Being brave, forming good partnerships with charities and prisons, as well as providing one-to-one contact at smaller scale recruitment days are some of the ways Virgin Trains is reaching out to the talent among ex-offenders, according to lead recruiter Kathryn Wildman.

Wildman’s comments come on the day Virgin Trains launches a toolkit for businesses offering practical advice on hiring ex-offenders. 

Wildman told Recruiter the company recruits across the same values, whether they are ex-offenders or regular candidates. These vales include insatiable curiosity, doing the right thing and with heart. But she added, when the company holds its recruitment days for ex-offenders it does so on a smaller scale than for regular recruits.

“We only have a couple of us who go along to those recruitment events because we are really conscious of confidentiality. We really try to make the candidate feel at ease and spend that quality time with them on a one-to-one basis.”

Wildman explained this one-to-one contact takes the form of an informal chat at the start of the recruitment day in which the candidate can learn about the company and ask questions. This also helps put them at ease as, for a lot of candidates, it is their first experience of any such careers day.

As for her advice to fellow recruitment professionals seeking to launch similar campaigns, Wildman advises they be brave and be open to doing this. 

“Take small steps first. It’s really important to make good partnerships and relationships with the charities and with the prisons you are going to be working with so they really understand what it is you’re looking for in your candidates and you’re clear about how want the day to work.”

Virgin Train’s toolkit also covers the company’s experiences from when it initially set up its own programme helping ex-offenders into work three years ago to present-day policy. The toolkit gives advice and tips to those considering adopting a similar policy and offers insight on what hiring ex-offenders can offer all levels of the business – from shareholders and managing directors through to HR departments and the ex-offenders themselves.

The toolkit also gives advice on how to provide ex-offenders with a fresh start, while protecting your business from risk; how to best work with partners and prisons; and also the practicalities of running a recruitment day.

One success story from Virgin’s ex-offender programme is Tammy Moreton (pictured) from Birmingham, who is now working for Virgin Trains on the other side of the law as a revenue protection inspector, after spending two years in and out of prison. 

As an apprentice, Moreton now trains staff on ticket scanning machines, cracking down on fare-dodgers and gaining qualifications along the way.

In the past three years, Virgin Trains on the West Coast has hired 30 ex-offenders, of which 25 still work for the company in roles across the business. Employment has shown to significantly decrease the risk of reoffending. No ex-offender employee or candidate in the talent pool at Virgin Trains has re-offended and the company said it is looking to hire more.

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