At Guidant, we’re passionate about making a difference not only within our own organisation, but also within our clients’ – and Bristol City Council (BCC) is no exception. Guidant has been working in partnership with BCC since March 2016 and in addition to the day-to-day operations of our MSP, our fantastic BCC onsite account team have graciously given their time and effort towards supporting Bristol with a wide variety of diversity and inclusion initiatives.
These have had a significant positive impact – for the council, its community and its people alike, and show that a little initiative and commitment to D&I can really go a long way, and demonstrates the Guidant team living and breathing our ‘We are you’ guiding principle.
Building disability confidence and creating opportunities
- During the first year of our partnership, we supported some of BCC’s HR team with their ‘Apprentice Employability Training’ programme for apprentices with autism and the care leavers programme, ‘Project Search’
- In conjunction with our sister company Blue Arrow, we successfully placed four young people into work placements – two were care leavers and two had autism. One of these placed roles was in catering, two were in retail and one in warehousing
Honing young skills
In February, college student, Beth Buxton joined BCC for a five-week work experience placement.
We helped increase Beth’s employability by providing tips on enhancing her CV and assisted her with an online application for an apprenticeship with BCC – to help her to showcase her skills and experience in the best possible light.
We’re thrilled that Beth has now successfully been offered a place with BCC – result!
What’s next?
We are planning to work with local schools to conduct workshops on CV writing and interview skills, as well as looking into how we can utilise apprenticeships to encourage new talent to apply for our roles
We are also looking to pledge a specific number of jobs for young disabled people, not just for BCC but across a number of our client accounts – watch this space!
Promoting diversity and inclusion in the workplace
We are passionate about promoting diversity and inclusion in the workplace and the many D&I initiatives we’re involved in can been seen here.
Another great example of how we are making a difference to our clients, is how our candidate attraction campaign ‘All we need is YOU’ positivity influenced the diversity of Shop Direct’s workforce. The case study can be found here.
If you would like further information on any topics raised please contact us.