Hiring ex-offenders, employee happiness, and a marketing-free business

# Podcast

# Employment and Career

Hiring ex-offenders, employee happiness, and a marketing-free business

Timpson has been a fixture on our high streets since 1865 in the UK. In recent years, they've received acclaim for their approach to hiring ex-offenders. Now, 10% of their workforce have been given an opportunity after a criminal conviction. A unique 'upside-down' company, Timpson eschews many traditional business practices. For example, they don't have a marketing and communications department. In this episode we meet Janet Leighton, Director of Happiness at Timpson.

She discusses:

How she’s gained a reputation for being ‘bonkers’

How her natural optimism gives her resilience

How important it is to be yourself at work

How belief in people and being kind and considerate is a key to maintaining optimism in the face of challenges

What has kept her at Timpson for 20 years

How Timpson functions without a marketing and comms team

How to get an email reply from James Timpson, the CEO

Timpson’s unique ‘upside down management’ style

Her road to the role ‘Director of Happiness’

How happiness isn’t soft and fluffy

Their radical ‘in-house’ approach to everything

The day to day of a ‘Director of Happiness’, including what Janet was dealing with on the day of recording

How Janet deals with colleague issues from financial risk, to suicide

The importance of colleague wellbeing in business performance

How she feels the solution to financial wellbeing is not necessarily as simple as paying people more

What led Timpson to pay for colleagues family funerals

Timpson’s work with offenders and their approach to recruiting ex-offenders

Workers joining the company via ‘release on temporary licence’

How best to support ex-offenders entering the workforce

How they don’t use CVs and are only interested in ‘what you’re doing today, and what you want to do tomorrow’

The state of UK prisons

Some of the success stories from the prison recruitment programme

Her offer of help to any business who’s interested in starting a programme for people with prison lived experience

Janet on linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/janet-leighton-8109891a/

Visit: https://www.timpson.co.uk/

Rob on linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rob-warren/

Want to appear? Email [email protected]

Hiring ex-offenders, employee happiness, and a marketing-free business

Hiring ex-offenders, employee happiness, and a marketing-free business

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