Standard Life: A Far from Standard Approach
Originally published in Best Practice: Spring 2015 issue
During one of those corporate ‘deep, long look at the business’ moments, investment savings business Standard Life realised that it didn’t have that many young people among its numbers any more. How did that happen? Because, according to Sandy MacDonald, head of sustainability, the business had stopped being a traditional school entry point.
“We weren’t heavily recruiting in those areas where we’d traditionally been first port of call for school leavers, ie in customer service and IT. In past years these areas were more densely staffed but changes in technology had meant we had fewer opportunities in these areas and therefore we were not the immediate point of entry we once were,” he explains.
This realisation coincided with the government of the day writing to every FTSE100 company asking them to address the issue of youth unemployment.
