Realising that some of the best candidates needed help unlocking potential, former recruiter Steven Cotton began the charity Grow in 2018. In the years that have followed, cotton has spent time growing the charity, but also reflecting inwards, as he tells Melissa Moody.
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Beginning his career in recruitment, Steven Cotton’s introduction to the employment field set the stage for much of his career: “I found it a really good introduction to the employability and business world.” But it didn’t come without its issues.

“I would find that we had these candidates coming in who were brilliant, with lots of potential, but weren’t yet ready for the roles that I was recruiting for. And then we’d have these candidates coming through the door who were perfect and ready for the role straightaway, and I found those guys really boring.”

Cotton found he was more interested in working with the people who needed a bit of coaching to prepare them for the role – but that wasn’t how recruitment worked.

From that role, he moved into an employability charity and found his ambition to support people and unlock the potential available, eventually setting up Grow in 2018 after being made redundant. “It was an exciting opportunity to combine my hobby of gardening…with my career.”

Thinking positive

As with any new charity, however, Cotton faced a number of challenges. Without a track record, there were difficulties with funding.

“Trying to track fundraising over the last few years has been weird,” he says. “There’s loads of cash and then there’s no cash and then cash is for one specific thing. You’re trying to navigate the very evolving picture of what funders want… it’s been a bit of a ride to be honest. We’ve had massive peaks and troughs in our bank balance.”

But there were more personal challenges to overcome too. “When you are working for an organisation, you always assume that the people at the top just know; they’ve got the answers to these big strategic questions around direction and approach and you assume that they have a black and white understanding… but when you’re in that position you realise it’s just a bit flip of the coin.

“You try and put people around you who can support you in making those decisions, but actually, sometimes you’ve just got to make a decision and go with it.”

It was something he found difficult when starting out, Cotton notes. It was the first time there wasn’t someone above he could ask – there are the trustees, he acknowledges, but it terms of operations is the CEO making the decisions. “Having the competence to make decisions and be confident in my decisions was a big deal.”

And decisions have been abound. Like others, Grow hasn’t been immune from the impacts of the pandemic or cost-of-living crisis, but it’s also been an exciting time. Depending on personality, leaders would have approached the pandemic and cost-of-living crisis differently, Cotton believes. “Luckily for me, luckily for Grow, I like challenge. I like thinking creatively. I’m not intimidated by a challenge.”

Being able to use that ability to work under pressure, evolving quickly has worked to his advantage. “We weren’t this weighty beat that took ages to move anywhere, we were able to flex quite quickly.”

The nature of these crises, he adds, was that they disproportionately affect the demographics the charity works with, so the need for services was growing regardless, which they used as an opportunity to step up and respond. They could prove to funders that there was a growing need, as evidenced in the community surrounding the charity in Sheffield. “In a way, it really helps us to focus and helps us to feel more confident that what we’re doing is needed and necessary.”

It’s evident by the successes of the charity that what it’s doing is working. One young person, Lucy, who was on the first ever programme, was supported with tools to manage mental health and helped with employability skills, which led her to get her first job. Now, she’s had three promotions and has become a trustee. “It makes it worth it when you’re having a [bad] day,” Cotton says.

Looking in the mirror

The future is looking bright for the charity. They’re in the process of moving and developing a model, which means they can expand elsewhere. Moving from two staff in 2020 to 14 currently has allowed them to take the time to look inwards at their own organisation. Last year, they undertook a diversity report, which was published on the Grow website. “It was at a time where there was heightened attention around EDI. It felt like there were a lot of people talking and I think what we wanted to do was listen, and we wanted to reflect.

We’ve been on a bit of a journey of trying to understand what it means to be an inclusive organisation, where everyone feels that they can belong and contribute.”

The report found that 100% of the charity’s senior team and staff identified as white British, with 20% of the trustees identifying as Asian or Asian British. Similarly, there was no one who identified as disabled among the staff, trustees or volunteers, but 79.5% said they had a mental health condition, challenge or disorder.

As part of looking inwards, Cotton is working on getting people with lived experienced into the roles where they can come up with strategy. Alumni and trustees with those experiences are part of that, but it can go further he acknowledges. “Longer term I would love it if someone takes my job who’s one of our alumni. If they kick me out eventually that would be an absolute dream.”

Part of that means reflecting on what it means as a place of belonging and one that represents the young people they work with. Working with the Royal Horticultural Society’s flourish fund, which aims to broaden access to horticulture, they are exploring increasing access to people from ethnically diverse backgrounds and with disabilities.

“We’ve really observed that we are not a very ethnically diverse team and from a disability point of view we’re not hugely diverse, either.

“We’re working on it, and it’s a journey. It’s not something that’s going to shift just because we’ve done a report, but it’s thinking about how does the report influence our approach and our strategy and our thinking. We’re excited about that.”

It makes people ask the hard questions, Cotton says. “What are we doing in our recruitment? Are we doing anything that might make people feel excluded? Is there bias in some of the stuff in our communications or recruitment strategy that we’re not aware of?

“It’s a good mirror.”

Talking with Cotton, it’s easy to see how his passion for young people reflects in his work.

He admits that he doesn’t work as directly with the young people anymore, due to an increase in management duties, but had to recently and remembered what a privilege it was.

“When they find that home with you and they give you a bit of trust, you know that’s a brilliant moment…. They then might disclose some challenges that they’re facing, they might express some dreams that they’ve been too embarrassed to share… they’ve chosen to trust you and it feels like such a privilege.”

And even with his passion, Cotton is a fierce advocate of a work/life balance. “I have a real dislike of people that have a culture where people work too hard. Work hard but also have a life. My kids come way before my job, and at the point at which my job starts interfering with
my relationship with my kids is the point in which I quit.

“A point in which I have no time for any hobbies is the point in which I know I’ve got the balance wrong.”

He models this to his staff, and emphases that people don’t work well when hours are crazy. "Creativity doesn’t come from being too busy.”

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