Social value at Hippo
Maximising impact, diversifyingtalent, community-led action.
At Hippo we’re striving to become a more responsible business, minimising our impact on the environment, helping diversify talent in our industry, and drawing on our expertise to maximise our benefit to society.
Social Value Annual Report – Financial Year 2025
Following the launch of our social value strategy in 2023, we’re delighted to share the progress we have made this
past year (FY25). It’s been made possible thanks to the support of our fantastic Hippos and our dedicated
social value team.
Taking action to reduce climate change and protect the natural environment.
Supporting the growth of a diverse and resilient supply chain.
Creating opportunity and growth for all.
Driving diversity, opportunities and equal reward in the tech sector.
Helping our people, clients and communities to thrive.
Lara Longhurst sits down to discuss Hippo’s social value strategy and the importance of the work to Hippo, the Hippo Herd and her personally.
Our targets
We have beaten our initial target to create £20m of social value during the first year of our strategy.
We aim to increase this to over £100m by the year 2030
Measurement and reporting
We will measure our progress against this target using our Thrive social value measurement tool and the Impact Evaluation Standard. This will allow us to map the impact we make to the five themes of the Government’s social value model as well as seven of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals:
Taking action to reduce climate change and protect the natural environment.
Reduce our Greenhouse Gas intensity to achieve net zero by 2040
We’ve already taken huge steps to minimise our impact on the environment. We’ve been measuring our carbon footprint since 2020 and have been carbon neutral for the last two years. Our next goal is to become a net zero business by 2040 – aligning our carbon reduction plan to science-based targets.
Improve resource efficiency
Using our ISO:14001-accredited environmental management system, we will continue making steps to reduce our impact, targeting reductions in energy consumption and office waste, assessing more sustainable solutions for our offices, whilst working with our clients to optimise the services we deliver. You can view our carbon reduction plan here.
Increase biodiversity and enhance green spaces
Working with our Green Hippos employee network, our aim is to raise awareness of sustainability issues, increase our environmental volunteering and promote our environmentally friendly employee benefits, including: cycle-to-work and electric vehicle leasing schemes. We’ll also be continuing our tree planting efforts, which has seen over 2,600 trees planted since 2021.
Supporting the growth of a diverse and resilient supply chain.
Support the growth of start-ups, SMEs and VCSEs
We recognise the vital role small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and the third sector play in maintaining a healthy economy. They drive growth, provide employment opportunities and open new markets. This is why we are committed to diversifying our supply chain and ensuring all businesses, irrespective of size, can access opportunities.
Having recently grown into a large business, we are now focused on developing a strategy to increase opportunities for SMEs and VCSEs to work with us in delivering quality services to our clients.
Identify and partner with suppliers aligned to our values and ethics
We are fully committed to working with organisations that mirror our valuesand contribute towards our social value strategy.
This may include: paying the real living wage, working towards net zero, responsibly sourcing raw materials and reducing waste, helping to attract future talent, supporting people from underrepresented groups into employment and looking after the health and wellbeing of their people.
Collaborate with our suppliers to deliver sustainable solutions for our clients
A significant amount of Hippo’s output is the development of software and digital services for our clients. These digital services are designed to run on the cloud. Our technical architects follow best practices to make systems that use less energy and only use resources when needed.
We check our work using tools from our technology partners and our client’s hosting providers like AWS, Google, and Azure. These tools help us plan ways to use less energy and reduce pollution. We also use them to assess how our solutions affect the environment for each client. As a result, we evaluate how much energy our work uses and find ways to make it better. In the past, we have used serverless computing or smart caching to be more eco-friendly.
Creating opportunity and growth for all.
Inspire and attract diverse talent through equitable hiring
We strongly believe in fairness and ensuring everyone is provided with what they need to to succeed, feel included, and grow.
As signatories of the Tech Talent Charter, we are working hard to make the UK tech ecosystem a diverse and inclusive community where people from all backgrounds are welcomed and valued for their contributions.
Our hiring process can be adapted to support the needs of applicants and, supported by our Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging (DI&B) Forum, we are currently identifying and developing new initiatives to remove barriers faced by those underrepresented in our industry. This includes women, people from ethnic minority backgrounds, individuals from diverse socio-economic backgrounds, neurodiverse individuals, and people with disabilities.
Secure a sustainable talent pipeline through educational engagement
We also recognise the UK’s tech talent shortage and that we must do more to inspire, attract and retain the future DDaT workforce. By partnering with schools in our local communities, we want to ensure young people are aware and have access to the exciting range of careers available across our industry.
Invest in the continuous development of our people
Hippo has a strong culture of staff development, training and career progression. Every Hippo is allocated an annual £1,000 budget for training. In addition, we provide training through our ‘Communities of Practice’ and ‘Profession Days,’ which foster self-learning and collaboration opportunities within the team.
Driving diversity, opportunities and equal reward in the tech sector.
Create an environment of belonging and authenticity
We are dedicated to creating an environment of belonging, both internally at Hippo and externally with our clients.
Our goal is to ensure everyone feels comfortable being their authentic selves and valued for their unique contributions.
Initiatives like staff spotlights help us to celebrate the diverse identities of our
Hippos. We also actively support communities of belonging through
sponsorships, mentorship programmes and by promoting collaboration across
communities and regional offices.
We reinforce our core values, encouraging behaviours that strengthen our sense of belonging and recognising individual contributions.
Our aim is to encourage understanding, empathy and build a stronger sense of connection.
Ensure everyone has fair and equal opportunities
Our goal is to ensure every Hippo has opportunities for growth, progression and promotion.
We will achieve this by analysing promotion data for disparities, reviewing our performance framework for inclusivity and training managers on unbiased decision making.
We will continue our pay gap analysis, expanding its scope beyond gender to include ethnicity and disability.
We will also launch specific leadership and mentorship programmes to support diverse communities.
Our aim is to give everyone an equal chance to succeed and advance at Hippo.
Build a respectful and inclusive workspace
Everyone should be treated with respect and understanding. We want to ensure Hippos can support one another and encourage everyone to promote inclusive behaviours.
We will provide reasonable adjustment training and support cognitive diversity through Inclusion Passports and neurodiversity awareness.
We continuously identify areas for improvement through regular feedback sessions and surveys.
We celebrate diversity, recognising important dates, facilitating learning sessions and expanding our learning resources.
Our leaders set clear diversity and inclusion objectives and attend workshops to promote inclusive practices.
Our goal is to ensure everyone at Hippo is treated with respect and that we continuously learn and grow to be more inclusive.
Helping our people, clients and communities to thrive.
Offer the support and assistance our people need to thrive
We focus on keeping our people and clients healthy and well. As part of this commitment, we offer a holistic employee assistance programme and a range of flexible benefits, initiatives, and activities that help people and communities thrive. Our approach is guided by ISO:45003, which is part of our accredited management system. It is the world’s first global standard for managing psychological health and safety at work. From private healthcare to fortnightly yoga sessions, monthly wellbeing payments to financial advice and guidance, our benefits can be tailored to support the individual needs of each Hippo and their families.
We also have a network of mental health first aiders and have over 23 communities dedicated to health, fitness, wellbeing and peer-to-peer support. We want everyone to succeed and thrive at work and at home. We continually review the support we offer and react to feedback from our people.
Engage with local communities through volunteering and fundraising, targeting digital exclusion and environmental improvements
Every Hippo can take up to two days paid leave to volunteer and help charities, schools and community groups that are important to them. As a business, we are focussed on addressing digital exclusion, supporting local schools, and helping communities to make environmental improvements.
Our old IT equipment is donated to charities and helps disadvantaged people, such as asylum seekers, access the internet.
Support the growth of the third sector through pro-bono work
We also partner with third sector organisations and offer our Hippo’s expertise on a pro-bono basis. We’re proud to have supported Kidz Klub and Compassion in Dying. pay brackets.
