Cleanzine: your weekly cleaning and hygiene industry newsletter 18th April 2024 Issue no. 1110
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Cordant Group to become UK's largest social enterprise
Cordant Group, the UK's second largest recruitment and services business, which includes Cordant Cleaning, has today announced its new status as a Social Enterprise.
Framed around a five-year plan, the Group will reinvest the majority of its profits in due course into social programmes across education, employment, and healthcare, pledging to touch and improve thousands of lives, one community at a time.
The family owned business, with revenues of £840 million, employs 125,000 workers annually in schools, hospitals, care homes, security and specialist roles such as engineering. It believes it is this powerful multi-sector reach that 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.
To illustrate its intent, Cordant has already:
* Capped all annual shareholder dividends at approximately £250,000 per shareholder family, per annum, which in today's terms equates to £3 million
* Capped all executive salaries at 20 times that of the lowest paid worker
* Agreed to be independently audited, using recognized Social Impact measurements
Whilst Cordant's businesses will operate as normal, these 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, 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.
"This initiative is unique in the cleaning industry and is a further differentiation for our business," notes Guy Pakenham, managing director at Cordant Cleaning. "We believe it will benefit our colleagues, workers, customers and their related communities, adding further value to our industry leading solutions."
Phillip Ullmann, chief energiser, Cordant Group adds: "Our dream of building a genuine global social enterprise that can delight people and improve the lives of thousands of people is now being realised. We believe our teacher programme will change the classroom, our workplace initiatives will re-engage employees, and our healthcare ideas will transform patient care."
Chris Kenneally, Group CEO says: "It is business as usual at Cordant but with one key difference - profits will now be used to deliver a broader prosperity, benefiting society as a whole and not just our shareholders. Whilst we believe this is an important moral position given the overwhelming response, we also know it will be positive for our businesses and drive efficiency, productivity and profitability. Our key customers are keen to work and partner with us on a journey that will create deeper relationships and returns."
14th September 2017