Social Impact through Procurement (SIP) is a Johnson & Johnson UK programme designed to support job creation and social change in under-served communities.

 The business is allocating £15m (3%) of Johnson & Johnson’s UK procurement spend with social enterprises by 2020.

Awareness of the benefits of the older demographic resource is fast becoming recognised by many organisations. More and more companies are seeking to establish themselves as a committed employer for diversity, demonstrating those values, both for existing staff and to the outside world.

Such values are highly prized and now sought after in how business is transacted. Employers are fast becoming aware of the opportunity to trade and procure, coupled to social awareness. As a social enterprise, we offer a further route for businesses, to not just a valuable service provision of excellence that is economically viable, but for organisations to demonstrate their attitude towards enhancement of social economies that ultimately benefit everyone.

The Johnson & Johnson initiative, launched at the end of 2014, has an ambitious target of supporting 150 jobs for those furthest from the job market by 2020. In doing so, Johnson & Johnson aims to bring greater diversity and inclusion within its UK supply chain whilst supporting businesses with a social mission.

In 2015, Johnson & Johnson recorded a procurement spend of £497K with 15 social enterprises in the first year of the programme’s operation, achieved either directly, or indirectly, through tier 1 suppliers.  These covered a wide range of goods and services across the Johnson & Johnson businesses in the UK, including film and production, grounds maintenance, software testing and courier services.

As a result of this procurement spend, six jobs were created in the social enterprise space in 2015 alongside many other positive employment-related outcomes, and social enterprise suppliers reported that that it had a significant positive impact on their business development in terms of reputation building by working for a large corporate.

Vasco Grilo, Chief Procurement Officer, says: “The SIP programme is a testimony to the way Johnson & Johnson lives its Credo and a true example of how seriously we take the duty and responsibility we have towards the communities in which we live and work. Working with social enterprises, delivering value to society, creating jobs and boosting the opportunities of a better life for the less privileged amongst us is simply the right thing to do.”        

In November 2015, Johnson & Johnson UK hosted a Social Procurement Summit attended by industry representatives, government officials and social enterprises, showcasing how embedding social values into a corporate strategy can be good for business and good for society, and calling for other large corporates to demonstrate responsible business values.

Vasco Grilo continues: “Social procurement allows us to make a difference to society through our normal day to day business without impacting on the quality of the goods and services supplied. We are committed to this programme and to the impact that it brings to the lives of others.”

 Johnson & Johnson are one of the founding partners of the Buy Social Corporate Challenge, an initiative in which private companies are coming together to spend £1bn with social enterprises by 2020.

 Read J&J’s report, Can social value be good for business?