BusinessLab and the Wise Group

Developing new solutions to understand and improve employability

The Wise Group is a social enterprise with a reputation, built over a quarter of a century, for devising and managing efficient, innovative and flexible ways into work.

Many clients accessing Wise Group services are long term unemployed whose main challenge is to gain and sustain work.  The Wise Group having recently secured a five-year contract to deliver the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) Flexible New Deal programme in a number of regions across Scotland and the North of England sought to more fully engage with and understand the challenges these clients face.

Responding to individual needs and successful engagement at the initial stage of contact between Wise Group advisors and their clients is a vital part of the process.  Along with this, an ability to map the clients’ progress and raise awareness of developing challenges is also crucial to achieving a successful outcome.

Recognising that BusinessLab’s Signature tools have been successful in engaging hard to reach groups and providing key ‘bottom up’ information, led the Wise Group to commission the development of a bespoke Employability Signature for use with their client base.

The development of the Employability Signature for the Wise Group had three main aims:

• Improving client engagement
• Empowering the client to take ownership of their journey through Wise Group programmes.
• Providing key information regarding the client’s employability strengths, challenges and opportunities.

BusinessLab undertook a process of desk-based research into the core conditions of long-term unemployment and to further inform an understanding of the client group and the interactions between the client and Wise Group Advisors, BusinessLab participated in two induction programmes.

A successful beta test of the Employability Signature process with existing clients has led to its full adoption by the Wise Group with a major roll out planned for 2010.