, becoming a senior manager working in people development and recruitment. A career change some 15 years ago brought him into delivering and managing funded skills and business growth projects across Tyne and Wear, Durham, Tees Valley and Northumberland.
He moved over to manage two large-scale ESF employability projects where the partnerships involved were successful in supporting over 4,000 out of work people – with over half of these leaving into jobs, education or training.
Given his experience of supporting both employers and people, Ian has recently been appointed as Employer Engagement Coordinator, a new post supported by the North of Tyne Combined Authority as part of a partnership project designed to support both employer recruitment and the identification of people to fill vacancies.
Here, Ian gives an insight into his background and the role:
Why is Employer Engagement important in the North East?
On one hand, we had many employers in the North East telling us they were finding it hard to recruit and that vacancies remain unfilled for a considerable time, and on the other we knew there were people looking for jobs that just need some support and skills updates to get them work ready. The North of Tyne Combined Authority, acting with Northumberland County Council and the local authorities in Newcastle and North Tyneside, developed a project to identify where employability providers – from DWP to small voluntary sector organisations – can network together to support the people side, while employers are supported by a specialist Engagement Coordinator, like me, who can work with them to look at the best fit for their vacancies, retention and skills. There are Employer Engagement Coordinators in each of the three North of Tyne authorities, and my remit is solely Northumberland.
What do you bring to the post?
Having had many years supporting and managing recruitment activities in the Transport sector – mainly local bus services but also some national roles with the Go-Ahead Group, I’ve had to keep recruitment momentum in an industry with high staff turnover and work innovately to improve staff development opportunities and job conditions, leading to much higher retention. Later, through delivery and management of programmes including Business Link, Investment for Growth and Business Northumberland, I supported organisations looking to start up and grow businesses using a diagnostic approach to appreciate their priorities. Much of this included recruitment, retention and skills development support.
Managing large-scale employability projects has given me a wider perspective on the issues facing people who, for many reasons, find it difficult to enter work. I’m finding that having supported employers and people has given me a foot in both camps, and an understanding from both perspectives is helping me provide a wide range of solutions across Northumberland.
What are the benefits your services provide for employers?
To put it simply, I’m there to employers resolve any key business issue involving people that may be restricting their growth, affecting their revenue and creating stresses within the workforce. This often starts with supporting current recruitment activity as this is often the initial priority, through alternative means to the traditional and often costly online recruitment or agencies, although both may still have a place in recruitment planning. Engaging with the Employability Network for posting vacancies has been productive to date and will usually form part of the solution, as will a review of how or if the business posts vacancies directly online or through social media and the appropriateness of their recruitment processes and whether these may exclude some qualified applicants.
After dealing with the priorities, I can analyse the wider company internal processes and offer to staff and how that is publicly displayed. As an example, if there are recurring recruitment issues, I’ll help drill down the reasons for this to support retention and save the downtime associated with leavers. I can look at policies and suggest changes to conditions to support a more engaged and therefore productive workforce and will also help identify skills needs and find solutions for these, and whether this could be funded.
It’s not only businesses currently trading in Northumberland who can benefit – Advance Northumberland have a great track record in bringing inward investment to the County, and my role is embedded in this activity to ensure that potential investors have confidence that their staffing and skills needs can be supported once based here.
You mentioned improving recruitment processes to ensure certain candidates aren’t excluded – what does this mean?
Although many businesses are enlightened and actively promote vacancies to wider groups of candidates, for example those with physical or mental health issues or not IT literate, they may not think through the process of how their jobs are advertised, how applications are submitted and even how and where interviews take place. As part of my review of this I’ll suggest improvements to remove some of these barriers – for example removing the need for online applications only, organising walking interviews or quiet rooms – anything to get the best out of some very good candidates who may otherwise have slipped through their net.
Are there any other benefits to employers when engaging with you?
As well as the benefits of offering direct solutions to their recruitment, retention and skills priorities, I’m also using the engagement meetings to gather intelligence on a wide range of people and skills issues, which are then analysed quarterly to look at recurring themes and trends. This may be used to provide or improve, for example, local skills offers where needs have been identified but the provision is poor or non-existent. Although longer term, this will give businesses a platform to support their growth and sustainability through more appropriate staff training and development.
When does the project end, and are you able to visit businesses more than once?
At the moment, the full Employment Partnerships project – including my role – ends in March 2025. However, the benefits of this approach have already been seen and, funding permitted, I’d hope to see continuity well beyond that date.
Until then, I can work with organisations as many times as is practicable, and where I’ve identified processes and procedures improvement to support retention and skills, I’m actively encouraging businesses to do this. And with it being a funded project there is no charge to the business for my time spent in supporting them.
How do employers get in touch with you?
You can get in touch with me via my email: ian.coull@advancenorthumberland.co.uk
Or phone me on 07811 133267
