ECL and the East of England Co-op: changing lives through a commitment to Inclusive Employment
The East of England Co-op is the largest independent retailer operating in the East of England. Providing food stores and specialist services, such as funerals, security, travel and petrol filling stations to communities across Essex, Suffolk, Norfolk and Cambridgeshire.
As a co-operative business, it prides itself on representing fairness for its members and customers. This community-centred approach makes it the ideal partner for ECL’s Inclusive Employment initiative, which supports people with learning disabilities and/or autism to achieve their ambitions of meaningful, paid employment.
As part of its focus on helping the communities in the areas it serves, the East of England Co-op was looking for opportunities to enhance its community partnerships.
It was fortuitous timing that ECL reached out regarding Inclusive Employment at a time when the company was on the lookout for organisations to work with to offer meaningful employment to local people who face obstacles to gaining paid employment.
The dynamic partnership began In July 2022 and 19 months on, both organisations are successfully helping people in Essex with learning disabilities and/or autism achieve their ambitions of paid employment.
From the outset, the East of England Co-op was 100 percent committed to being a disability confident employer and had already invested heavily in improving its recruitment processes to make them more accessible to people from all backgrounds, including those who are neurodiverse or live with learning disabilities.
Their view is that skills can be taught but a good attitude and willingness to work can’t. This is a view that lends itself well to Inclusive Employment. The East of England Co-op has replaced the ‘normal’ process of submitting a CV with a values-based questionnaire and has replaced interviews for entry-level jobs with ‘informal chats’ and work trials to make it less stressful and give applicants a fairer chance. All of these changes make the process more accessible to people that wouldn’t have the confidence to apply via a more traditional application process.
The relationship works seamlessly. ECL and the East of England Co-op communicate daily regarding available roles. ECL suggests candidates that they think are suitable matches and advises the local hiring manager of any adjustments required to accommodate the candidate. The decision of who to appoint still lies with the hiring manager but they know what to expect in advance. The ECL Inclusive Employment team provide any support needed through the interview process. The team also then support the successful candidate through the induction and training period and provide a job coach, who is on hand for as long as is needed to get the employee settled into the role.
It’s been brilliant, we had hired our first candidate from ECL within one month of the start of the partnership.
The fact that 70% of the candidates put forward have achieved permanent paid employment is testament to the quality of candidates provided by ECL, and how easy our new simplified recruitment process is to navigate.
We’ve had an 80% success rate in retaining the employees we’ve appointed from ECL, we’ve had no employment issues and some of the employees have now been with us a year or longer.
ECL have been fantastic. They are extremely helpful and attentive to any situation that arises. Their support transcends that of which I have seen from other programs and they are market leading in my opinion.
One of the successful candidates is Zach Taylor-McCann who works as a Customer Service Assistant at one of the East of England Co-op’s Colchester stores.
Branch Manager, Oliver Buckland was looking for a customer service assistant to help with stock management and keeping the shop floor clean and accessible for customers.
ECL’s Inclusive Employment team approached the company about a position for Zach, who was looking for paid employment.
Oliver said: “When Zach applied, I had a conversation with Beth Durling, Inclusive Employment Team Manager at ECL who was supporting him to find employment.
“We had an interview together, in which Zach did really well, and we decided to offer him the position.
Beth and the Inclusive Employment team has supported Zach in his training to help him become familiar with the role.
Oliver continued: “During his first few weeks we realised that working a full day on a Sunday was a bit overwhelming for Zach, so we came up with a solution to split his hours over two days to make it more manageable for him. He now works a few hours on Sundays and Wednesday evenings and this works really well for him.
“In the early days we were always in contact with ECL, and they worked closely with us if we had any issues and worked with us to come-up with ways around them. Things have been really smooth and easy from our side.
“It’s been a huge success for us. Zach is doing really well, he’s a great asset to the team. He’s doing so well that he no longer needs as much support from Beth and now only meets with the ECL team every couple of weeks to check in and address any needs or concerns that may arise.”
Working has given me a lot of confidence and my ECL Job Coach Beth’s support has helped me to achieve that. Before I was nervous and shy and quite scared to even go out of my front door sometimes, but ever since I’ve had the job I’ve come on leaps and bounds.
Zach is thoroughly enjoying working life. His favourite aspect of the job is helping the customers and colleagues that he interacts with daily.
Oliver went on to say: “We would encourage employers to consider Inclusive Employment, although it might be daunting for some people, ECL has made it really easy and supportive.”
Our collaboration with the EofE Co-Op is the ideal partnership for us. They are the local supermarket chain in the Essex, Suffolk, Norfolk and Cambridgeshire and they have a really positive, open minded approach towards employing people with learning disabilities and/autism. We’re an Essex-based company that’s passionate about Inclusive Employment – it’s the perfect combination!
They really have moved mountains in terms of their inclusivity and other organisations could learn a lot of positive lessons from them. They are truly leading the way in terms of being a disability confident employer and we are so proud to be working with them.
If you are a local business that is interested in becoming an inclusive employer please contact Sue Wray, ECL Inclusive Employment Business Manager by emailing inclusive.employment@essexcares.org