Employment Specialist

East Midlands Chamber (Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire); Nottingham; On-site; GBP 28,000 - 31,000; Full time

Job summary

An established industry player is seeking an Employment Specialist to make a meaningful impact in the lives of individuals facing employment barriers. In this full-time role, you will manage a caseload using the Individual Placement and Support approach, providing tailored support to help participants achieve their employment goals. Your ability to foster relationships with local employers and collaborate with various stakeholders will be crucial in creating job opportunities. This role offers a chance to work in a dynamic environment that values customer-centric approaches, making a real difference in the community. If you're passionate about empowering others and thrive on meeting targets, this opportunity is for you.

Benefits

25 days holiday plus bank holidays

8% non-contributory pension scheme

Wellbeing support

Birthday off

Life assurance

Agile working practices

CSR volunteering days

Tax-free childcare

Learning and development opportunities

Special leave for bereavement

Qualifications

• Self-motivated individual with a track record in customer service.
• Experience in welfare-to-work or IPS programmes preferred.

Responsibilities

• Manage a caseload of participants using the Individual Placement and Support approach.
• Provide person-centred advice and guidance to participants.
• Build relationships with local employers for job opportunities.

Skills

Customer Service

Empathy

Motivational Skills

Local Knowledge of Support Services

Target-Driven

Education

Experience in Welfare to Work Programmes

Relevant Experience in Employment Support

Job description

East Midlands Chamber (Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire) is a well-respected and award-winning membership, representation and business support organisation that aims to enhance businesses and communities in the three cities and three counties. With more than 4,100 members and working with 12,000 businesses each year, we have established a reputation as the voice of the regions business community.

Job title: Employment Specialist

Salary: £28,840 to £30,900 per annum

Based at: Nottingham. Travel required between delivery locations

Contract: Fixed term until 31 October 2025, full time (35 hours per week)

WHY THE POST EXISTS

Are you passionate about making a difference and helping others? Would you like to work in an environment that puts the customer (our participants) at the heart of everything we do? If yes, you might be our next Employment Specialist.

In this role within the Employment Services department, you play a key part in delivering welfare-to-work programmes and the Individual Placement and Support approach, which aims to help people who have a health condition or disability, the long-term unemployed and other specified disadvantaged groups (Early Access Groups) find, enter and sustain paid employment.

You must be a self-motivated and target-driven individual who has a track record of delivering excellent customer service and wants to help people achieve their full potential in work.

THE KEY AREAS OF RESPONSIBILITY

• Manage a caseload of participants using the Individual Placement and Support approach.
• Provide person-centred advice and guidance to participants.
• Meet participants to understand their key skills, aspirations and goals as well as assessing support needs.
• Complete Vocational Profiles and produce Action Plans.
• Operate from the Chambers offices or in the community; this role is not suitable for home working.
• Build positive relationships with local employers to enable participants to move into suitable employment including sourcing job opportunities and raising awareness of reasonable adjustments, return to work strategies and ongoing contact.
• Work collaboratively with Primary Care and NHS teams, job centres, VCS organisations and training partners to maintain positive and integrated relationships, fostering a holistic approach to recovery through employment.
• Able and willing to travel across Nottinghamshire and the High Peak to meet participants and employers to ensure our services are accessible to all.

IDEALLY APPLICANTS WILL POSSESS

• A can-do, upbeat and energetic attitude.
• Thrives in a role with challenging targets.
• Be self-motivated and looking for a unique challenge.
• Are confident delivering employability support both one-to-one and in group settings.
• Have excellent local knowledge of support services and employment opportunities.
• Able to show compassion and build rapport with participants.
• Able to motivate participants and support them to achieve their goals.
• Has experience of working towards challenging targets.
• Passionate about helping people to achieve their potential.
• Be dependable, reliable, trustworthy and capable of exercising diplomacy.
• Experience of working within a welfare to work or IPS programme, or similar relevant role.

WHAT YOU CAN EXPECT IN RETURN

• 25 days holiday plus bank holidays each year (pro rata for part time).
• 8% non-contributory pension scheme.
• Wellbeing support including access to Westfield Health plan, Mental Health First Aiders, self-help toolkits, discounts and more.
• Your Birthday off plus an extra day of leave after 5 and 10 years' service.
• Life assurance (death in service support scheme) for your beneficiaries.
• Dress for the day policy and agile working practices (role dependent).
• 2 CSR days to take per year (volunteering activity).
• Access to tax-free childcare and Bike2Work schemes.
• Special leave for bereavement, compassionate leave & dependent related time off.
• Learning and development opportunities.
• Flexibility to take unpaid leave, paid study leave & special leave for territorial army.
• Recognition and engagement schemes including our Our Stars.
• Tax free 45p per business mile for cars (up to 10,000 miles per year).

HOW TO APPLY

If you have an enthusiastic approach to your work and feel you could make a significant contribution to our organisation, we would like to hear from you.

Please visit East Midlands Chamber (Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire) job vacancies website. Unfortunately, we cannot accept applications from this platform for compliance purposes.

The closing date for applications is ongoing (we close ongoing adverts once sufficient applications are received).

COMPANY STATEMENT

East Midlands Chamber (Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire) is an equal opportunities employer and Disability Confident Leader. All suitably qualified people are encouraged to apply for vacancies regardless of age, disability, gender reassignment, marital status, pregnancy or maternity, race, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation. Applicants require current eligibility to live and work in the UK, they must also disclose any unspent convictions or cautions and company director disqualifications in their covering letter. Please inform of any reasonable adjustments needed during the recruitment process. The business is dedicated to retaining talent and therefore it may decide to prioritise and support internal applicants.

Proud member of the Disability Confident employer scheme

Disability Confident About Disability Confident A Disability Confident employer will generally offer an interview to any applicant that declares they have a disability and meets the minimum criteria for the job as defined by the employer. It is important to note that in certain recruitment situations such as high-volume, seasonal and high-peak times, the employer may wish to limit the overall numbers of interviews offered to both disabled people and non-disabled people. For more details please go to Disability Confident.