Blog – The People Portfolio

Workplace Equality Fund bid success in partnership with Cornerstone

We are delighted to announce that Cornerstone has been successful in their Workplace Equality Fund (WEF) application, and have chosen The People Portfolio as their delivery partner to introduce a Menopause Awareness Project to support their staff at this life stage.

The ultimate goal of the Workplace Equality Fund is to support employers in identifying, addressing, and diminishing longstanding barriers facing particular priority groups in entering and progressing within the labour market.  Included in the priority groups being supported by the fund are over-50s workers, women, and those experiencing symptoms of the menopause. Cornerstone is a leading social care charity, employing almost 2,000 staff, of which 1,500 are women, a third of whom are aged between 45 and 55. 

Working with The People Portfolio, Cornerstone aims to raise awareness of the menopause, reduce employment barriers and increase workplace support. 

Hazel Brown CEO of Cornerstone said “The significant grant will allow us to now move forward with this innovative piece of work in partnership with The People Portfolio.   We will also be working towards achieving Menopause Friendly Accreditation and pledge to share the important findings and recommendations of the project in due course.”  

The People Portfolio already supports individuals in overcoming inequalities through our returner programme ‘Return with Resilience’, specially designed to support women experiencing the menopause, and the ‘Be Your Best Self’, a personal development programme for women living and/or working in agriculture.

We are delighted to have the opportunity to partner with Cornerstone on their Menopause Awareness Project and are looking forward to making a difference at both an individual and organisational level, on this very important topic.

We are a finalist!

We are delighted to share that the Be Your Best Self personal development programme for Women in Agriculture has been shortlisted as a finalist in education category of the Scottish Land & Estates Helping it Happen awards.

The programme is funded by The Scottish Government and The People Portfolio works in partnership with LEEWAY, Mind & Mission and Scene & Herd PR & Marketing to deliver it. Many thanks to all involved as well as the fabulous participants who have taken part so far.

Congratulations to all of the other finalists and we look forward to meeting you at the awards dinner in October.

Return with Resilience and Menopause

In this video Helen talks with Angie Garton about the menopause support offered as part of our women returners programme.

Return with Resilience

In this video Helen speaks with Kirsty Ritchie of Mind and Mission about the mental fitness coaching offered to participants of Return with Resilience.

This programme is free to attend as it is fully funded by The Scottish Government and applications are open now.

Return with Resilience Autumn 2022

Our Women Returners Programme is back again!

Return with Resilience is back!

We are delighted to announce that the unique women returners programme specifically aimed at professional women experiencing symptoms of the menopause will be running again later this year. The programme is fully funded by the Scottish Government and so is free to attend and is administered by Skills Development Scotland.

Eligibility:

You must be a woman based in Scotland who has had a career break of 6 months or more
You will have had a career in professional services e.g. administration, financial services, HR, law, IT, project management or similar
You likely be over the age of 45 or experiencing symptoms of the menopause or perimenopause

If you are not sure if you are eligible please reach out and we would be happy to discuss this with you.

Our programme includes a range of one-to-one and group support tailored to support an effective return to the workplace at your pace. To read more about what we offer and to sign up for updates on when the application window will open please visit: Return with Resilience – The People Portfolio

Some of our feedback:

New collaborative service from The People Portfolio

Attract and Retain Talent: How Human Resources and Marketing working together is the key

There is no question that the Marketing function is responsible for Company branding, from website content to tone of voice, logos, fonts and everything in between. Often, the target audience of external marketing content is a business customer.

From an internal perspective, HR will typically take a lead in project managing employee engagement activities, often using surveys and other feedback mechanisms. These insight tools help provide context for the development of an Employee Value Proposition (EVP), which in turn forms part of the Employer Brand.

The best and most impactful EVPs are developed when Marketing and HR functions collaborate, ensuring that both the business development and employer brands align, highlight the same values, use the same terminologies and language, as well as looking and feeling consistent.

Customers are also potential recruitment candidates and vice versa, so the EVP is vital to recruitment strategies and campaigns. An EVP tells the story of the business and what it might be like to work there by using a strong, positive, and consistent narrative to entice people to apply.

An additional benefit of a strong EVP is that current employees also receive clear and consistent messaging about the company and the part they play in it, leading to greater staff retention.

Marketing professionals are the experts in writing compelling content, so why is it that so many job adverts are written by HR or in-house recruiters?
Good copywriting is key, so the best results naturally arise when these two functions work closely together.

You could take things one more positive step further. If your Marketing and HR functions were to work alongside an external expert and unbiased pair of eyes, the end results are much more likely to reflect the thoughts of your target customers and candidates, helping you to generate the best results in recruitment and retention.

The People Portfolio’s partnership with The Skills Collective is designed to provide exactly this service. By combining Branding & Communications expertise with Recruitment, HR and Employee Engagement experience, we are able to support you to deliver the bespoke resources you need to improve your Employer Brand, and by extension strengthen your overall company brand.

Our employer branding support packages include a consultation with our team to help identify exactly what you need from us and how we can help you with a fully bespoke package offering just the support you need, no more, no less.

Get in touch to chat to one of our team.

We are 1!

We are 1! Happy Birthday to us!

The People Portfolio was born during the height of the pandemic on November 16th 2021, a challenging and uncertain time for everyone. We knew what we were good at, the sorts of projects and people we wanted to support, but we were starting from scratch. It was exciting and challenging and lots of fun too – boy have we learned a lot over the last twelve months!

Some of the key things we have learned and are very grateful for include

Collaboration

We have worked with some wonderful collaborators and supporters who have helped us to successfully complete projects which we would never have managed on our own. To our fabulous collaborators – thank you!

Go with the flow

If we had had a rigid plan that we had stuck to, we would not have achieved as much as we have. Opportunities have presented themselves in the most fortuitous and unexpected ways at times, and it’s great that we were nimble enough to positively react to them

Listen to that little voice when something doesn’t feel right

We’ve learned to realise that working with people and clients whose values and approaches align with ours is hugely important for us. Early on, we were unsuccessful for a piece of work, getting down to the final two bidders. However, we knew that the alignment wasn’t really there. We will now trust our gut feeling and stayed tuned in to that as we move positively forward.

Bidding for public sector work

We have successfully bid for three large public sector contracts (large for us anyway!). Submitting these bids can be a very challenging and time-consuming process. It was great to learn that even as a newly formed micro business, you can work with others to succeed in this area.

Walking our talk – the ability to wear multiple hats and learning new skills

As two sole traders, it has been essential to learn new skills necessary to enable us to run the business, including virtual facilitation techniques and technology, website building, bookkeeping, social media management. We’ve been realistic in knowing that some skills are simply outwith our ability, but our strong network has enabled us to harness the support and guidance of others.

Flexible working

The flexibility offered by working for yourself is an absolute joy. Do we sometimes work in evenings and on weekends? Yes we do, but that allows us to flex when and where we work all week long. You can’t put a price on that and we certainly don’t miss the regular commute!

Back in November 2020, we decided upon our name, The People Portfolio, because together, we wanted to utilise our broad and varied experiences within HR, Recruitment, Outplacement and Career Coaching to offer individuals and companies alike a range of people focused support services.

We have certainly achieved that it has been a very varied year. All that is left to say is a great big THANK YOU to everyone who has supported us so far including collaborators, clients, suppliers, friends and family and here’s to year 2!

Meet the Return with Resilience Team

As a participant on the Return with Resilience programme, it’s important that you know who you will be working with. Our team is a collaboration of experts in their own field. A team of experts who have come together to offer a blend of support to help you get back to work with confidence and resilience.

Morna Ronnie and Helen Tuohy from The People Portfolio have backgrounds spanning over 25 years each in recruitment and human resources. They know what employers and recruiters are looking for when it comes to applications, CVs and interviews.

They will run a series of virtual group workshops on employability skills, drawing on their experience to help you to present your best self to potential employers and unlock the hidden jobs market. These group sessions will also provide the opportunity for networking with other likeminded women on the programme which we know can be a real benefit.

Louise Scott and Kirsty Ritchie from Mind & Mission Ltd are qualified psychotherapists who previously had business careers in HR and Accountancy respectively. They will provide one-to-one, confidential coaching sessions to help explore and develop your mental fitness. We know from the previous Return with Resilience programme that these sessions were hugely impactful and really help the returners to feel ready for their return to work.

Angie Garton is the menopause specialist on the programme and will share some of the science behind the menopause, common symptoms and what you can do to manage and control them. Angie has a vast array of knowledge and resources, so whatever your question about this potentially challenging stage of life, she can help.

All-in-all we believe our team is second to none in delivering a return-to-work programme for women in their 50’s or experiencing the menopause.

Return with Resilience is funded by The Scottish Government and administered by Skills Development Scotland.

Applications for the current programme are currently open to women throughout Scotland and can be made here: https://jobs.hrcrecruitment.co.uk/job/women-returner-programme-return-with-resilience-8287.aspx

Return With Resilience is back!

We are thrilled to be launching Return with Resilience 2021/22!

This is the programme which supports women over 50 or experiencing the menopause, back to the professional or financial services sector, after a career break of 6 months or more. If this describes you, and you live anywhere in Scotland, then you can access the following free of charge :

One-to-one mental fitness coaching with a qualified psychotherapist
Group employability workshops on confidence building, CV writing, interview skills and job searching techniques
Information and guidance on how to manage the menopause

The opportunity to apply for paid work placements with some fantastic employers

The sessions will be delivered online and you will be working with a group of likeminded women. Coaching and training will take place in November and December with work running from January to March 2022.

If you meet the criteria above and want a fully supported return to your career then get in touch as soon as possible as places are limited.

The Women Returners Programme is funded by the Scottish Government and administered by Skills Development Scotland.

Applications can be made here: https://jobs.hrcrecruitment.co.uk/job/return-with-resilience-women-returners-programme-8220.aspx

We Meet with Skillseeder

Morna was recently pleased to be asked by Skillseeder to talk about our delivery of the Scottish Government funded Be Your Best Self programme for women in agriculture. It was great to be able to spread the word about this fantastic course and explain a bit more about working with our consortium partners, what the programme includes and how to apply.

If you or someone you know is thinking about applying it should make a useful watch.