Social Recruitment Covenant

Hiring with purpose. Building a fairer workforce.

Organisations signing the Social Recruitment Covenant (SRC) are finding better candidates, retaining them longer, and strengthening their case for public sector contracts.

570+ organisations, including Ikea, Lidl, Currys, G4S, Amey, M Group, Sodexo UK+I and the RNIB, have put their name to this since PeoplePlus launched the Covenant at Westminster in November 2024.

✍️ I have authority to sign on behalf of my organisation

Add your organisation's name to a growing movement of 500+ employers committed to fairer hiring. It's free, non-binding, and takes less than two minutes.

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📩 I'd like to find out more before signing

We'll send you an email with everything you need to share with your leadership team - the business case, who's signed, and how to get involved.

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Why employers are signing

Inclusive hiring makes practical business sense. BT, recruiting through PeoplePlus's Social Recruitment Framework, saw a 29% improvement in first-year retention and an £18,000 reduction in attraction costs per cohort. Teleperformance reported that workers recruited through the same model had the lowest attrition rates of any provider on their contract.

These results are evidence of what happens when recruitment is opened up to people who are motivated, capable, and consistently overlooked by traditional hiring processes.

Signing the Social Recruitment Covenant also supports your organisation's social value commitments.

For organisations tendering for public sector contracts, the SRC demonstrates a clear, public commitment to the principles that underpin the Government's Social Value Model and the Procurement Act 2023, helping evidence the kind of inclusive employment practices that both frameworks encourage.

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What signing means

The Covenant is a public statement of intent. In signing, your organisation commits to a simple belief:

"The economy can be stronger and more dynamic if society reduces the barriers to work faced by people from disadvantaged backgrounds."

Signing is free and takes a moment.

What follows is where the Covenant earns its name: reviewing how your organisation attracts, assesses and supports candidates, and changing what needs to change. Anyone can write the promise. The Covenant exists for the organisations that keep it.

Read the full Covenant text →

"As an employer in the United Kingdom, you pledge your commitment to increasing the role of social value across your organisation’s recruitment and employment practices.

You believe the economy can be stronger and more dynamic if society reduces the barriers to work faced by people from disadvantaged backgrounds.

By signing the Social Recruitment Covenant, you acknowledge that understanding and supporting social value in recruitment and employment can increase social mobility, strengthen workplaces, and help build companies that better reflect the communities in which they operate.

You recognise the important contribution that inclusive recruitment, training and employment practices can have for individuals and organisations alike - and you commit to reducing social inequality by adopting these practices."

A signature is a commitment, and commitments need structure behind them. PeoplePlus founded the Covenant and holds that structure: practical support with attraction, recruitment, retention, training and partnership models that make inclusive hiring achievable in practice, not just in principle. Signatories can access the Social Recruitment Framework, a free managed recruitment service that has moved 14,000+ people into work since 2018, and many go on to join the Social Recruitment Advocacy Group, the coalition that campaigns for social recruitment across the UK.

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Common questions

What does signing actually commit us to? A public statement of intent, not a legal contract. No audits, no fees, no mandatory reporting. You are committing to a belief and signalling it publicly.

We already have a D&I programme. Is this different? The Social Recruitment Covenant focuses specifically on employment barriers, the practical obstacles that stop capable people getting into work, and how those barriers combine. It complements existing D&I work rather than replacing it, and provides a recognised external framework to evidence your commitment.

Who else has signed? Over 570 organisations spanning retail, logistics, utilities, construction, healthcare, transport, staffing, the third sector and household names including including Asda, Currys PLC, Tesco, IKEA, G4S, Sodexo, Mitie, Manpower, NHS Employers, and the RNIB.

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What happens after you sign

Signing connects you to a growing network of employers taking social recruitment seriously. Many signatories go on to join the Social Recruitment Advocacy Group (SRAG), a membership movement of 200+ organisations, chaired by Rt. Hon. Anne Milton, collectively employing over 500,000 people across the UK.

Through SRAG and PeoplePlus's Social Recruitment Framework, you can access practical tools, employer case studies, Charter Mark accreditation, and direct support to put inclusive hiring into practice.

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Sign the Social Recruitment Covenant

A moment to sign. A public commitment that lasts.

The person signing should have the authority to publicly commit your organisation. Once we receive your details, we'll verify your application and send your media pack, including logos, graphics and copy to share your commitment publicly.

Sign now, it takes less than two minutes →

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