Story: Lisa Swift
As well as the 120 jobs, the scheme also left 800 people disappointed. Some residents expressed concern that not enough jobs have gone to local residents.
The Messenger spoke to Faysal, Mohammed and Hassan, who are all Somali and live near the Tesco store. They told us they know many people from the Somali community applied but they don’t know anyone who was successful.
Mohammed said, “the feeling in the community is we know a lot of people who were turned down. Some of them had experience and had worked in supermarkets before or got customer service skills but they were also unsuccessful.”
The selection process was quite involved – first an open day, then tests in literacy and numeracy, followed by sessions on interviews and filling in the application form. And finally a 20-minute interview. Hassan said, “People put a lot of effort in, researching about Tesco and preparing for the interview. Then all we get is a letter with no feedback. We were just told to go to the jobcentre.”
Faysal was concerned whether the new recruits reflected the local community and if the process had been more difficult for BME residents,
“The interview panel did not have anyone from a BME background. They weren’t even from Sheffield so there was no understanding of the area. They asked, ‘Is there anything you do not want to do?’ It made me think, if I said I didn’t want to work with alcohol or meat, for faith reasons, it would go against me.”
Another resident Logi, who is originally from Malaysia, told us she thought it was a fair process but was still disappointed to be rejected.
“I have previously worked as a secretary for a frozen food store in London before we moved to Sheffield. Also in Malaysia I had experience of customer service and working on checkouts.”
Logi did not know anyone who was successful.
“Some of the women I know also applied. They had experience and better English than me but were also rejected. My husband and I applied for jobs in the open recruitment in August but we were unsuccessful again.”
Despite the let-down, Logi is still positive for the future.
“I’m still applying for work. The process boosted my confidence really, the interview went well and the woman I spoke to was very positive.”
The Messenger made several requests for the percentage of local people who were successful in the job guarantee scheme but this was not provided before we went to press. Instead, Tesco said the quality of applicants was very high and there was obviously a lot of competition for the jobs available.