Jobcentres Failing The Unemployed

The Government has admitted that the Jobcentre was unprepared and ill equipped to help unemployed professionals.“The Jobcentre advisor stared back at me flustered, and shrugged her shoulders and said I don’t know how to help you! My heart sank and my eyes welled up, as I stared back into the eyes of my last hope, begging for help that I knew she couldn’t give. I now knew that I had to admit that I was one of those government statistics.I left the Jobcentre in a more desperate and hopeless state than I had entered it; and the Jobcentre for me really was the last resort”.This is all too common an experience among British unemployed professionals and skilled workers. For the majority of this group their visit to their local Jobcentre proves fruitless and soul destroying.For many professionals after having been made redundant, they are confident that they will find work and will exhaust all of the normal and traditional methods of finding work – such as using recruitment consultancies and scouring the net and newspapers for work. However, in a recession this isn’t sufficient.For many professionals and skilled workers resorting to the Jobcentre just isn’t an option for them; it represents throwing in the towel and admitting failure. However, with a worsening financial situation, severance payments spent, fast dwindling savings; and without the prospect of a new job. Many professionals and skilled workers have been persuaded by the Jobcentre’s ‘Back to Work’ adverts, and the promise that they could help everyone. Only to discover that there was no help for them! There have been widespread press reports over the past 12 months of the failure of the Jobcentre to get people back into employment. The recent report from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) finally sees the Government admitting that the Jobcentre is not successfully placing all categories of the unemployed into work; despite the contradictory claims of the Jobcentre over the preceding year. What could it be that makes the Jobcentre so ineffective for so many? Perhaps the answer lies in the purpose of the Jobcentre. The name of the centre belies the main function and the reality of its operations. According to a recent report by the BBC, visitors to the Jobcentre have stated that it does nothing more than collect signatures for benefit claims.Figures obtained by the BBC demonstrate that the Jobcentre is meeting its targets on processing benefits, but not on getting people back to work. The Benefits CentreThis primary purpose of the ‘Jobcentre’ on processing benefits claims; is in part due to the sharp rise in the growth in numbers of people requiring benefits. However, visitors to the Jobcentre particularly professionals are seeking support and assistance to secure work, not benefits! In relation to what the ‘Jobcentre’s’ main purpose should be; given its name, (a place where jobs can be found and secured). You could question if it ever successfully fulfilled this purpose for all levels of job seeker; despite their claim that they are a service for all! The current reports on the Jobcentre system failing job seekers have largely applied to professionals; whether they are experienced professionals or fresh graduates. You may ask why in particular are Professionals finding the Jobcentre service woefully ineffective? Absence of Professional JobsCompanies that professionals would ordinarily work for would not use the Jobcentre in a healthy economy and certainly not in a recession. Organisations that employ professionals and skilled workers use targeted recruitment methods, to ensure that they only attract qualified people for their vacancies. The Jobcentre claims to be a centre for all and are synonymous for representing the unskilled and low skilled unemployed. Hence as an employer if you are seeking a qualified specialist, you will utilise- agencies, companies, head-hunt directly, press and web sites that specialise in the area that you are hiring for. In a recession this is further exemplified as the supply of suitably qualified candidates outstrips the number of jobs available. Therefore employers don’t need to put the same kind and amount of effort into marketing their jobs. They can now afford to sit back and let candidates approach them often without even marketing their positions. There are jobs to be had, but they exist in a hidden jobs market, that the Jobcentre has and never will be a part of. Provision of redundant employment advice which is ineffective in a recessionThe Jobcentre’s exclusion to the hidden jobs market means that they are not able to access many of the jobs that are available. The DWP report stated that Jobcentre workers were simply referring unemployed professionals to agencies. However, in a recession the standard job hunting practices that work in a buoyant economy aren’t as effective. As recruitment budgets are slashed, companies are taking the free option and advertising their vacancies direct on their web sites, and they are reducing their use of recruitment agencies to avoid the placement fees. Therefore, for professionals to access the hidden jobs market they need a suite of new and different tools in addition to using Recruitment Agencies. Lack of knowledge and services for ProfessionalsMany of the Jobcentre’s programmes past and present are designed to support those who lack the motivation to work or who do not have basic skills that allow them to be readily employable. However, redundant people do not need to be motivated to work, they do not need basic literacy or numeracy training; they need work and they need it at a level that will meet their financial commitments. For which unskilled to low skill work does not provide. The recent DWP report found that Jobcentre workers “did not know what to say to unemployed professionals”. With a lack of understanding for the needs of redundant professionals and skilled workers; how is the Jobcentre able to provide suitable services to meet those needs? Professional / skilled unemployed workers need the tools: To access the hidden jobs market. To successfully undertake competency based interviews. To present themselves at interview (particularly if they had been in the same job for a great many years).To successfully negotiate a salary they are worth in the current market.Confidence building – particularly if their redundancy was handled insensitively and / or if they have been unemployed over a period of time. For those that are seeking a change in career direction, need guidance and coaching to varying degrees to help them identify the next step and what to do. Many mature professionals and skilled workers have found themselves redundant; and are facing additional obstacles in the job market of age discrimination. These are unfortunately not services provided at the frontline of the Jobcentre. The situation has been further exasperated due to insufficient training being provided to new recruits, which was delivered in an electronic format and was often incomplete; according to the DWP report. Furthermore, Jobcentre staff do not have a background in Recruitment, Human Resources, Coaching / Counselling and therefore are unable to effectively advise and guide the unemployed back into professional employment. In the final analysis, the Jobcentre is ill equipped to effectively assist and support the complexities in securing professional work. It is hard to know whether the Jobcentre will be able to diversify their services to best support professional and skilled workers in time. Which is NOW! Thus, unemployed professionals and skilled workers have to turn to alternative sources to get the support they really need to get them working again. Hopefully lessons have been learned, and the Jobcentre will eventually become a service for all. However, at the centre of this DWP report, is the uncomfortable truth that the Jobcentre is failing the very people that have contributed the most into the system; who now appear to be getting the very least!