This paper asks which types of employers, under which conditions, are most likely to engage with active labour market policy (ALMP) initiatives that seek to reduce unemployment. With reference to strategic human resource management theory, it is proposed that: i) organisations that rely heavily on a large supply of low wage, low-skill labour for their core operations are most likely to engage; and ii) of such organisations, those that place a strategic premium on customer service are more likely to develop strategies to retain and internalise the long-term unemployed as core employees. The paper tests this theoretical proposition by drawing on secondary data to map out the general picture of UK employer engagement, and by analysing a small number of interviews with employer engagement managers in welfare-to-work organisations. The paper finds strong support for the first proposition, but more qualified support for the second. Related to the second proposition, the paper suggests that, in practice, employers implement three principal engagement strategies: i) new facility resourcing; ii) decentralised externalisation; and iii) mid-range internalisation
