Recruitment firm Cordant rebrands as social enterprise3 min read

The UK’s second-largest recruitment firm Cordant has announced that it is set to overhaul its current business model after 60 years in order to transform into the UK’s largest social enterprise. This recruitment news broke this September and the company is set to develop these ideas in a five-year plan.

The family-owned business has revenues of £840m and employs 125,000 workers annually in schools, hospitals, care homes, security and more. Over the next five years, Cordant is planning to flip their old business model and shift their focus from profit-based to people-focused.

This change is in line with the company’s values and it represents an important moral shift for the company, by promoting positive, lasting and meaningful social impact. Not only this however, but they believe that the change will also drive efficiency and productivity within the firm.

What is a social enterprise?

Social enterprises reinvest the money they make back into their business or the local community. This allows them to tackle social problems, improve people’s life chances, support communities and help the environment. This means that when a social enterprise profits society profits.

As far as the Cordant Group understands it, their website states “As a Social Enterprise, we have an overarching social mission to maximise and reinvest our profits in programmes that will have a positive impact on society and the lives of others.”

The Cordant Group

Starting out life as a successful security agency, in early 2006, the Cordant Group entered the recruitment sector after acquiring PMP Recruitment. Cordant took over the company’s success and after ten years of strategic acquisitions they grew to become one of the major recruitment organisations in the UK, whilst at the same time remaining a private, family owned company.

According to Chris Kenneally, the CEO, following their repurposing, “It is business as usual at Cordant but with one key difference – profits will now be used to benefit society as a whole.” 

Key aspects:

Sharing the wealth:

1. The company has already unveiled a pay cap for executives at £400,000, or 20 times the wages of the company’s lowest-paid worker. This leap forward will involve pay cuts for some of the firm’s highest paid workers, and aims to work on minimising workplace inequality.
2. Cordant will also be looking to set up a profit-sharing scheme for their employees. Workers will receive a yearly bonus in a structure reminiscent to that of the John Lewis Partnership, where the company’s profits are divided up between workers, who are shareholders in the company’s business.

Transparency

Cordant has said they will take up independent auditing in their newly structured company, in order to ensure they are hitting recognised social impact measurements. This will hold them accountable in reaching their goals.

Giving back

The firm wants to give back to the communities it serves, by reinvesting its profits into social programmes across education, employment and healthcare; sectors in which the company already employs numerous people.

1. Education: In coordination with international education authority Richard Gerver, Cordant is developing a teacher training programme that will examine the link between the classroom and life/work preparation. It is looking into better connecting pupils to apprenticeships and work placements.
2. Healthcare: In healthcare, Cordant is offering to build IT platforms at zero cost that will improve the delivery and quality of NHS care. The way they plan to do this is by the creation of a platform that the NHS can use to offer shifts directly to healthcare professionals, which it hopes will save the service money by avoiding the need for recruitment agencies.

Phillip Ullmann, head of the organisation, said “We believe our teacher programme will change the classroom, our workplace initiatives will re-engage employees, and our healthcare ideas will transform patient care.”

Further, Kenneally said the company was striving to fill the need that the government was not filling. The company has made it clear they want to be pioneers and lead the way for change, by encouraging other entreprises to follow their lead and change their own systems.

In terms of client interactions, the company believes that this change will manifest itself as the creation of deeper and more meaningful relationships and returns.

Author: Cara Moore