Delivering real impact through Social Value at Arcus

Arcus FM publishes its five-year Social Value Strategy as part of its ongoing commitment to transparency and action across Environmental, Social and Governance areas. The publication coincides with the firm being shortlisted for a major award in this field.

Whilst having been in place since 2022, the Social Value Strategy will join its other publicly available documents (‘Arcus FM Net Zero Pathway’ and their Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion Strategy) on its website arcusfm.com.

The company is driven to support the communities in which it operates with improved social, economic, and environmental benefits.

The two central action areas within the strategy are community work and employability.

Community work sees the company donating to charitable causes. This includes the provision of labour for projects where colleagues’ skills could have a tangible impact, working in partnership with their suppliers. The company also runs an ‘Arcus in the Community’ scheme, which sees colleagues and stakeholders nominating causes that have a measurable impact on their community, to receive funding.  

As an inclusive employer, the employability action point focuses on four main under-represented groups as a priority. These are young people with a focus on care leavers; those serving in or soon to be released from prison; ex-services personnel; and individuals with health conditions.

The launch of the Social Value strategy comes in the same week that Arcus learned it has been recognised for its contributions to employment as finalists for the Kimberley-Clark Golden Service Awards in the Social Impact category.

As one of its largest operational areas in terms of headcount, Arcus’s Soft Services department celebrates its Social Impact on supporting people back in to work.

In the last fiscal year (2022-23), working closely with a range of social value partners, Arcus’s Soft Services department was able to make 64 job offers, including 30 people who had been out of work for longer than 12 months, seven returning citizens, two who were classed as having a disability, and one care leaver.

So far, this fiscal year (April – December), Arcus has offered employment to a further 34 people within their Soft Services department. 25 of those people were unemployed for longer than 12 months, six were classed as having a disability, two were returning citizens, and one care leaver.