A purpose beyond profit

Rick Willmott about receiving a Queen’s Award for Enterprise for work promoting social mobility…

To be recognised for something we all feel so passionate about is amazing.

Last year 80% of our people took part in community activities to improve the lives of others. This included mock interviews with 1,471 young people up-skilling young people, delivering workshops to 32,000 students and taking part in 167 fundraising events for good causes, raising over £200,000.

The aim is always to make a difference and about one per cent of our people's time is spent away from the 'day job' taking part in activities that enrich the lives of those less fortunate. It is something we encourage through our Foundation and is one of the reasons people like working for us, they can change other people's lives for the better.

We have a purpose beyond profit and as the fifth generation to lead Willmott Dixon, I am proud of the difference we are able to make to people’s lives through our Foundation.

Sometimes it is easy to take these things for granted or get bogged down in the statistics but it is the stories of real people that have managed to gain skills, careers and opportunities that they would not have had that mean the most to me. That is why an accolade like a Queen’s Award for Enterprise is so important, it allows our people to appreciate what they have achieved and spurs us all on to achieve even more.

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