Over one hundred people, who had previously found it impossible to find a job, have started work at Morrisons this week. Many haven’t had a job for years and many come from families where they are the third generation to be unemployed.
Morrisons helped kick-start pre-employment training at Salford College after it saw last summer’s riots in an area where it was planning to open a store. The training was designed to develop skills in communications, customer services and customer care, as well as give a greater understanding of what it takes to work in retail.
Local MP, Hazel Blears also lobbied the supermarket to act, feeling that Ordsall had been let down by business.
Salford has changed dramatically over the last decade and currently a third of all wards remain within the 10% most deprived in Britain. Before the economic downturn, unemployment in Salford was falling faster than in other parts of Greater Manchester, but this is now in danger of being reversed.
Morrisons Group HR Director, Norman Pickavance, said: “We arrived in Ordsall following this summer’s problems determined not to be just another faceless retailer and knowing that the area had big challenges.
“Our strategy was to act as a catalyst for community regeneration and bring together the different organisations working in the area. For us, this kind of engagement is win-win: people get jobs, regeneration receives a boost and we get the commercial benefits of being a valued part of the community. We are looking at adopting this engagement strategy as we plan and open new stores.”
Hazel Blears MP for Salford and Eccles said: “The rising level of unemployment is having a devastating effect on young people in Salford, which is why I am so pleased by the way Morrisons have engaged with the local community, actively encouraging people to apply for positions and offering support and training to equip applicants to succeed. It is vital that other companies follow their lead and provide good quality job opportunities. In these difficult economic times it is really important that local jobs can be taken by local people.”
Morrisons has also worked with social enterprise, Create, to provide pre-employment training in its production kitchen and café for 20 previously homeless and severely disadvantaged young people from the area.
Sarah Dunwell, Chief Executive of Create said: “We believe the big problems need big solutions and these solutions are delivered through working in partnership. Alongside Morrisons, Salford and Manchester City Councils and local homeless agencies we believe that together we can make a real difference to homeless people who need a hand up and not a hand out.”
Published 06/12/2011