Back to News
The Shard's Partnership with GoodPeople Results in Employment of 447 Southwark Residents
REM confirmed that through its partnership with GoodPeople, it has assisted the employment of 447 Southwark residents who were previously unemployed.
GoodPeople Connect has assisted 447 previously unemployed Southwark residents into work since 2013
This is 11.75% above The Shard’s Section 106 target
London, 5 October 2016 - REM, on behalf of the owners of The Shard, has today confirmed that through its partnership with GoodPeople, it has assisted the employment of 447 Southwark residents who were previously unemployed.
GoodPeople Connect is a partnership between The Shard and GoodPeople – a social enterprise business that designs and implements Corporate Social Responsibility programmes to tackle important social issues. The partnership, which was formed in 2013, was designed to address Southwark’s employment challenges by empowering its skilled, diverse community to achieve their full career potential through access to masterclasses, events, work placements and jobs.
Since then, the partnership has assisted 447 local residents into work in over 200 companies. Almost 100 candidates have been placed in roles with various occupiers in The Shard itself, including The View from The Shard, Shangri-La hotel, the Aqua Shard restaurant, Tiffany, Warwick Business School, and numerous roles within The Shard’s IT infrastructure and principal housekeeping teams.
This landmark figure confirms that The Shard has fulfilled and surpassed its S106 employment obligations – through which the team committed to creating 400 jobs to support the London Bridge area’s residents.
From the outset we have been committed to ensuring that The Shard will make a positive contribution to its surrounding community. GoodPeople has a refreshing and innovative approach to placing candidates into employment by seeing their potential and seeking to develop and mentor them in a partnership with prospective employers.
By collaborating with GoodPeople, we have ourselves welcomed a host of new employees who have become integral to making the building run smoothly and have contributed to the overall experience of visiting the vertical city.
Ensuring that our local communities are thriving is important for us all, so what The Shard has achieved shows that businesses can be a force for good by simply conducting ‘business as usual’. Together, we’ve set a new standard and shown how large numbers of unemployed people can derive life-changing benefits from large-scale property developments and contribute enormous value to their employer’s business.
Southwark is one of the most exciting places in London for development and regeneration at the moment. For Southwark, The Shard is more than a tall building – it has been the driving force behind the regeneration of the London Bridge area, bringing jobs for local people and kick-starting other development in the area. Hundreds of Southwark residents, from all walks of life, are now benefitting from the opportunities the building provides.
On the success of the project: These numbers represent real, positive impacts on the lives of Southwark residents and we can celebrate the achievements of this project in supporting local people to access economic benefits from the London Bridge Quarter development.
For more information on the GoodPeople Connect partnership, please click here.
For more detail on the Southwark residents who have been employed at The Shard, please see below:
Tola – CCE (responsible for The Shard’s IT infrastructure)
GoodPeople met Tola through one of the Supply Partners Active Communities Networks, an international youth and community development charity that supports underprivileged young people to develop pathways to succeed and transition into adulthood. At the time Tola was doing some freelance IT work but was yet to find the right permanent position within the industry. Knowing Tola's potential GoodPeople arranged an interview with CCE, the IT contractor responsible for the Shard’s IT infrastructure. Tola has since progressed considerably, attaining several qualifications and becoming a vital team member.
Denise – Principle Housekeeping Team
Denise lost her job to a redundancy and was unemployed for over a year and a half. GoodPeople immediately identified her talent and put her forward to Shard’s in-house housekeeping contractor for a position. Since joining the team, Denise has made it to Principle Housekeeping home page after getting a resoundingly complimentary review from a The View from The Shard client for her excellent service.
