Angela Halliday

Angela Halliday is the Director of Social Impact across the UK and Ireland for Sodexo. They are a global leader in services aiming to improve quality of life, focusing on integrated food and facility management services. 

Angela joined the corporate world in 2008, having spent most of her career working in the third sector. At Sodexo, Angela draws on her substantial experience in social enterprise to determine how best to incorporate a sense of social responsibility into an international corporate strategy.  

Programme mission 

Founded in 1966, Sodexo now has over 400,000 employees across the globe. At the beginning, their key concern was improving quality of life services. This mission has since expanded towards creating a better every day for everyone to build a better life – whilst working towards a wider socioeconomic and environmental impact. 

As a food service company and family-owned business, Sodexo fully supports their Stop Hunger Foundation, aiming to end global hunger and combat malnutrition. While this is the ultimate goal of the Foundation, Sodexo’s social impact pathways (and their results) spread out far wider. 

As the Director of Social Impact, Angela puts to good use her wealth of experience in multiple sectors and capacities. Her experience has shown her how employers and employees can work together to deliver real results to their communities—an important pillar of Sodexo’s mission. 

Awareness of the wider community is the centrepiece of Sodexo’s company culture. It’s built directly into the employee value proposition and sits alongside benefit programmes and company terms & conditions. 

“We embed social responsibility into who we are. We don’t look at it as an add-on. At Sodexo, we see it as a ‘must-do.’ We must be responsible both as community citizens and corporate citizens.”

Angela Halliday - Director of Social Impact at Sodexo

At Sodexo, company growth and social commitment go hand-in-hand. Angela uses her role to make this partnership as effective as possible, striving to build a collaborative atmosphere within the company. One where employees are encouraged to inspire each other and build constructive networks for doing good. 

Read on to hear how Angela and her team deliver this collaborative environment, where positive social impact is celebrated amongst teams. 

Sodexo’s impact pathways 

Dividing and directing energy is key to delivering effective social impact, particularly in big companies. Where diverse talent is spread out, it’s useful to identify key common impact pathways to focus company efforts.

This is Sodexo’s approach: 

1. People

A concern for people is at the heart of Sodexo’s social value strategy. Sodexo runs various mentoring programmes, one of which is thanks to a partnership with Generation Success. This scheme is aimed at offering guidance and support to diverse students who have left, or are about to leave, university. 

Among other methods, Sodexo creates employment opportunities by providing apprenticeships and promoting social mobility across the company. With their ‘People’ impact pathway, the company aims to benefit employees, customers and community citizens alike, supporting diversity, equality and inclusion in all its forms.  

2. Planet

Good stewardship of the earth is a pillar of Sodexo’s concept of social impact. Employees are encouraged to foster a culture of environmental responsibility by following the company’s example on reducing food waste, following sustainable diets and responsible sourcing.  

Sodexo is one of the leading global companies aiming to reach net zero by 2040. This ambitious target also aims to inspire employees to do their part: whether it’s beach cleans or tree-planting, Sodexo proudly champions different causes and types of volunteering, ensuring there is an opportunity for everyone to make a difference. 

3. Places

Effective social impact starts locally, and this means encouraging a concern for the places where colleagues and citizens live, work and play. Sodexo champions local volunteering, both as a sustainable option and as a way to personally invest in the local community. They consider needs of communities and shape volunteering opportunities to help meet these needs

4. Partners

Paralleling Sodexo’s growth is the Stop Hunger Foundation, which Sodexo employees set up in 1996. This not-for-profit organisation is a leading force in the fight against global hunger, donating millions of meals, raising money, and mobilising hundreds of thousands of local volunteers to take action every year. Beginning as a grassroots initiative, it has become a highly effective global programme operating in 53 countries, delivering aid to combat food poverty around the world. 

Sodexo’s partnership with Stop Hunger is at the centre of their company culture; the foundation is supported year-round by employees through the donation of resources, time and expertise. Sodexo funds all administrative costs for Stop Hunger, so every penny raised goes directly to those in need. In its lifetime, the foundation has raised over $34.5 million towards fighting child hunger. 

With these four impact pathways in mind, Angela is proud of how colleagues continue to develop and build effective volunteering and giving programmes aimed at not just supporting our communities  but engaging and upholding the values of Sodexo employees. 

Increasing engagement in volunteering and giving at Sodexo

Strongly aware of Sodexo’s potential to do good, the company has developed a successful employee engagement strategy leveraging a number of ways that support its employees to truly live their values through their day-to-day jobs and in support of their local community.  

Paid volunteer time off 

Every full-time employee at Sodexo gets three days of paid volunteering work (VTO) per year for causes that are close to their hearts. 

While Sodexo’s main concern is fighting global food poverty, all employees are encouraged to select local or national causes and volunteer in whatever capacity they can. A core message of their social value strategy is that everyone has something valuable to offer. 

“We look to understand the reasons where some people aren’t leveraging their three days of volunteering. Sometimes it’s about confidence, people think they may not have the skills to do it. Our job is to educate and enable our people - everyone has something to give.”

Angela Halliday - Director of Social Impact at Sodexo

By broadening the options for volunteering and letting people know that there is no right or wrong way to enforce social change, diverse talents and passions are more likely to emerge and be constructively put to use.

Angela certainly leads by example, having completed the Yorkshire Three Peaks Challenge with colleagues, raising just under £7000 for Stop Hunger. She has also been part of teams raising funds for Cancer Research UK and Kidney Research by walking the Great Wall of China and the Sahara Desert.

“Whatever their chosen cause, we enable our employees to get out there and do it. They can either volunteer through fundraising, hands-on activities, or using their skills for the greater good.”

Angela Halliday - Director of Social Impact at Sodexo

Programme champions 

Every single business unit across Sodexo has at least one ‘charity champion.’ These individuals keep the momentum going, raising awareness, and advertising opportunities to drive social impact among their peers. 

This means that every single employee is personally engaged with volunteering possibilities, and social impact work remains at the heart of Sodexo’s culture.

Strong internal communication methods

At Sodexo, effective and constant internal communications are key. Every Monday morning, a brief goes out to all employees, publicising upcoming campaigns and ways to get involved. The company also uses an internal intranet and weekly huddles between managers and their teams to maintain close contact and consistent campaign monitoring. 

Additionally, employees are encouraged to communicate with leadership, particularly in the annual Voice Survey. Here, everything is assessed, from productivity to values to social impact fulfilment. 

“Whenever we put out the survey and talk to individuals about how confident they are in being able to live their values through the enablement Sodexo provides, levels of satisfaction are always extremely high, and the feedback is really positive.”

Angela Halliday - Director of Social Impact at Sodexo

Tips and Advice for other companies

• Prioritise - you can’t do everything. Work out what matters most to whom and start there.
• Education, engagement, enablement and empowerment of employees. Use the four E’s to help employees live their values, they’re crucial for purpose campaign success and a happy team.
• Build social impact into your corporate purpose. Businesses don’t exist without people. If your employees are purposeful, engaged and connected, your business performance, growth and success will reflect that. 

"My biggest piece of advice is to be authentic in your approach. Don't say you're going to give your employees an opportunity to do something and then not do it."

Angela Halliday - Director of Social Impact at Sodexo