Boosting secure employment and skills for young people in Northern Ireland

In the summer of 2021, EA awarded Henderson Food Service Ltd a framework to supply frozen food items to all school meal kitchens in NI. The Social Value requirements included in Hendersons’ contract focused on employment opportunities, providing work experience and skills development initiatives all targeted to EA’s priority group which was young people aged under 25 who are unemployed and face additional disadvantage in the labour market.

As a result of these Social Value contractual obligations, Hendersons entered a collaboration with the NOW Group to provide industry expertise and placement opportunities to participants in the NOW Group’s Warehouse Academy.  The Now Group support people who are neurodiverse, autistic, have ADHD or have a learning disability, into finding jobs with a future.

Prior to this, the Warehouse Academy participants had very little training so Hendersons provided classroom-based training including manual handling, health and safety, warehouse basic skills, loading / forklift training and professional dignity at work training as well as providing first-hand experience within Henderson’s facility. This allowed a number of individuals to flourish and many participants grasped these activities well and showed great interest in this line of work.

As part of social value considerations within the EA Frozen Foods contract, Henderson Food Service were able to provide full-time employment to two participants within the NOW Group Warehouse Academy who both continue to be employed to this day nearly two years after coming into the business and add value to the operation daily.

Considering the difficulties in recruiting a fully trained team with the necessary skills, Hendersons found working with the NOW Group’s training Academy to be mutually beneficial. The award of the frozen foods contract to Hendersons provided an excellent opportunity for them to expand their team in collaboration with the NOW Group.

The NOW Group colleagues are now multiskilled employees, who can carry out several roles within Henderson’s business including forklift duties, replenishing pick face stock so that customer orders can be fulfilled in a timely fashion, moving stock from various areas of the warehouse based on working requirements. They are also now fully skilled loaders which involves accurately and safely loading cages of stock onto correct vehicles for onward delivery to stores.

Alongside these 2 employment opportunities for the EA’s priority group, Hendersons also delivered a number of skills development initiatives, including:-

• A business presentation to business studies students in St Patricks Grammar School, Downpatrick
• A Transport & Logistics masterclass attended by multiple local schools in the Antrim & Newtownabbey area over 3 separate days.
• A visit from CAFRE Agri-Food students to the Hendersons distribution centre, to assist in developing their learning of the food industry supply chain.

Whilst Hendersons have complied with their Social Value contractual obligation, they have seen firsthand the benefits of recruiting via a different pool of untapped talent and the benefits this can bring to their organisation.

Hendersons provided the following comment:

We are pleased to report that the new recruits have performed exceptionally well and are still currently employed within Henderson Food Service and we look forward to watching them grow and develop even further in the future. They are a breath of fresh air who have brought a new perspective on how we structure our recruitment and the target market we aim for when trying to attract talent into our business.