This week, 23-27 April 2018, is Responsible Business Week. Sarah Sinnott, our Director of Partnerships, highlights a few businesses that are actively making a difference in the communities they serve.
Catch22 believes that doing good, is good business. This is backed up by serious evidence – that organisations that contribute to their communities have increased market value, increased shareholder returns, and higher employee loyalty.
Everyone has an active role to play in a functioning society, and the most successful businesses understand this. Businesses have money, time, expertise, and employees keen to actively make a contribution.
Good for your staff, good for your business, good for your community
There are different ways to unlock this capacity. At Catch22 we don’t believe in a one-size-fits-all approach. It doesn’t work for businesses and it doesn’t help us make an impact. We partner with brands to get to know what makes their business and people tick so we can help them deliver work that benefits their company and their community.
This week we’re celebrating some of the organisations we’ve worked with that recognise create social impact whilst driving positive business returns:
Barclays: Linking business good and social good
We work with Barclays to deliver Barclays LifeSkills. Barclays LifeSkills trains unemployed individuals and provides them with supported entry in to work, whilst also training those employers on ensuring their workplace is an environment that all individuals can thrive in. The free programme is offered to all businesses but with a specific focus on supporting Barclays’ high-growth business banking clients.
npower: Attract and keep the best talent
We work with leading energy provider npower to create development programmes that harness staff enthusiasm and ambition, showing that npower values and invests in its people.
Vodafone: Make the Apprenticeship Levy work for business and society
Telecommunications company Vodafone partners with Catch22 to ensure their Apprenticeship Levy is used creatively to meet their business needs, whilst also ensuring it opens up their recruitment to the widest pool of candidates. It is committed to using its Levy as a creative tool to develop future talent and engage current staff. We deliver Vodafone’s apprenticeship programme, from recruiting apprentices to training them across their retail stores and customer service centres.
Virgin Group: Ensuring inclusive recruitment
Richard Branson is passionate about supporting ex-offenders into meaningful work. We’ve helped the wider Virgin Group to understand the value of diverse recruitment and Only Connect, part of the Catch22 group, partnered with Virgin Active to make sure that their recruitment process and policies are inclusive of people with convictions.