January 31st 2025

SROI: Opportunities to leverage talent

About business cases, SROI en MVO
SROI
labor market
employers
talent

Social return offers employers the opportunity to use talents with a refugee background and to make the labor market more inclusive. In a recent article by Rijkswaterstaat, examples are shared of organizations that successfully apply social return. How did they approach this and what can we learn from it?

What is SROI?

SROI (Social Return on Investment) helps companies create employment for people who are further removed from the labour market, such as refugees. It is not just about financial profit, but above all about social impact: offering work experience and opportunities to people who would otherwise have more difficulty accessing the labour market. SROI is often mandatory for government contracts and subsidies, which means that part of the contract value must be spent on social impact, such as work or training for these groups.

Social return as an opportunity

But social return is more than an obligation: it is an opportunity to make a positive impact together. At Refugee Talent Hub, we see every day how valuable it can be to support refugees on their way to the labor market. In 2024, Rijkswaterstaat's Groeituin Social Return team guided various organizations in the field of social return. The team recently shared the lessons learned in this article , with examples from, among others, our partners TwynstraGudde and Arcadis, who create opportunities for refugees and thus strengthen the diversity in their teams.

The initiatives of TwynstraGudde and Arcadis, and those of other organisations such as EY , show that social return not only offers advantages for refugees, but also for employers. In addition to refugees being able to develop their talents and find their place in this way, it makes companies more future-proof and successful.