How to Recruit the Right Staff to Deliver Connect to Work

Depending on where you are in the country, Connect to Work is either already live or in the mobilisation phase. One of the biggest early challenges providers face is simple to say, but hard to solve:

How do you find the right people to deliver it?

As with many employment support contracts, success hinges on people who can build community connections, develop employer partnerships, and make a real day-to-day difference to participants. That combination is rarer than it sounds.

The Challenge We’re Seeing on Connect to Work

We recently partnered with one of the first Connect to Work providers to go live. They came to us after running into a familiar problem:
they’d already recruited (or interviewed) most of the employability professionals they could find locally.

As hiring continued, the talent pool became thinner — and this was compounded by another issue:

Connect to Work requires a different skill set to programmes like Restart.

For example:

  • Restart is largely centre-based

  • It typically operates a 180 model

  • Referrals are automatically triggered by Jobcentre Plus

  • Employer engagement is often a separate function from adviser delivery

Connect to Work, by contrast, places far greater emphasis on:

  • Community-based delivery

  • Proactive employer engagement

  • Outreach across multiple locations

  • Building partnerships from the ground up

Many experienced employability advisers simply haven’t worked this way before.

Who Are the Right People for Connect to Work?

When we were brought in, the brief wasn’t just “find employability staff” — it was to reach people providers couldn’t access themselves, including those from other sectors with genuinely transferable skills.

The core criteria we worked to were:

  • Willingness and ability to build employer partnerships

  • Strong organisation and comfort working across multiple community locations

  • Drive to work to targets and manage pressure

  • Empathy and understanding of complex client groups

From there, several candidate profiles stood out.

1. Established Employability Professionals

These are often a great fit — particularly those with experience on community-based programmes such as the old ESF contracts. They understand the outcomes, the pressure, and the purpose.

2. Recruiters

An obvious option given the emphasis on employer engagement — but one that needs careful screening. Recruitment roles vary widely, and not all recruiters actively build employer relationships in the way Connect to Work requires.

3. Graduates

Graduates can work well, especially those with voluntary or paid experience supporting vulnerable people in community settings. With the right support, they can grow quickly into the role.

4. Adjacent Sector Experience

We’ve had strong success with candidates from criminal justice, mental health, and related support services — roles where employability is often a core challenge for service users, even if it’s not the job title.

The Real Question: Are They the Right Fit?

Finding people is only half the battle.

The real risk sits in assessment:

  • Are experienced advisers genuinely happy working out in the community?

  • Are recruiters moving towards employer engagement — or away from it?

  • Do graduates have the resilience and life skills required at this stage?

  • Can candidates handle autonomy, ambiguity, and pressure?

These are not things a CV alone will tell you.

How To Assess for Successful Delivery

Once candidates pass an initial screening against the real challenges of the role, structured assessment becomes critical.

For this provider, we supported delivery through:

  • Assessment days

  • High-volume interview days

  • Scored interview criteria aligned to delivery outcomes

Presentations worked particularly well — allowing candidates to demonstrate:

  • Preparation and research

  • Understanding of IPS and Connect to Work

  • Communication style and confidence

  • Commercial awareness around employer engagement

The result?
30 successful hires in a short space of time, aligned to both mobilisation timelines and long-term delivery success.

Need Support Recruiting for Connect to Work?

If you’re mobilising or scaling Connect to Work delivery and want to talk through recruitment strategy, assessment design, or candidate attraction, feel free to book a call.

👉 Book time with James:
https://calendly.com/james-chessum