1. Commercial - Positive about work
(a) Flexibility
Reed placed 100,000 temporaries into work last year. They worked 30m hours.
(One woman, Elizabeth Wilcox, temped for Reed Employment in Staines for over 20 years before accepting a permanent job. Another, Kate Pigott, has been temping with Reed in Hounslow since 1968.)
In addition Reed placed over 20,000 people into permanent positions in 2004.
(b) Accessibility
reed.co.uk ranks first amongst private sector web sites in terms of jobs posted and visitor traffic (according to Hitwise, reported in the Recruiter on 13 July 2005). Reed also has a strong offline presence with 365 offices throughout the UK, one for every day of the year.
- reed.co.uk receives half a million visits every week.
- Over one million searches are carried out on reed.co.uk every week.
- Over two million job viewings are made on reed.co.uk every week.
- 200,000 job applications are made on reed.co.uk every week.
- One million candidates are currently registered online.
(c) Efficiency
Reed has saved banks, charities and other VAT exempt institutions millions of pounds over the last ten years through our groundbreaking VAT initiative, creating many temporary opportunities in the process.
(d) Value Added
According to the Government's Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), Reed added value to the tune of £257m to the UK economy in 2003 (defined as "sales less bought-in goods and services").
2. Social - Positive social change
(a) Putting the long-term unemployed into work
- Since 1998, Reed in Partnership (RinP) has placed over 55,000 people who had been long-term unemployed into work (including a 57 year-old man placed into his first ever job with B&Q in Liverpool, a women in Sefton who had not worked for 36 years placed into work as a cleaner and a woman in East London who had not worked for 32 years placed into work in a bakery)
(b) Equality and Diversity
- 20% of those registering in Reed branches in 2004 were from an ethnic minority; 19% of those who found work through Reed branches in 2004 were from an ethnic minority - near parity of outcomes
- 44% of Reed in Partnership (RinP)'s Members were from ethnic minorities in 2004; 47% of those who found work in 2004 were from ethnic minorities – again, near parity of outcomes
- 26% of those registering on reed.co.uk are from an ethnic minority
- 0.5% of those registering with Reed branches had a disability; 0.4% of those who found work had a disability; 3% of RinP Members registering and 3% of RinP Members found work had disabilities - again, near parity of outcomes
- Reed was a founding Member of the business-led taskforce that was launched by the Prime Minister and in 2004 produced the report "Race Equality: The Benefits for Responsible Business" (published by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR)).
(c) Knowledge Economy
- Reed Learning has helped develop the personal and professional skills of over 400,000 people, from senior managers to PAs.
- Reed Education works in an ethical partnership with Local Education Authorities across the country to improve standards of supply teaching.
(d) Financial contribution
Reed paid £135m in taxes last year. The Government could spend this on any one of the following options (approximately):
- Pay for 11 months of the national school meals programme (it would have been 2½ years before the pledge of extra cash after Jamie Oliver's intervention)
- Build 10 secondary schools (£13m each)
- Fund the Department of Health's adoption programme for a year (£140m)
- Run Moorfield's Eye Hospital for two years (£63.3m a year)
3. Environmental - Positive about the environment
- In 2005 Reed became the UK's first major recruitment company to go CarbonNeutral™.
- As a group, Reed produced 4,208 tonnes of Carbon in 2004 and this is now being offset through investment in forestry projects throughout the UK.
- These projects, which include five in Scotland, one in Durham and one in Northumberland, help to offset carbon emissions by absorbing the Carbon Dioxide already in the atmosphere.
- Reed's use of green energy saved 2,853 tonnes of CO2 in 2004.
A dynamic, entrepreneurial culture
1. Company-wide ambition
- Our purpose is to be "First Choice for People" for candidates, clients and Co-Members
- We aim to have the number one recruitment network
- We aim to have the number one recruitment website
- We aim to have the number one name in recruitment
- Our ambition is to secure undisputed psychological market leadership
2. Company-wide innovation
- Reed pioneered specialist recruitment in the 1960s; Reed now has over 20 specialisms.
- reed.co.uk was launched in 1995 and is now the leading private sector job site. A Co-Member suggested allowing other agencies and employees to post their jobs on reed.co.uk for free; he was awarded £100,000 for the invention of “Freecruitment”, and reed.co.uk now has over 230,000 jobs and receives half a million visits every week.
- Reed encourages "Venture Peoplism": Reed Scientific was set up after 21-year-old consultant Ben Knott submitted a business plan to the Venture Fund.
3. Company-wide compassion/spirit
- Lee Courington at Reed in Partnership in Hackney lent a Member his suit, shirt and shoes to go to an interview as a security manager.
- Debbie Kelland of Chancery Lane Employment rented a room out in her flat to a candidate in order to fill a job.
- Frank West at Reed in Partnership in Liverpool found a job and a house for a homeless Member in the space of two days.
- The Co-Member appeal for the Tsunami disaster raised £75,000 (£27 per head)
- The Reed Foundation donated £646,000 to good causes in 2004
- Reed has founded several charities, and one of these, Ethiopiaid UK donated over £2m to projects in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in 2004
- Reed Managed Services' IT team has just won the Three Peaks Challenge – in which teams climb the highest mountains in England, Scotland and Wales - setting a record time of 20 hours 44 minutes and raising £8,850 for Care International.
Back to previous page
