One year on: How Starting Fresh is supporting employers and changing lives

Starting Fresh is Sodexo’s initiative to support employers in proactively recruiting trained and qualified ex-offenders. To mark the first anniversary of its launch, Sean Haley, CEO Sodexo UK & Ireland, explains how commitment from organisations and colleagues alike is plugging skills gaps and keeping lives on track.

Recognising the challenge  

One year ago today, we released research which showed that, while one in three UK private sector businesses did not at that time employ ex-offenders, 62% were struggling to fill job vacancies.  

It struck us that in a time of such extensive skills gaps, it was absolutely the right moment to help employers discover the underutilised community of people with criminal backgrounds.  

A huge amount of advocacy work has been done in recent years by high street businesses who walk the talk, recruiting ex-offenders in significant numbers and encouraging others to follow their lead.  

I’m a huge fan of these purpose-led organisations and think they have made real strides to improve attitudes.  

This came through loud and clear in our research, with many of the employers we polled seeming open to giving someone with a criminal record a chance. 

But giving someone a chance, and proactively going out to recruit from this talent pool, are two very different things.  

But most employers do not know the latter is possible.  

We tapped into our more than 30 years of experience managing UK prisons and launched Starting Fresh to rectify this.  

Creating opportunities  

In the last year, our Starting Fresh programme has supported a wide range of organisations in creating more than 300 opportunities for people leaving our prisons.  

To achieve this, organisations have hosted employer days inside these prisons, meeting people close to their release date or eligible for release on temporary leave (ROTL) and learning about the skills and qualifications they have acquired during their sentence.  

We have worked with household names such as Marriott Hotels, Burger King and Iceland, as well as SMEs like Dusty Knuckles.  

Marriott Hotels HR Director Linda Hawkins first heard about Starting Fresh through the government’s New Futures Network. After coming along to an employment day at HMP Bronzefield, she hired her first prison-leaver. Now, after getting good feedback on that colleague’s performance, she’s planning to come back and bring other hiring managers with her. 

Accelerating progress 

We have also been focused on creating opportunities inside our own business. Our dedicated Frontline Acquisition Team leads on the recruitment of ex-offenders into Sodexo.  

Over the last year, the team has been working hard to create viable pathways between our prisons and our business and to build new relationships. By constantly streamlining these pathways with the help of our partners, particularly the New Futures Network, we’ve been able to accelerate our progress. 

By January this year, 85 candidates from across the prison estate had been referred for roles at Sodexo and currently 19 have been placed into employment in the organisation.

Empowering change  

To support further change, we’ve been raising awareness among wider stakeholders too. This includes working with the New Futures Network to create a toolkit MPs can use to both encourage and inform employers in their constituencies to consider hiring an ex-offender.  

Importantly, we’ve also extended Starting Fresh beyond our own prisons by holding information sessions at prisons and probation offices across the country. As a result, we’ve been invited to run recruitment events at a further 23 prisons. 

We see each event as an enormous opportunity because, for every person recruited, the positive social impact is huge – for them personally, for the business they go on to work for, for their families and for their wider community.  

Taking action 

If you are an employer experiencing challenges in recruiting and you are inspired by this – or even if you just have questions - please do visit Starting Fresh and download our new employer toolkit to learn more about how you can get started.  

If you are looking for your next role and are concerned about how your criminal record might impact your chances, please visit our Careers Page and learn more about how you can belong, act and thrive at Sodexo. We are a Ban the Box employer and will only ask about your record if a security check is required for the specific role. However, this does not mean you will not be considered but a risk assessment will need to be conducted.  

I firmly believe that employing ex-offenders can add great value to a business. But I know for a fact that the impact on individuals and their communities is priceless.  

To learn more about hiring ex-offenders or to get some help with the next steps, visit Starting Fresh.