Scaling the Employment Outcomes of Work Integration Social Enterprises: Perspectives from Practice Experts

A new insights report focuses on current pathways Work Integration Social Enterprise leaders use to grow employment outcomes for people experiencing barriers to work, the conditions that enable this scalability and the challenges involved.

Image: Plate it Forward’s Kyiv Social team Viktoriia Bodnaruk and Borys Cherniak, refugee/humanitarian entrants from Ukraine.

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There is growing interest in whether and how work integration social enterprises (WISEs) can scale the employment outcomes they create for people facing the greatest barriers to work.

WISEs are hybrid organisations that combine a social mission with commercial activity to create employment and pathways into employment for people and places experiencing barriers to work. Past research has shown that some WISE models generate employment and other outcomes for people seeking employment more successfully than other approaches. However, little is known about how these approaches can be scaled to address the needs of greater numbers of people excluded from work.

This insights report is the third in a series from the Activating Employment Futures Through Work Integration Social Enterprise project, which seeks to share knowledge about scaling the employment outcomes of WISEs in Australia. Drawing on a roundtable with 17 experts from across the WISE ecosystem, the report focuses on current pathways WISE leaders use to grow employment outcomes for people experiencing barriers to work, the conditions that enable this scalability, and the challenges involved. Participants included founders, leaders and directors of WISEs, and people from intermediary and funding organisations.

Strategies for scaling WISE businesses to grow employment outcomes described included:

• Increasing job opportunities and business sustainability through ‘anchor contracts’
• Scaling geographically
• Growing cross-sector relationships
• Strategically broadening opportunities for target workers to take up long-term positions across operations in WISEs
• Aggregated or collaborative efforts

While there is no one-size-fits-all response to how WISEs can scale their employment outcomes, core reflections provided by the practice experts suggest that consolidating evidence, sharing practice and learning, collectively addressing systemic barriers, and applying entrepreneurial mindsets to change all have a role to play. Experts also underscored the importance of challenging inaccurate assumptions about WISEs, which can constrain scalability and often echo the systemic prejudices and norms faced by the people WISEs seek to support.

Scaling the Employment Outcomes of Work Integration Social Enterprises: Perspectives from Practice Experts

Download the Insights Report (PDF)

Download the Insights Report (Word)

Read about the previous Insights Reports

• Current Policy Debates and Their Implications for Inclusive Employment Through Social Enterprise: Key Insights From a Rapid Scoping Review
• The Role of Work Integration Social Enterprise in Employment Services Reforms: Perspectives from the Ecosystem

The project is funded by the Australian Research Council Linkage Program (LP220100323) in partnership with White Box Enterprises, Westpac Foundation, Outlook Australia, and STREAT. Academics from the University of Melbourne and the University of Queensland are undertaking the research.

For any enquiries related to this report, please contact Dr Chabel Khan, Research Fellow at Melbourne Social Equity Institute, chabel.khan@unimelb.edu.au.