Reaffirming our partnership with The 5% Club in 2026
February 10, 2026Posted by:
As conversations about skills, progression and workforce resilience continue to evolve, partnerships that are grounded in delivery matter more than ever. For PeoplePlus, our relationship with The 5% Club sits firmly in that space – focused on practical action, shared learning and long-term impact.
The 5% Club has built a strong employer-led movement around apprenticeships, training and skills development, encouraging organisations to make sustained investment in their people. That approach aligns closely with PeoplePlus’ work across social value, employability and justice where outcomes and progression are the measure of success.
Since our initial patron level sponsorship of the 5% club late 2025, our partnership has continued to strengthen. We were proud to support The 5% Club’s flagship event at Mansion House as headline sponsor, bringing together senior leaders committed to skills-led growth and responsible workforce development. As we move into 2026, our focus is on building on that momentum in a way that is useful for employers and relevant to the challenges they are facing now.
Our partnership is about combining expertise to support employers in making skills, recruitment and social value work together more effectively.
Through the partnership:
- The 5% Club is one of the SRAG’s strategic partners, connecting its network into the Social Recruitment Advocacy Group and a wider community of employers, providers and partners focused on inclusive hiring.
- We will co-author a thought leadership article on the ethical use of AI in recruitment, looking at responsibilities on both sides of the process – how employers deploy technology fairly and how candidates experience increasingly automated hiring systems.
- We are working together on the next phase of the 5% Club’s Employer Audit, introducing a clearer focus on social value to help organisations understand, plan and evidence their impact.
- This work will lead to the launch of a new “Earn & Learn” Social Value Award, sponsored by PeoplePlus and launching in Q4 2026, recognising employers who embed skills development and inclusive recruitment into their core business.
Linking skills, recruitment and social value
PeoplePlus brings a delivery-led perspective to this work. Through our role in developing the Social Recruitment Covenant and facilitating the Social Recruitment Advocacy Group (SRAG), we support employers to attract talent, recruit inclusively, retain and develop their workforce, and strengthen the communities they operate in.
Working alongside The 5% Club allows us to connect skills investment more directly with recruitment, progression and long-term workforce planning. This feels particularly timely as employers navigate labour shortages, changing expectations around progression, and the growing influence of technology in hiring decisions.
Looking ahead
The Mansion House event was an important moment for the partnership, but it was never intended as a standalone milestone. In 2026, our shared focus is on continuing to provide employers with practical insight, credible frameworks and opportunities to learn from each other.
Emma Grigson, Partnerships and Social Value Solutions Director comments: “By working alongside The 5% Club, we can support employers to think more clearly about how skills investment, inclusive hiring and social value fit together in practice.”
Together with The 5% Club, we will continue to focus on:
- Skills investment that leads to real progression
- Inclusive recruitment that is practical and proportionate
- Responsible use of technology in hiring
- Social value that is measurable and embedded, not performative
We look forward to continuing this partnership throughout 2026 and working with The 5% Club and its members to support employers who are serious about building skilled, resilient and inclusive workforces.
February 10, 2026Posted by:
