Not only does BAOH provide Beachcroft with a way to make a positive difference locally, but the employee volunteering opportunities offered by the campaign also help to develop staff at all levels.
Supported by the BAOH Programme Manager, the company took a measured approach to engaging with the campaign, taking time to understand what the options were, how they aligned with the company’s training and development objectives and what the impact engagement with the campaign would have on the business.
Beachcroft began by providing meeting room facilities for employability training before moving onto provide volunteers to host and support the training. The firm has now adopted job coaching as a formal way of developing the coaching skills of its workforce, identified as a core competency.
Therese Tyson, Diversity Manager at Beachcroft explains; “It has been a real pleasure to work with Business Action on Homelessness because the campaign understands business and that’s very important. We never felt under any pressure as the team took a very pragmatic approach engaging us. Any initial reservations or worries we had about working with the clients quickly disappeared during our first contact. We were well supported by the BAOH team and felt confident that working with BAOH clients would be rewarding although not without its challenges."
To date, 17 staff members have been trained as job coaches to work on a one-to-one basis with homeless clients as they look for or settle into work. The coaching meetings are recognised as valuable development opportunities and, as such, Beachcroft allocates a set number of hours to the programme for each job coach.
Patricia McLoughlin, a solicitor at Beachcroft, trained as a job coach and has found the meetings with her homeless client incredibly useful. She says; “It has helped me identify the real issues in a situation, develop my problem solving and communication skills and draw upon my leadership skills. I believe the programme will assist Beachcroft’s vision of a workforce that is progressive, agile and easy to engage with.”
As a result of its engagement with BAOH, Beachcroft has been prompted to take a more strategic approach to measuring the impact of its corporate responsibility activities and now views employee volunteering as a way of developing management and other skills. Another benefit has been the informal networking between staff in different teams which can be so valuable in a business.
