Since starting Hollis over 30 years ago, we have always aimed to deliver social value that positively impacts the communities we work in. We want to create a legacy that influences our environment, local communities and future generations and so in 2021 launched a CSR strategy that holds us accountable to our plans.

Year one was an exciting year to start putting into place our ambitions, and we made great steps forward in our progress. We are delighted to now look back over two years and see that we have just continued to grow and grow. Reaching more students, more charities, and more industry professionals, the work we do has truly made a tangible difference. Moving into our third year of our five-year strategy, we aim to further our work and ensure everything we do as a business helps both people and planet.

Inspiring a new generation

We’ve continued our efforts in educating and inspiring the next generation of surveyors, with eight of our staff volunteering to run three Urban Plan workshops in different schools and five employees volunteering at the Pathways to Property summer school. Following the summer school, we welcomed four of the students to undertake work experience with us.

We continued our work with the WCCS to provide an educational bursary enabling a student to attend University, as well as giving nearly 20 presentations to numerous Universities and Colleges and attending four built environment careers fairs. Our volunteers reached over 1,400 students and enjoyed spending time meeting the next generation of future leaders.

Finally, we have been educating our industry on the importance of engaging with young people by speaking at large scale industry events including UKREiiF, UK Construction Week and London Build.

Creating opportunities

We have always prioritised creating opportunities for young people to enter our profession, and it’s fair to say this continued in 2022. Over the past 12 months, we have:

• Held 160 early careers interviews
• Hosted 28 work experience students
• Onboarded 40 graduates, 7 apprentices, 5 university placement students, and 2 interns from the 10,000 Black Interns programme

On top of welcoming new talent, our current early careers network has also seen some big wins. We have been shortlisted for 6 awards including wins for both Michael North-Ridge as London’s regional Rising Star at the National Apprenticeship Awards and Vicki Palmer as the Large Employer Representative at UCEM’s Built Environment Apprenticeship Awards. Our own Vicki Palmer also had the opportunity to judge the Considerate Constructors Leading Lights awards and see the fantastic community work being carried out across the sector.

We’re excited to continue working on our early careers programme this year and look forward to welcoming more apprentices and graduates over the summer.

Giving back

We’ve continued giving back to the causes that matter to us, raising over £52,000 for charities including Cancer Research, Ukraine Appeal, LandAid, and Mind through events like memorial cycles, raffles, and sleepouts.

Our teams continued to provide pro-bono advice, with one completed and three further projects soon to start. Finally, we achieved the Living Wage reaccreditation, and continued our EV leasing scheme through which we have licensed 17 electric vehicles for employees so far.

Speaking of the strategy and our progress so far, Senior CSR and Early Careers Manager Vicki Palmer said: “Delivering social value for our communities, our people and our planet is of the upmost importance for us at Hollis, and we created our CSR strategy in 2021 to hold us accountable to our commitment. From helping young people from all backgrounds to enter real estate, to improving social mobility, to ensuring our work has a positive impact on people and the environment, we have placed high importance on making a tangible difference. We’ve had some brilliant achievements over the past 12 months, and I look forward to seeing the impact we can make in 2023 and beyond.