Cordant Group refocuses business on social enterprise
Cordant Group has announced plans to become a social enterprise.
In a statement sent to Recruiter, the recruitment and services business, whose brands include Cordant People, PMP Recruitment, Cordant Technical and Eurostaff, announced it would reinvest most of its profits into social programmes across education, employment and healthcare.
The family-owned business, which has revenues of £840m employing 125,000 workers annually in schools, hospitals, care homes, security and specialist roles such as engineering, added in its statement it believes its multi-sector reach can deliver a “lasting social impact by direct engagement and by redistributing its wealth to a majority – at an individual and society level – not just a minority of shareholders, driven solely by profit”.
As part of its move over to a social enterprise, Cordant has already:
- Capped all annual shareholder dividends at roughly £250k per shareholder family, per annum, which in today’s terms equates to £3m.
- Capped all executive salaries at 20 times that of the lowest paid worker.
- Agreed to be independently audited, using recognised Social Impact measurements.
The firm adds that while its businesses will operate as normal, the changes will enable it to reinvest profits into key initiatives, including:
- A teacher programme being developed by international education expert Richard Gerver to examine the link between the classroom and life/work preparation.
- IT platforms offered at zero cost for the healthcare sector, enabling hospital trusts to offer shifts directly to doctors and nurses, with the aim of saving the NHS millions of pounds.
- Partnerships with key clients focusing on upskilling and training for the temporary workforce to drive productivity but deliver deeper satisfaction.
- The creation of a profit share scheme for staff.
- Ongoing investment in technology to better connect pupils to apprenticeships, workers to jobs, and patients to doctors and carers.
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