Employment pathways into professional services
Leading Bristol law firm, Womble Bond Dickinson and ACH/Himilo have launched a pioneering new initiative to collaboratively explore and search for new ways to build pathways for migrants and refugees into growth sector jobs. Read below to find out more about what the initiative is willing to bring and the subjects explored.
The first meeting for this venture was organized by Sam Lee- the Head of Recruitment at Womble Bond Dickinson, involved staff from Womble Bond Dickinson, VWV Solicitors, Burges Salmon and KPMG with interest from a number of other professional services organisations as well.
They started exploring work experience programmes within the professional business services and decided to look more into whether there could be a wider initiative, and whether there might be appetite across the sector to build pathways and opportunities into non-entry level jobs for people that come from a migrant or refugee background.
As a result, the topics that were brought into examination were on diversity, inclusion, untapped pools of talent, economic opportunities, existing recruitment processes and businesses reflecting the current society. It was insightful to hear different narratives on diversity across the companies and sectors. The members of the gathering had the agency to look for and identify the grey, problematic areas of inclusion policy that need to be explored and improved. This informative exchange revisited and reviewed the existing recruitment and selection practices that may or may not be reflecting the very diverse communities in the city.
In a wider sense, the re-evaluation of these practices was an attempt to understand where in the evolution, migration and globalization process and the systems and policies built along there are gaps that have been left behind and stand in the way of allowing BAME and refugee communities to have equal pathways into employment into professional business services. This can apply both to the demand for staff members (through the need to review recruitment and selection procedures) and also the supply of potential workers (through raising awareness, aspiration, social capital, soft and technical skills).
Fuad Mahamed, the CEO of ACH and Himilo, added “ACH is proud to be a part of starting this initiative and building partnerships with companies that realize the need and potential of diversity and are taking the initiative to integrate it in their structure and processes. It is fully in the interest of everyone to use the talents and abilities of all communities and look forward to working on this”.
Sam Lee added ‘It is really good to be working with ACH/Himilo on this topic as we as a business need to have access to the very best talent available and also to make sure that we reflect the community around us. It will be exciting to develop these ideas’