Get a grip!

This could be the sub-title to most of the presentations that I make to colleges and learning providers about the TQS.

People who are just starting out on the TQS journey often don’t know where to start with employer engagement.

They don’t know which are the activities they need to do quickly.

Defining how you work with employers early in your TQS development process is essential if you are going to progress rapidly. It will also add value to your employer engagement activities.

One of the employer engagement basics, then, is to think about how you manage the relationship with individual employers.

To help to be clear about how you work with employers consider the stages of the employer's journey with you. Think about:

• The time before employers do business with you – when they are making enquiries and you are dealing with them
• When they are considering working with you – that is when you are creating an offer and a way of working with them
• When they are working with you – when the programme they have “purchased” is progressing
• When the first piece of work comes to an end – when you work out with each employer just how well you have supported him or her (not how well you have supported the learners)
• When you come to build the relationship further – when you think about how you can turn a single piece of business into a long-term relationship.

You need to have systems and processes in place for managing each stage of the employer’s journey.

You also need to make sure those systems and processes are implemented consistently across your organisation. (If you don’t work in a consistent manner you will have problems when you come to think about assessment.)

All of this could sound like a big piece of work.

It is, but it’s a relatively simple and straightforward piece of work, if you do it sooner rather than later.