A few fun ideas can transform an office's atmosphere

Q I saw you being interviewed on television last year and saw that you successfully recruit people from prison. I have a meeting at a local prison, to discuss how I could help those released get back into work. What advice can you give me?

A You can help people leaving prison with mentoring, interview tips and training but what they really need is a job. Some 61pc of prison leavers re-offend within two years; nationally, that drops to 19pc for those with a job, and in our experience the figure is much lower. We have 370 people who joined us from prison or are working in one of our prison workshops (with the guarantee of an interview on their release).

The scheme started when my son James was visiting Thorn Cross, a prison near Warrington, and was so impressed by Matt, who showed him round, that he gave him a business card and said, “when you get out give me a ring and I’ll find you a job”. Matt, now a branch manager, was such a success we were keen to help others like him. With very few companies keen to put ex-offenders on the payroll we reckoned we could pick up some star performers and do some good. Over the past 11 years we’ve learnt a lot of lessons but never doubted the wisdom of employing people from prison.

You can’t help everyone. At first, encouraged by well-meaning prison officers, we took on some inmates who were career criminals or had drug problems or mental health issues that got in the way of work. We now do the picking ourselves.

Prisons vary, and it makes a big difference if the governor “gets it”. Work with prisons that are keen to help with rehabilitation, especially those that encourage Release on Temporary Licence (ROTL). Day release allows prisoners to prepare for work before their parole. We have about 40 people currently working on ROTL – at least 10 are the managers of their shop while spending each night in prison.

A lot of employers tell themselves they can’t take on ex-prisoners, citing the security risk or adverse publicity. We were also wary of the reaction of colleagues, but couldn’t have been more wrong. Our colleagues have taken pride in training people from prison and the scheme has done our reputation more good than we could have ever imagined. Companies that won’t interview people from prison should also realise that 20pc of all people over 25 have a conviction.

A lot of our success is due to having the right person to do the recruiting and look after the welfare of our ex-offenders. Everyone needs a man like Dennis Phillips, from our People Support team, who took on the challenge and taught us the importance of solving the problems our ex-offenders face outside work. Now helped by Darren (an ex-offender himself), Dennis deals with issues such as relationship breakdown, contact with children, housing, probation, mental health and financial problems. Ex-offenders get a low credit score and find it hard to get insurance, a mortgage and even a credit card. By providing a job you are giving them a chance to get their lives back on track and, if our experience is anything to go by, you will gather a lot of talented recruits.

My advice to businesses is simple. Take the bull by the horns, interview some prison leavers and give the best ones a job. I don’t guarantee they will all be perfect. But I can guarantee that if you need advice, I am happy for you to contact our team through my Telegraph email address.

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