Empowering Women Into Work: Smart Works CEO Anna Hemings on Confidence, Coaching & Closing the Equality Gap
- Aug 25, 2025
- 2 min read
This conversation with Anna Hemings, CEO of Smart Works, dives into a simple, high-impact model that helps unemployed women secure jobs: tailored interview coaching, confidence-building support, and a head-to-toe outfit for interview and the first weeks in work.
You’ll hear how Smart Works—powered by ~750 volunteers across 12 UK centres—now supports around 10,000 women each year, with roughly 67% moving into employment within a month of their appointment.
Born during the pandemic, the charity’s career-coaching offer for women without an interview has since become a major growth area, reflecting a tougher recruitment market.
Anna unpacks findings from the Unemployment Index, Smart Works’ annual study of 5,000 women. The data shows women are applying for far more roles than before—an average of 38 applications vs 22 three years ago—with confidence eroded by repeated rejections.
We explore pain points like opaque AI screening, unclear interview stages, and patchy transparency about pay, location, and hybrid expectations. The discussion also addresses structural barriers—from childcare and wraparound care costs to caring responsibilities and unconscious bias—and why minoritised and disabled women face lower success rates.
From the employer side, Anna offers low- or no-cost fixes that make a big difference: publish clear pay bands and working patterns; state the number of hiring stages and whether AI tools are used; default first-round interviews online or clarify travel-expense policies; and distinguish essential vs. desirable criteria in role profiles.
She also touches on Smart Works’ sustainability angle—repurposing surplus fashion stock into client wardrobes—and a forward strategy to reach more women, tailor support to different life stages (from early-career to returners), raise public awareness, strengthen data and technology, and sustain impact through diversified funding and deep corporate/retail partnerships.
Listeners leave with practical takeaways for candidates, employers, and policymakers—and concrete ways to support Smart Works’ mission.
About Anna Hemmings
Anna joined Smart Works in January 2025, with over 20 years’ experience of driving transformational change, implementing strategic vision and increasing impact, most recently at the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services and GamCare.
She leads the senior leadership team and works to ensure that Smart Works continues to empower women, and give them the confidence they need to unlock their potential, get the job, and transform their lives.