Impact Report 2022-23
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Annual <strong>Impact</strong><br />
<strong>Report</strong> <strong>2022</strong>-<strong>23</strong>
Our Purpose<br />
“To effect positive<br />
change in the world.”<br />
Our Vision<br />
“We will be a beacon of<br />
responsibility in our sector;<br />
a trusted partner for<br />
organisations seeking to<br />
make a positive impact on<br />
the world around them.”<br />
Our Mission<br />
“Placing diverse and effective<br />
change-makers into purposeled<br />
organisations and<br />
responsible businesses.”
Section 1<br />
Introduction<br />
The Story So Far<br />
Highlights from the Past Year<br />
Our Year in Numbers<br />
Recertification<br />
Our <strong>2022</strong> Clients and the SDGs<br />
Search Highlights from <strong>2022</strong><br />
Last Year’s Goals<br />
4-17<br />
4<br />
6<br />
8<br />
10<br />
11<br />
12<br />
14<br />
16<br />
Section 2 18-<strong>23</strong><br />
Contents<br />
People<br />
Planet<br />
Profit<br />
18<br />
20<br />
22<br />
Section 3 24-25<br />
Looking Ahead 24<br />
Section 4 26-35<br />
Our Social <strong>Impact</strong><br />
Our Structure, Governance,<br />
and Ownership<br />
Our Values<br />
Our Strategy<br />
Our Partners<br />
26<br />
28<br />
30<br />
32<br />
34
Annual <strong>Impact</strong> <strong>Report</strong> <strong>2022</strong>/20<strong>23</strong><br />
It feels like we have<br />
finally achieved our<br />
dream of becoming a<br />
business that ‘follows<br />
the sun’ and that can<br />
effectively serve clients<br />
anywhere in the world.<br />
4
Introduction<br />
I am delighted to present Society’s <strong>Impact</strong> <strong>Report</strong> for <strong>2022</strong>-<strong>23</strong>. We have<br />
been producing annual documents like this for a decade now, as we<br />
seek to keep our various stakeholders updated about Society’s work and<br />
activities. I consider our <strong>Impact</strong> <strong>Report</strong>s an important way of celebrating<br />
our successes, admitting our shortcomings, and clarifying our priorities for<br />
the year ahead.<br />
<strong>2022</strong> was our first full year as a truly global business, with subsidiaries<br />
incorporated in both the United States and New Zealand. This means that<br />
from sunrise in Auckland on a Monday morning, through to sunset in New<br />
York on a Friday evening, we are now continually active. It feels like we have<br />
finally achieved our dream of becoming a business that ‘follows the sun’<br />
and that can effectively serve clients anywhere in the world. The fact that<br />
we have made this gear-shift whilst also seeing both our Net Promoter<br />
Score and our B <strong>Impact</strong> Score reach all-time highs reflects brilliantly on our<br />
team. I simply cannot praise their dedication and hard work highly enough.<br />
For the past few months, we have additionally been going through a brand<br />
refresh exercise. I am looking forward to launching some of the results of<br />
that in the weeks ahead. Although we aren’t planning anything drastic, like<br />
a change of name or identity, this process has provided a welcome chance<br />
to update our Purpose, Mission and Vision statements, and to tighten up our<br />
communications and our client documentation. You will soon see us starting<br />
to use a few new visual devices in our materials too. These all hint at the<br />
way in which we see our work – the idea that putting exceptional and<br />
diverse change-makers into influential roles initiates a chain reaction, or a<br />
ripple/domino effect, that can help to make the world a better place.<br />
Section 1<br />
Once again, this report will put a tight focus on the three areas of People,<br />
Planet and Profit that form our definition of success as a ‘triple-bottom-line’<br />
business. I hope that you are encouraged by what you read, but would also<br />
welcome any feedback or suggestions for further improvements that we<br />
can embrace.<br />
Simon Lucas<br />
Chief Executive<br />
5
Annual <strong>Impact</strong> <strong>Report</strong> <strong>2022</strong>/20<strong>23</strong><br />
The Story<br />
So Far<br />
2009<br />
2011<br />
Society Ltd<br />
established in the UK<br />
Society becomes<br />
a founding signatory<br />
of the Voluntary<br />
Code of Conduct for<br />
Executive Search Firms<br />
2009<br />
2010<br />
2014<br />
Society hires its first<br />
full-time colleagues<br />
Society establishes The<br />
Society Foundation<br />
6
Section 1<br />
2015<br />
Society becomes an<br />
accredited Living<br />
Wage employer<br />
2019<br />
Society becomes<br />
a certified B<br />
Corporation, declares<br />
a Climate Emergency,<br />
and commits to Net<br />
Zero by 2030<br />
2021<br />
Society launches<br />
an office in Auckland,<br />
New Zealand<br />
<strong>2022</strong><br />
2016<br />
2020<br />
<strong>2022</strong><br />
Society launches an<br />
office in New York, USA<br />
Society survives the<br />
COVID-19 pandemic<br />
without a single<br />
redundancy<br />
Society recertifies<br />
as a B Corporation<br />
with a significantly<br />
increased score<br />
7
Annual <strong>Impact</strong> <strong>Report</strong> <strong>2022</strong>/20<strong>23</strong><br />
Highlights from<br />
the Past Year<br />
JAN<br />
MAR<br />
B Corp Month<br />
MAY<br />
Society sponsors<br />
the annual UHR<br />
Conference and leads<br />
a seminar on DEI<br />
Society APAC<br />
Ltd incorporated<br />
in New Zealand<br />
Our London<br />
team moves<br />
into a new office run by<br />
X+Why, a fellow B Corp<br />
In attendance<br />
at the B For<br />
Good Leaders Summit<br />
in Rome<br />
JAN <strong>2022</strong><br />
FEB<br />
Details of The Society<br />
Foundation’s 2021<br />
grants announced<br />
APR<br />
Launch of a new data<br />
entry solution with our<br />
partner Adetiq<br />
JUN<br />
Our CEO appears<br />
on the Purposefully<br />
Podcast<br />
Our first placement<br />
through the 10,000<br />
Black Interns scheme<br />
8
Section 1<br />
AUG<br />
OCT<br />
DEC<br />
The Trustees of The<br />
Society Foundation<br />
met to agree on<br />
their <strong>2022</strong> grants<br />
Society gains two<br />
coveted places on the<br />
framework agreement<br />
for UK public sector<br />
appointments<br />
Society recertifies as a<br />
B Corporation<br />
Whole Company Away<br />
Day in London<br />
JAN 20<strong>23</strong><br />
SEP<br />
Society runs a fullpage<br />
advertisement<br />
in the THE<br />
NOV<br />
In attendance at the<br />
inaugural EduConnections<br />
Retreat in London with<br />
global leaders from<br />
the schools sector<br />
JAN<br />
Delayed Christmas<br />
Party in London<br />
due to train strikes<br />
before Christmas!<br />
Simultaneous<br />
volunteering events<br />
in Auckland, London,<br />
and New York<br />
The whole company<br />
competes in<br />
Steptember, raising<br />
$1,248.94 and taking<br />
4.6 million steps<br />
‘1000x Better’ event<br />
at the Natural History<br />
Museum to celebrate<br />
1,000 UK B Corps<br />
Society APAC<br />
gains Living Wage<br />
accreditation in<br />
New Zealand<br />
95
Annual <strong>Impact</strong> <strong>Report</strong> <strong>2022</strong>/20<strong>23</strong><br />
Our Year in Numbers<br />
59.4<br />
121<br />
Assignments<br />
70<br />
Net Promoter<br />
Score<br />
Clients<br />
56%<br />
Female<br />
appointments<br />
31%<br />
BAME/BIPOC<br />
appointments<br />
9<br />
Sectors<br />
12<br />
different countries<br />
on 5 continents<br />
22 8<br />
colleagues<br />
different<br />
nationalities<br />
£588<br />
of charitable<br />
gifts given on<br />
behalf of placed<br />
candidates<br />
3<br />
offices<br />
£38,036<br />
donated to The<br />
Society Foundation<br />
306<br />
hours of colleague<br />
time volunteered to<br />
community organisations<br />
10
Recertification<br />
Society successfully recertified as a B Corporation in October.<br />
Section 1<br />
B Corporations are a global movement of companies reinventing business as force for good.<br />
They are independently audited every three years in line with rigorous standards of social and<br />
environmental performance, accountability, and transparency through the rigorous B <strong>Impact</strong><br />
Assessment.<br />
Society originally achieved certification in 2019 with an overall score of 86.9. We set ourselves a<br />
target score of 95+ for recertification. In the end, we managed to increase our score by over <strong>23</strong>%.<br />
Our New B <strong>Impact</strong> Score<br />
107.5<br />
Threshold for B Corp Certification<br />
80<br />
Median Score for<br />
Ordinary Businesses<br />
50.9<br />
Governance<br />
17.4<br />
Environment<br />
2.4<br />
107.5<br />
Workers<br />
30.9<br />
Customers<br />
<strong>23</strong>.2<br />
Community<br />
33.2<br />
Of the 28 executive search firms who have become B Corporations, this makes Society the third<br />
highest scoring in the world.<br />
Society’s Chief Executive, Simon Lucas, commented:<br />
“I want to pay tribute to the entire team at Society for this achievement, particularly for the work<br />
they have done on our drive towards Net Zero, and on sharpening our support for underserviced<br />
and purpose-driven enterprises, and for in-need populations… But we know that being a<br />
responsible business is a continual journey, not a one-off destination. As such, I am determined<br />
that we will keep improving and keep collaborating closely with all our stakeholders, in order to<br />
continue raising the bar.”<br />
11
Annual <strong>Impact</strong> <strong>Report</strong> <strong>2022</strong>/20<strong>23</strong><br />
Our <strong>2022</strong> Clients and the SDGs<br />
Here are a small selection of the clients we were fortunate to work with during <strong>2022</strong>,<br />
along with how they relate to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs):<br />
12
Section 1<br />
13
Annual <strong>Impact</strong> <strong>Report</strong> <strong>2022</strong>/20<strong>23</strong><br />
Search Highlights from <strong>2022</strong><br />
Here is a small selection of the successful appointments Society advised on during <strong>2022</strong>:<br />
Surita Sandosham joins<br />
Heifer International as<br />
President and Chief<br />
Executive Officer<br />
Read more →<br />
Iain Anderson joins<br />
Stonewall as Chair of<br />
the Trustees<br />
Read more →<br />
Claire Reindorp joins the<br />
Young Women’s Trust as<br />
Chief Executive Officer<br />
Read more →<br />
Natsayi Sithole joins<br />
Renaisi as Deputy Chief<br />
Executive Officer<br />
Read more →<br />
Patrick Hurworth joins<br />
UWC South East Asia<br />
(UWCSEA) as Head of<br />
Dover Campus<br />
Read more →<br />
Dr Alice Payne joins RMIT<br />
University as Dean of the<br />
School of Fashion and<br />
Textiles<br />
Read more →<br />
Alpana Malde joins<br />
Accelerate CIC as<br />
Commercial Director<br />
Read more →<br />
Andrea Newman joins<br />
Mandarin Oriental Hotel<br />
Group as Vice President of<br />
Brand<br />
Read more →<br />
14
Steve Murigi<br />
Oxford, UK<br />
Christopher Gerry<br />
Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan<br />
Shiley Choy<br />
Hong Kong, China<br />
Section 1<br />
Ally James<br />
New York, USA<br />
Surita Sandosham<br />
Little Rock, USA<br />
Stefan Schlachter<br />
Munich, Germany<br />
Quentin Derrick<br />
Hanoi, Vietnam<br />
Muhammad Wazirzada<br />
Sydney, Australia<br />
Karen Doyle Grossman<br />
San Francisco, USA<br />
Nathalie Ducray<br />
Paris, France<br />
Sanjeev Shukla<br />
Abu Dhabi, UAE<br />
Ana Paula Buzo<br />
Mexico City, Mexico<br />
Katherine Johnson<br />
Melbourne, Australia<br />
Chris Green<br />
Maroodi Jeex, Somaliland<br />
The challenges facing humanity are<br />
global in nature, and that is why we<br />
choose to solve leadership challenges<br />
for clients all over the world. We were<br />
delighted to advise on all of these<br />
appointments and more over the<br />
course of the year:<br />
Raphael Lanfant<br />
Singapore<br />
15
Annual <strong>Impact</strong> <strong>Report</strong> <strong>2022</strong>/20<strong>23</strong><br />
Last Year’s Goals<br />
“Setting clear emissions reduction<br />
targets for the business that will<br />
move us swiftly and decisively<br />
towards Net Zero”<br />
Further details of our progress in this area can be<br />
found on Page 20<br />
“Rolling out a new wellbeingfocused<br />
employee benefits platform<br />
called ‘Juno’ as an upgrade to our<br />
current Personal and Professional<br />
Development Allowances”<br />
This was sadly short-lived. The introduction of<br />
additional charges by Juno made this platform<br />
unviable, so we have reverted to<br />
our former PPDA scheme from<br />
January 20<strong>23</strong>.<br />
“Identifying a new Mental Health First<br />
Aider within the business and a new<br />
Health and Wellbeing Champion too”<br />
Clare Davies is now fully trained and accredited<br />
as our Mental Health First Aider. We are in the<br />
process of getting a second colleague trained too<br />
– this time in New York, in order to provide better<br />
coverage for those outside the UK.<br />
We have not yet appointed a new<br />
Health and Wellbeing Champion,<br />
but we hope to do so shortly.<br />
“Revitalising and potentially<br />
reimagining our colleague volunteering<br />
activity, aiming for a return to 100%<br />
uptake by the end of <strong>2022</strong>”<br />
We have appointed a new Volunteering<br />
Coordinator, who has relaunched our volunteering<br />
programme, providing a menu of available ‘plug<br />
and play’ opportunities to each office. Every<br />
colleague in the firm participated in some form<br />
of volunteering during <strong>2022</strong>,<br />
although we have not yet returned<br />
to every colleague using their full<br />
entitlement.<br />
“Nudging colleagues towards<br />
behaviours that will be more<br />
responsible and sustainable,<br />
including through better pensions<br />
investing and the choice of greener<br />
home energy suppliers”<br />
We have provided colleagues with information<br />
throughout the year to help them make more<br />
responsible and sustainable choices. This<br />
has included material from<br />
campaigns such as Make My<br />
Money Matter. We also hosted a<br />
whole-company ‘Hive Mind’ event<br />
to share sustainability life hacks.<br />
“Creating a clear and regular<br />
system for capturing, analysing and<br />
sharing statistics from our Diversity<br />
Monitoring Website, and identifying<br />
specific areas for improvement”<br />
Data from our diversity monitoring website is now<br />
shared with all colleagues on a quarterly basis,<br />
with each team in the company<br />
encouraged to identify one<br />
statistic to celebrate and one<br />
statistic to take action on.<br />
16
“Auditing our practice in line with<br />
the Inclusive Recruitment Toolkit<br />
and making recommendations for<br />
any changes that we should adopt<br />
to our standard process”<br />
We have begun to evolve our standard<br />
recruitment practice in several ways, most<br />
notably through an expanded use of Open<br />
Hours, where potential candidates are able<br />
to dial into a Zoom call before the application<br />
deadline in order to meet client<br />
representatives and pose<br />
questions directly to the hiring<br />
manager.<br />
“Raising our voice by getting<br />
colleagues participating in or<br />
convening groups to discuss key DEI<br />
topics”<br />
We have collaborated with the Getting On Board<br />
campaign to change the face of trusteeship,<br />
created an internal Allies Group to bring greater<br />
focus to our initiatives and<br />
advocacy around LGBTQ+<br />
equality, and made our Inclusive<br />
Recruitment Toolkit free to<br />
access.<br />
Section 1<br />
“Revisiting our approach to writing<br />
candidate commentaries with a<br />
sharper awareness of implicit bias”<br />
We conducted research on the use of language<br />
in our commentaries, published the results in<br />
partnership with UHR, and then made changes<br />
to our standard approach accordingly.<br />
“Increasing the proportion of<br />
colleagues undertaking some skillsbased<br />
training on cross-job functions<br />
beyond their regular responsibilities<br />
(eg. public speaking training,<br />
management training for nonmanagers,<br />
etc...)”<br />
We introduced a weekly ‘Society Business<br />
School’, accessible to all colleagues. This has now<br />
delivered over 14 hours of additional skills-based<br />
and cross-company training<br />
covering everything from change<br />
management and effective<br />
delegation, through to coaching<br />
techniques and handling stress.<br />
“Working with others on cooperative initiatives relating to the social and<br />
environmental standards in our industry, perhaps through contributing to<br />
academic research, participating in panel presentations or other public forums,<br />
or providing public resources for other businesses or stakeholders around<br />
improving social or environmental performance”<br />
After consulting with various partners and other B Corps, we made a series of additions to our Client<br />
Framework. This is the policy that helps us to avoid client relationships that would be incompatible with our<br />
core values. Our changes including adding five more sectors to the list of areas in which we are<br />
unwilling to work and expanding the list of reasons of why we may decline to work with specific<br />
organisations to reflect our continued alertness to the Climate Emergency, our deep concern<br />
at the treatment of women and LGBTQ+ people, and our growing awareness of the rights of<br />
indigenous communities following our recent incorporation in New Zealand.<br />
17
Annual <strong>Impact</strong> <strong>Report</strong> <strong>2022</strong>/20<strong>23</strong><br />
People<br />
Our team is now…<br />
On January 4th 20<strong>23</strong>, 50% of the colleagues<br />
working at Society had been hired within the<br />
last 12 months.<br />
This level of turnover would present a challenge to any organisation.<br />
Onboarding and assimilating such a high proportion of new people risks<br />
inadvertent changes to your collective culture and values, or a dilution<br />
of quality standards. But we are delighted to report that the change has<br />
been managed smoothly and successfully, with our new team members<br />
providing a noticeable injection of fresh energy, enthusiasm, and<br />
commerciality.<br />
In Q1 <strong>2022</strong>, we made our biggest ever change to employee T&Cs –<br />
reducing contracted working hours whilst upholding salary levels, and<br />
increasing the level of flexibility afforded for colleagues to decide when<br />
and where they do their work. We have since followed that up with<br />
several more investments in our people:<br />
24%<br />
BAME/BIPOC<br />
65%<br />
Female<br />
• the introduction of a formal<br />
closure period between<br />
Christmas and New Years;<br />
• a new Electric Vehicles Policy to<br />
assist colleagues in transitioning<br />
to a more sustainable mode of<br />
transport;<br />
• moving our UK pension<br />
scheme to a salary sacrifice<br />
arrangement;<br />
• launching an employer medical<br />
insurance scheme in the USA;<br />
• revising our Eye Tests Policy to<br />
reflect a new collaboration with<br />
Specsavers;<br />
• the reintroduction of our<br />
Personal and Professional<br />
Development Allowances<br />
scheme which gives every<br />
Society colleague £250 to use<br />
as they want for any kind of<br />
course, purchase, activity, or<br />
subscription that interests them;<br />
• a new Menopause Policy to<br />
codify the support and flexibility<br />
we provide to menopausal and<br />
perimenopausal colleagues.<br />
24%<br />
LGBTQ+<br />
35%<br />
Part-time<br />
18<br />
53%<br />
Parents
Our colleagues also continued to volunteer their time and<br />
expertise to a range of organisations across London, New<br />
York, and Auckland. We believe that volunteering is an<br />
excellent way of recharging our batteries and contributing<br />
to team building, but it also allows us to forge meaningful<br />
and long-lasting partnerships with our communities. Society<br />
has colleagues who are Trustees of schools and charities<br />
and we are always encouraging and supportive of such<br />
long-term voluntary commitments, as it’s a great way to<br />
develop inclusive and innovative leaders within the firm.<br />
In September we undertook our first whole-company<br />
volunteering event since the start of the pandemic. Our<br />
New Zealand colleagues spent the day at Auckland City<br />
Mission. Our London colleagues transformed the garden<br />
of Westbourne Park’s Memory and Dementia Resource<br />
Centre. And our New York colleagues handed out food for<br />
Campaign Against Hunger.<br />
Section 2<br />
100%<br />
In our colleague survey at the end of Q4,<br />
100% of our staff agreed with the statements<br />
• “I feel proud of working for Society”<br />
• “I have an opportunity to contribute<br />
to decisions that affect me”<br />
• “When decisions are made, I<br />
understand how and why”<br />
• “My job is interesting and<br />
challenging”<br />
• “I know what I need to do to be<br />
successful in my role”<br />
• “I understand how my role contributes<br />
to the business achieving its goals”<br />
• “My manager wants me to succeed”<br />
• “There’s a friendly, fun, healthy<br />
atmosphere”<br />
• “I feel valued and respected”<br />
• “My colleagues are generally<br />
supportive, positive, and helpful”<br />
• “I am generally supportive, positive<br />
and helpful to my colleagues”<br />
• “Society has high standards and<br />
holds colleagues accountably for the<br />
quality of their performance”<br />
• “I receive regular and constructive<br />
feedback”<br />
19
Annual <strong>Impact</strong> <strong>Report</strong> <strong>2022</strong>/20<strong>23</strong><br />
Planet<br />
Society has joined B Corporations from around the<br />
world in declaring a climate emergency. We are<br />
challenging ourselves to reach Net Zero by 2030 at<br />
the absolute latest, which is still 20 years ahead of the<br />
targets set by the Paris Agreement. We are committed<br />
to collective and immediate action to halt and reverse<br />
the current climate trajectory and to build an inclusive,<br />
equitable, and regenerative economic system.<br />
During <strong>2022</strong>, we worked with a new partner called<br />
Supercritical to update the calculations of our global<br />
emissions. We were keen to take a more expansive view<br />
of our footprint, and knew that the return of business<br />
travel would drive up emissions throughout our supply<br />
chain. Supercritical merged the activity data we were<br />
able to enter in their system with the most up-to-date<br />
emission factors in order to create a detailed picture of<br />
our current carbon footprint. The results were sobering:<br />
44 Total tonnes CO2<br />
emitted in <strong>2022</strong><br />
That’s the equivalent of powering<br />
14 homes for a whole year<br />
20 4
Emissions breakdown<br />
Food & drink<br />
3.3%<br />
Marketing<br />
& advertising<br />
3.1%<br />
Office utilities<br />
2.1%<br />
Gifts, swag and other<br />
1%<br />
Cloud & data centres<br />
3.8%<br />
Business travel<br />
35.7%<br />
Employee commuting<br />
4%<br />
Section 2<br />
Office fixtures, supplies<br />
and maintenance<br />
4.8%<br />
Software<br />
5.5%<br />
Hardware<br />
6.5%<br />
Consultants<br />
9.3%<br />
Employee remote working<br />
19.4%<br />
Armed with this information, we are now reformulating our<br />
reduction plan. For those emissions we cannot eliminate, we<br />
have agreed only to use verified offsets, emphasising carbon<br />
removal projects.<br />
21<br />
xx
Annual <strong>Impact</strong> <strong>Report</strong> <strong>2022</strong>/20<strong>23</strong><br />
Profit<br />
Commercially, we experienced <strong>2022</strong> as a year of two halves. Q1 and Q2<br />
saw a high level of colleague turnover – our own little version of ‘The<br />
Great Resignation’ that was experienced by so many organisations<br />
around the world as the pandemic came to an end. In our case, several<br />
individuals who had stuck with the business during COVID-19 decided<br />
that the time was right to move on. This left us with a number of core<br />
roles to refill and depressed our business development efforts accordingly<br />
for a period of time. We were nevertheless able to pay record bonuses to<br />
colleagues during March, in order to acknowledge their hard work during<br />
2021.<br />
By the mid-year point, we had successfully refreshed our pipeline and<br />
addressed most of our personnel gaps. Our income therefore returned to<br />
a healthy and sustained level. By the end of December, we had turned<br />
<strong>2022</strong> into our highest revenue year on record, albeit narrowly:<br />
Annual Revenues: 2019-<strong>2022</strong><br />
2019 2020 2021 <strong>2022</strong><br />
The personnel churn during <strong>2022</strong> provided us with an opportunity to make some structural<br />
changes, which should now help to power the future growth and expansion of the business.<br />
This includes the creation of a Head of Consulting role to provide leadership of our core<br />
EMEA P&L. We have additionally created a data entry solution that has dramatically<br />
increased the bandwidth of our research team, and a new Project Support Administrator<br />
role to enhance our effectiveness on Full Search assignments. In recent months, we have<br />
also increased the amount of financial transparency and delegated budgetary authority<br />
provided to our Heads of Practice and our two Regional Managing Directors.<br />
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Section 2<br />
The Society Foundation is an independent charity we helped to set up. We fund it<br />
with an annual donation equal to at least 10% of our profits. It then gives grants to<br />
organisations that help potentially vulnerable people back into paid employment. The<br />
beneficiaries it seeks to prioritise include the recently homeless or vulnerably housed,<br />
ex-offenders, and 16-24 year-olds not in employment, education, or training. In <strong>2022</strong>,<br />
The Society Foundation received:<br />
£20,208<br />
from Society Ltd<br />
$21,380 £215.50<br />
From Society US Inc<br />
from our Diversity<br />
Monitoring Website<br />
The Foundation has used this money to hand out seven grants to deserving<br />
organisations.<br />
<strong>23</strong>
Annual <strong>Impact</strong> <strong>Report</strong> <strong>2022</strong>/20<strong>23</strong><br />
Looking Ahead<br />
Here are some of the projects we are looking forward to tackling in the remainder of 20<strong>23</strong>:<br />
Completing our Brand Refresh Project,<br />
including improved client reports and<br />
the relaunch of our website in a way that<br />
increases its accessibility.<br />
Creating a credible roadmap for<br />
significant reductions in our emissions, in<br />
line with Science-Based Targets.<br />
Identifying a high-quality offsetting<br />
partner to cover whatever emissions we<br />
cannot eliminate.<br />
Rewriting our Volunteering Policy.<br />
Finally replacing our Mental<br />
Health First Aider.<br />
Creating a mechanism for<br />
capturing more detailed<br />
diversity monitoring data<br />
around our appointments<br />
with a view to identifying<br />
weaknesses around particular<br />
groups or intersectional<br />
identities.<br />
Coordinating further training for<br />
colleagues on our Inclusive Recruitment<br />
Toolkit.<br />
Consulting with individuals<br />
from historically underrepresented<br />
groups, such<br />
as the neurodiverse, in order<br />
to identify innovations that<br />
could make our processes<br />
more inclusive.<br />
24
Reviewing the role of<br />
Employee Resources<br />
Groups within Society<br />
in consultation with the<br />
whole team.<br />
Completing the integration of<br />
our Delphi training resource<br />
with SharePoint.<br />
Section 3<br />
Doubling our training video content.<br />
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Annual <strong>Impact</strong> <strong>Report</strong> <strong>2022</strong>/20<strong>23</strong><br />
Our Social <strong>Impact</strong><br />
We think of our social impact holistically, encompassing how we affect our clients, our candidates,<br />
our colleagues, our suppliers, our wider community, and the recruitment industry at large.<br />
We see our key social impacts as:<br />
The quality of the<br />
appointments we help<br />
our clients to make<br />
and the impact those<br />
individuals subsequently<br />
have in-post.<br />
The integrity with which we help<br />
candidates to define and to attain their<br />
career objectives.<br />
The way in which we look after,<br />
and develop our colleagues.<br />
The extent to which our<br />
business consumes resources,<br />
and the size of our carbon<br />
footprint.<br />
The impact and<br />
longevity of our work<br />
in the community.<br />
The leadership we<br />
show within the wider<br />
recruitment industry on<br />
issues of responsibility,<br />
ethics, sustainability,<br />
diversity, equity, and<br />
inclusion.<br />
26
Section 4<br />
We’ve sought to make tangible improvements in each of these areas<br />
over the past year, as this report hopefully illustrates. As ever though, we<br />
believe that the most significant way in which we contribute positively<br />
towards society is through the appointments we help our clients to make.<br />
The impact that those individuals have in-post has undoubtedly been our<br />
single most crucial driver since the company’s conception.<br />
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Annual <strong>Impact</strong> <strong>Report</strong> <strong>2022</strong>/20<strong>23</strong><br />
Our Structure,<br />
Governance, and<br />
Ownership<br />
Society is a private limited company, registered in England and Wales.<br />
We have two wholly-owned subsidiaries: ‘Society US Inc’, based in New<br />
York, and ‘Society APAC Ltd’, based in Auckland. All three companies are<br />
ultimately overseen by a Board consisting of our Chief Executive and two<br />
Non-Executives. We also have an Advisory Board, who provide strategic<br />
input without fiduciary responsibilities.<br />
The current shareholdings within Society are:<br />
35% Simon Lucas 30%<br />
Daniel Perrett<br />
30% Simon Laver 5%<br />
Emma Hart<br />
As a B Corporation, our Articles of Association contains a pre-amble on<br />
‘Responsibility’ that states:<br />
“The objects of the Company are to promote the success of the Company<br />
for the benefit of its members as a whole and, through its business<br />
and operations, to have a material positive impact on society and the<br />
environment, taken as a whole.”<br />
28 4
The new text goes on to define a series of ‘Stakeholder Interests’, that the Board must<br />
seek to balance as effectively as it can, without assuming any one area should take<br />
precedence over the others. These include:<br />
• the likely long-term consequences of any decision;<br />
• the interests of our employees;<br />
• our need to foster relationships with suppliers, customers and others;<br />
• the impact of our operations on the community and the environment;<br />
• our desire to maintain a reputation for high standards of business conduct.<br />
Section 4<br />
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Annual <strong>Impact</strong> <strong>Report</strong> <strong>2022</strong>/20<strong>23</strong><br />
Our Values<br />
We believe that organisations can have a positive social impact, and that careers should have<br />
purpose and meaning. Our goal is to change the world for the better – one appointment at a time.<br />
We’ve given a lot of thought to how we want to do business. It boils down to five core values:<br />
Partnership<br />
We work in genuine partnership with our clients, remaining<br />
communicative and transparent throughout the appointment<br />
process. We’re also a close-knit team, not just a collection of<br />
individuals. We collaborate and share expertise across sector<br />
boundaries.<br />
Authenticity<br />
We’re not ‘salesy’. We ensure that our clients meet the<br />
colleagues who will actually lead our work for them. We hire<br />
people who are genuine and personable. We value being<br />
trustworthy and approachable.<br />
Integrity<br />
We treat people as people, not as a means to an end. We’re<br />
fair and straightforward in our dealings with clients and<br />
candidates. We never ‘blag’. If we don’t know something then<br />
we’ll admit it. We also seek to practise what we preach.<br />
Creativity<br />
Excellent search involves effective storytelling. We listen to<br />
nuance, put bespoke research into every project, and think<br />
outside the box when sourcing great people. We’re also<br />
continually on the lookout for innovative ways to use technology.<br />
Diligence<br />
We’re all about the details. We take in-depth briefings. We<br />
follow up leads and leave no stone unturned when searching.<br />
We hold ourselves to the highest quality standards. You can<br />
count on us to be thorough.<br />
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Section 4<br />
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Annual <strong>Impact</strong> <strong>Report</strong> <strong>2022</strong>/20<strong>23</strong><br />
Our Strategy<br />
Our strategy is oriented around the five characteristics that we<br />
believe Society must embody in order to be successful:<br />
Responsible<br />
We must fully occupy the purpose-driven/responsible business<br />
space in our sector. We must take our own impact seriously,<br />
ensuring we remain values-led and make a tangible positive<br />
contribution to the world. This will ensure our work is meaningful<br />
and give us a powerful USP.<br />
Connected<br />
We must continually cultivate and refresh our knowledge,<br />
networks and relationships. We must build our brand and our<br />
credibility to ensure that we are visible to leaders and to people<br />
in positions of influence. This will make us a desirable partner for<br />
the clients we want to work with.<br />
Global<br />
We must internationalise our client portfolio, our colleague<br />
base, and our physical presence. This will increase the reach<br />
of our positive impact, reduce our reliance on any one<br />
geography/economy, create career opportunities for our<br />
colleagues, and provide scope for exciting innovations.<br />
Diversified<br />
We must diversify into new sectors and functional areas,<br />
expanding our expertise and capability. We must widen our<br />
track record whilst also developing clear functional or thematic<br />
areas of strength. This will protect us from over-reliance on any<br />
one colleague or sector.<br />
Excellent<br />
We must ensure that we have first-class systems, processes,<br />
and quality benchmarks, executed consistently, and<br />
underpinned by high levels of productivity and accountability.<br />
We must collect and utilise data to improve our performance.<br />
This will give us a vital competitive edge.<br />
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Section 4<br />
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Annual <strong>Impact</strong> <strong>Report</strong> <strong>2022</strong>/20<strong>23</strong><br />
Our Partners<br />
Wherever possible, we like to work with organisations that share our values.<br />
Here are some of our current partners.<br />
Fellow B Corporations<br />
Our global tech partner Our UK landlord Our APAC bank<br />
Our climate action partner Our UK law firm Our branding agency<br />
34 4
Other Partners<br />
Our <strong>Impact</strong> <strong>Report</strong> designers Our client design firm How we do birthday cards<br />
Our APAC/US accountants Our UK accountants Our US landlord<br />
Our global data entry partner Our charitable giving partner Our UK financial advisors<br />
We also have supplier relationships with a wide range of tech platforms (Ikiru People,<br />
Breathe, Calendly, Loom, and LinkedIn), publications and job boards, freelancer researchers,<br />
psychometric testing providers, and ‘Rec2Rec’ firms.<br />
Section 4<br />
35
Contact<br />
If you’re interested in learning more about Society, we’d love<br />
to hear from you. Please contact us on hello@society-search.<br />
com or via one of our offices:<br />
Society EMEA<br />
x+why<br />
14 Fulwood Place<br />
London<br />
WC1V 6HZ<br />
United Kingdom<br />
+44 (0)207 935 4052<br />
Society North America<br />
1460 Broadway<br />
Floor 16<br />
New York<br />
NY 10036<br />
United States<br />
+1 (646) 974 9098<br />
Society APAC<br />
PO Box 147526<br />
Ponsonby<br />
Auckland<br />
1144<br />
New Zealand<br />
+64 21 419 727