Beam

Covid-19 has devastated many sectors, leaving millions unemployed, struggling to retrain and make ends meet. This digital divide has been felt by groups including the homeless, over 55s and single mothers - where limited access to or confidence with technology has made it harder to apply for jobs.

Beam has launched a digital Hub for disadvantaged jobseekers to give them quicker, clearer access to the knowledge and confidence that will help them to secure stable work. The Hub features videos, infographics and quizzes to help with career discovery, CV building and online applications. The platform also uses data to match disadvantaged jobseekers to roles at ethical employers.

The solution also allows users to crowdfund the cost of online training courses in everything from software development to digital marketing - in addition to laptops, smartphones and data packages. Thus removing the barriers to finding a stable job in the digital workforce.

In the UK there are 3.7 million working-age adults who claim welfare while out of work, with 2.5 million of those unemployed for over a year. This costs the government £32bn every year in welfare costs. Unemployment is expected to increase further in the aftermath of the Covid-19 crisis.

This group faces several barriers when it comes to finding work - many are without the general knowledge and digital literacy needed to successfully apply for jobs in the modern workplace. Some have never had to write a CV, complete a formal interview or do an application form. Others are not confident taking video calls (increasingly used for interviews) or searching online job boards. Without the necessary support, they remain stuck in an unemployment trap. 

Beam is providing disadvantaged jobseekers with a tailored employment solution that equips them with the necessary digital skills to successfully find and apply for suitable jobs. Through Beam's platform, users can also fundraise for items relating to their job search - be it a laptop, smartphone or online course - to help them achieve their goals. By removing these barriers, we can truly help someone for the long-term.

The Beam Hub acts as a personal home-page for disadvantaged job-seekers across the UK. Users can log-in and get access to custom video-guides (e.g. on how to make an online application), CV builders and up-to-date lists of Beam employer partners who are actively hiring. The Hub also includes a career quiz, matching participants with a career based on their unique skills and interests.

Over 90% of users referred to Beam have their own smartphone (compared to 32% with access to computer or laptop). With this in mind, we have designed the Hub as a smartphone-based solution to maximise access for people from marginalised communities.

By mimicking the steps needed for many online job applications (e.g. simple log-in process, creation of a personal profile) the Hub also provides a gentle introduction to digital skills for job-seekers at any level.

Alongside the solution, users can access Beam's crowdfunding platform, effectively removing financial and skills barriers. Items they can fundraise for include online courses, laptops, smartphones and data packages - helping them start work more quickly in their chosen field. 

Beam is primarily targeting disadvantaged job-seekers who are out of work, or who have recently been in employment that was low-paid, unstable or zero-hour contract work. 72% of people who have used the Hub so far do not have qualifications above A-Level equivalent, reflecting the disproportionate impact of unemployment on those without higher education. In the 12 months to September 2020, the unemployment rate in the UK was highest among people from Black communities, and we hope to serve this group with our solution. To date, 70% of users of the Hub have come from BAME backgrounds.

Research with Beam’s jobseekers highlighted people were investing significant time searching and applying for jobs, but never starting work. These rejections negatively affected emotional wellbeing and the impact of not being able to access additional income affected financial wellbeing. 

Based on this, it was clear that there was demand for a platform that provides a curated list of data-matched employers and vacancies. A key difference between Beam and employment aggregators is that these B2B businesses have no incentive to build products for disadvantaged jobseekers.

Beam users, caseworkers and charity support staff co-designed our hub, through one-to-one meetings, workshops and anonymised feedback. Beam has a 9.7/10 service rating from users, with comments including: “They inspired me, they motivated me in this hard situation” and “I honestly can’t think of anything Beam could’ve done to make the experience more satisfying.” We also ran two user research interview sessions with 12 target users, who tested our Hub. 100% responded: "Yes, they would use the hub for their job search".

As a result of Covid-19 and longer-term structural changes in the job market, many workers are having to shift occupation but lack the digital skills, confidence and tools to do so - putting them at risk of homelessness. The Beam Hub is helping prepare disadvantaged jobseekers for the future of work by equipping them with digital skills, easy-to-use resources and matching them with employment opportunities. Beneficiaries can also use Beam's platform to crowdfund the cost of online courses with prestigious training providers including Pitmans and The Institute of Data & Marketing. The Hub is 100% free for beneficiaries to use.

The Beam Hub was rolled out in the UK this summer and has already been used by more than 11,000 disadvantaged job-seekers.

Rafically improving 1:1 Support: Research with Beam users revealed the limitations experienced with previous career support, whether in-person (often slow-moving and with limited options) or online (impersonal and confusing to navigate). By building our own casework tools, rather than using off-the-shelf technology, we have complete flexibility over the user interface. We’ve used this to combine the humanity of personal support with the efficiencies of digital technology. As one user stated "The whole process has been so simple and all the people I have dealt with so friendly”.

Tailored support: Research with other job-seekers found they were using online tools but struggling to connect to actually achievable jobs. The Hub directs job-seekers only to career pathways which Beam has validated. Focused resources and employer lists (Beam partners who we know are inclusive in their hiring) mean that the Hub is providing effective, end-to-end support which is missing elsewhere online.

The Beam website can be viewed at www.beam.org. It is a Ruby on Rails web application hosted on Heroku using an AWS RDS Postgres database. We use various APIs such as Twilio, Mandrill, WhatsApp, Airtable, SignRequest, Slack, Stripe to enable supporters to donate to our crowdfunding campaigns and to power our in-house operations.  

The Beam Hub is part of the same web application and acts as a private Home page for each Beam service-user. Once they have created an account, users can access their page through one-time login links sent via email (keeping it easy to access while still remaining secure). If the user is known to Beam (for instance, already has a crowdfunding campaign), then the Hub automatically populates with information such as their name, campaign and caseworker details. 

Through their Hub, the user is directly linked to relevant resources (such as the Beam feedback form, FAQs) and they can submit updates which will be displayed on their campaign and the Beam Newsfeed (https://beam.org/news). They’re also able to view the updates posted by other Beam users, adding comments and ‘likes’. No identifying details of our users (such as second names or date of births) are displayed and only Beam staff can access someone else’s Hub Page. 

Beam will use the same technology as we iterate the Hub, adding new features which a user can easily access from their private page. All activity and engagement on the website can be easily monitored and evaluated through Beam’s internal dashboard. 

We produced an impact report in partnership with McKinsey, which provides an impact analysis of Beam's approach to supporting disadvantaged job-seekers through crowdfunding, digital tools and social support from the public. 

A product demo of the Beam Hub can be viewed here. 

Accessibility 

As we are working with disadvantaged groups, there is a risk that people can't access the technology. To combat this, we provide Beam beneficiaries with smartphones & laptops so they can use the tools and features. We also use simple copy and language, which don't use much bandwidth, to ensure people can access the site easily without large data packages.

Safeguarding

There is a risk that employers might exploit the people they hire, especially if they know they are inexperienced. To combat this, the Beam Hub only provides access to vetted employers - who we call Beam Certified Employers. We check for discriminatory language in job descriptions, ensure employers are offering direct contracts (rather than self-employed offerings) and have good ratings on platforms like Glassdoor and Indeed.

We also conduct risk assessments with people that Beam supports to assess things like mental health and substance misuse, to ensure they're mentally and physically ready to enter the workplace. 

Crowdfunding 

On other crowdfunding platforms, some campaigns succeed and others fail. Beam is different. We ensure every campaign successfully funds by splitting over 80% of donations fairly between all campaigns. So far, 100% of our campaigns have successfully funded.

To date, we have reached 11,201 end users with our solution. By the end of 2022, we expect to have reached 33,000 people. In 5 years time, we hope to have reached 400,000 people. This is two thirds of the number that the National Audit Office states are longterm unemployed in the UK but close to work.

Demographic expansion

When creating the blueprint for Beam, we set out to create a model that could not only address homelessness, but a variety of other social problems and challenges. For example, care leavers, prison leavers and those at risk of radicalisation would all benefit greatly from Beam’s model. We have already had initial conversations with relevant groups that serve these communities as well as the Ministry of Justice, and we are looking to extend the Beam model outwards to these disadvantaged groups in the near future.

Geographic expansion

Currently, Beam is partnered with more than 50% of local authorities in London, who refer homeless people to us. We have recently launched in two other areas: Rugby and Leicester. There are 343 local authorities in the UK and in the next 5 years our goal is to be working with at least 250 of them. We also have big ambitions to scale Beam to the US and we're already having conversations with the likes of Seattle and Kansas City. 

Beam's donor base is far-reaching geographically, with people donating from over 40 countries. From Austria to Australia, individuals are donating to Beam and taking part in a unique, impactful and completely transparent approach to solving homelessness. What’s more, Beam has regularly been cited in leading global publications such as the World Economic Forum, highlighting not only its immediate impact, but equally its potential to be replicated across the world.

When Beam works with an individual on a 1:1 basis, we provide intensive employment support, which remains in place 3 months after starting work. This allows us to track the impact of those who start work. We call this data “milestones” and have put significant engineering and operational effort into defining and capturing milestones, as well as presenting them in our internal analytics suite and on our live, transparency dashboard: beam.org/transparency

Beyond tracking if someone starts a job, we collect additional data points to measure the quality of user work outcomes. This is key to ensure we have a sustainable impact and can quantify a change in income levels and job security, with opportunities for future career progression. These extra data points include salary, sector, source of opportunity, hours per week and job satisfaction. 

Beam’s technology team has built proprietary internal tooling and analytics to collect data in the form of a Ruby-on-Rails application using a Postgres database and modern responsive Javascript frameworks including Vue. Our internal tooling has API integrations with leading cloud-based software, notably Airtable and Twilio.

7 people, made up of:

2 x full stack engineers

Director of Engineering - data architecture 

CEO - strategic direction of solution 

COO - lead on government partnerships 

Partnerships Manager - lead on employer partnerships 

Head of Communications - copywriting & PR to drive awareness 

The core people leading the service:

Alex Stephany (CEO & Co-Founder) has extensive experience of leading tech start-ups as they scale. An expert on the sharing economy, Alex grew the number of users at his last company, JustPark, to nearly 1 million and led the company to raise a record breaking £3.5 million through equity crowdfunding. Launching Beam in 2017 with one full-time employee, Alex has led Beam to raise £2 million in public donations that has gone directly to support >700 homeless individuals. Alex consults on the product development of the Hub and the marketing strategy for the project. 

Seb Barker (COO & Co-Founder) has 10 years professional experience in supporting vulnerable communities, within both homelessness services and the NHS. Having previously worked on Social Impact Bonds for rough sleepers and Personal Health Budgets for the NHS, Seb has incorporated the same focus on personalisation and targeted support into the Beam model. Seb is Beam’s Designated Safeguarding Officer, leads on high-level decisions around Beam’s frontline support model, and heads up Beam’s partnerships with local and central government. 

Julian Keenaghan is Beam’s Head of Engineering and Product, with over 15 years as a developer and CTO for some of the UK’s leading tech start-ups. Julian also founded his own tech start-up in 2020, Tastebuds, building it from scratch to reach over 350,000 users to date. Julian has been responsible for 100% of the software development since Beam’s inception, including the first version of the Hub and the internal dashboard.

60% of Beam's management team identifies as female and 30% identify as BAME. Beam has also worked hard to ensure that our wider staff team reflects the diversity of the user group that we serve.

63% of people we support come from ethnic minority backgrounds and 17% have disabilities. We believe we can serve these people best when we’re a diverse, inclusive team.

Currently 39% of Beam’s full-time employees identify as BAME and 5% have lived experience of homelessness. Beam is looking to further increase these percentages through inclusive hiring processes. 

Anonymous wellbeing and culture surveys are sent out regularly to all employees, giving an opportunity for honest feedback on how the company could improve. 

Funding from the 2021 Digital Workforce Challenge would help us to scale the Beam Hub to hundreds of thousands of people who are unemployed and need more tailored support. 

Since we launched, Beam has spent almost zero funds on marketing, so winning this challenge would be huge for us in terms of publicity. 

In the UK, we work with 18 local authorities who refer homeless people to our service. Users are eligible to crowdfund through Beam and access the Beam Hub. The Hub is currently available for anyone in the UK to use.

Introductions in the following areas would be beneficial:

Government - our goal is to work with governments all over the world to deliver Beam's services. We're already in advanced conversations with Seattle, so would welcome introductions to other cities in the North West USA.

Employers - introductions to employers who are hiring in areas of skills shortages and are keen to improve their diversity hiring 

Landlords - introductions to landlords and owners of large real estate portfolios who can house our beneficiaries 

Supporters - we are keen to work with large corporates and FTSE 100 companies who can donate to support our beneficiaries 

We are always interested in partnering with employers, government and owners of large real estate portfolios. Beam is a highly collaborative model, so working with these providers in different locations will allow us to rapidly scale our service and provide more tailored support to the people we serve.