Welfare Reform Team Evaluation of European Social Fund pilot project 2014-2015

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Equally, attendees frequently lacked the confidence to approach and engage with employers, and some also found the venue (in the case of the Town Hall) large and intimidating. In response to these concerns, we commissioned pre-job fair workshops from the WEA to coach job fair customers in what to expect on the day, employers’ presentation expectations, and how to apply for actual jobs at the events. Pre-job fair workshops are now offered to prospective attendees as a matter of course. We also now brief employers to better understand the circumstances of customers, to encourage a less formal approach (for instance, standing in front of their desks rather than behind them) and to improve their engagement with customers. We also ask them to display actual vacancies more prominently. Customers clutching a sheaf of CVs at job fairs often told us that they could not apply for jobs at the events, as they were told to apply online. This raises questions for employers and for organisations offering jobsearch support. Employers attending job fairs should have a process for taking applications directly; telling customers “go to our website and apply” can be unhelpful and may actively dissuade customers from applying for any jobs on offer. Equally, as recruitment is increasingly conducted online, jobsearch support providers may need to consider how relevant CV-related activity is, and whether they are offering appropriate support to their customers around making online job applications. Although asking customers to apply online can be a disincentive, the lack of any digital access at the Town Hall was also problematic. There was wifi access at both the community-based job fairs. At the Blackbird Leys job fair, National Careers Service advisers and Blackbird Leys Information Technology Zone (BLITZ) volunteers were available to help customers make job applications in the community IT hub. Marketing of the job fairs improved. We produced a YouTube video to promote the Barton event, which was posted to the council Facebook page. We also made extensive use of the @OxWelfareReform Twitter account to link to the promotional video and for other marketing material. 60
We met with our Communications team to ensure there was better synergy between the various council Twitter accounts 22 with a potential interest in the job fairs. We developed tweeting schedules to facilitate cross promotion through retweeting and favouriting, and also shared these with JCP and Aspire to encourage them to do the same. As we developed our social media promotion of the job fairs, we started to engage with attending employers both before and after events, and we undertook live tweeting from the events themselves. Renaissance Coaching analysed feedback from attendees and employers at the Barton job fair, and this feedback is included as Appendix 7 and Appendix 8 respectively. One of the common themes in customer feedback from the Barton job fair is the lack of relevant vacancies on offer – both by type of job and by the level of qualifications needed for some vacancies. JCP approaches and books employers to attend the job fairs, and part of the planning of events now includes consideration of the needs of jobseekers, finding employers with current and local vacancies, and also inviting support services who can provide relevant training to customers. Other reflections and interpretation Feedback from customers and partners (including feedback given to JCP from recruiting employers and non-project customers at job fairs) about our work has been encouraging and very welcome. We are committed to providing the best service we can, and are always keen to think about what we could do better as well as acknowledging what we have done well. The project bid stated that we would work with 600 private sector tenants throughout the lifetime of the project, and this proved to be overly optimistic. The DWP’s short timescale to bid for the project meant there was not enough time to properly scope it out. We made assumptions about all private sector tenants based on the limited picture afforded us by private rented benefit cap customers and on a limited understanding of the Oxford labour market. We did not properly consider the differences between the original tranche of benefit cap customers and those we targeted in the new project. There was a narrower range of potential outcomes in the project, and less of a sense of urgency in the 22 There are 23 council Twitter accounts, the most relevant being ours (@OxWelfareReform), Communities & Neighbourhoods (@OxCityCoummunity), Oxford Town Hall (@OxfordTownHall) and the main council account (@OxfordCity). 61
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Welfare Reform Team Evaluation of E
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The project in numbers 230 particip
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found very difficult to cope with,
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Partnerships This section outlines
Page 9 and 10: • the setting up of the Welfare R
Page 11 and 12: • two Welfare Reform Project Offi
Page 13 and 14: Project milestones and changes to p
Page 15 and 16: • ESF Department made an on the s
Page 17 and 18: 3. Marketing & Communications The t
Page 19 and 20: The team has an active Twitter acco
Page 21 and 22: 4. Partnerships A key aim of the ES
Page 23 and 24: nominated JCP work coaches, and a s
Page 25 and 26: Customer selfrefers through DHP app
Page 27 and 28: Customers gave lack of experience,
Page 29 and 30: 40 Confidence in finding work in th
Page 31 and 32: DHP in future 11 . For project cust
Page 33 and 34: Customer stories The best way to il
Page 35 and 36: When Richard was benefit capped in
Page 37 and 38: Ayesha Ayesha is a single parent wi
Page 39 and 40: Laurence We helped Laurence as part
Page 41 and 42: Mel and Ian agreed to follow both o
Page 43 and 44: 6. Performance & Documentation Meas
Page 45 and 46: People on JSA who have not found wo
Page 47 and 48: 50% 45% 43% Confidence in ICT skill
Page 49 and 50: Management information There was a
Page 51 and 52: The team should consider whether da
Page 53 and 54: There were 38 responses to the cust
Page 55 and 56: “Want to do permitted work and ne
Page 57 and 58: Appropriateness of referrals “Yes
Page 59: “We supplied members of staff fro
Page 63 and 64: Status on leaving the project 6 6%
Page 65 and 66: funded by ESF to deliver the projec
Page 67 and 68: we felt least likely to engage with
Page 69 and 70: Appendices Appendix 1 Communication
Page 72 and 73: Questionnaire Summary Results This
Page 74 and 75: Questionnaire: Partner survey - Wel
Page 80 and 81: Respondent Name esfp18 Respondent E
Page 82: Appendix 4 DWP Unit Cost Savings fo
Page 85 and 86: | UnemployedMonths Gender | 12 - 23
Page 87 and 88: RECODE of | LeavgStat | (LeavingSta
Page 89 and 90: -------------------+---------------
Page 91 and 92: CHI SQUARE TESTS OF ASSOCIATION . t
Page 93 and 94: . tab LeavgStat2 Ethnicity3, row co
Page 95 and 96: . tab LeavgStat2 debt, row col exac
Page 97 and 98: Questionnaire Summary Results This
Page 99 and 100: The Job Fair was useful to encourag
Page 101 and 102: Questionnaire: Customer survey - We
Page 103 and 104: Questionnaire: Customer survey - We
Page 105 and 106: Respondent Name Respondent Email Ad
Page 107 and 108: Barton Neighbourhood Job Fair 15 th
Page 109 and 110: General comments on the above feedb
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Barton Job Fair July 2015 - Appendi
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Barton Job Fair July 2015 - Appendi
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Barton Job Fair July 2015 - Summary
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Welfare Reform Team Oxford City Cou
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Welfare Reform Team Evaluation of European Social Fund pilot project 2014-2015

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