Social firms are started by people and organisations that are no longer prepared to stand by and watch the traditional business world overlooking disadvantaged people. Social firms thrive on business not charity so achieving their social mission while running a profitable business is a fundamental challenge which people like David Whyte, managing director of Haven Products, face with relish every day.
Haven Products is one of Scotland’s Star Social Firms. It works in the production processes sector, helping companies outsource work such as packaging and assembly. Current clients include IBM, The Edrington Group and The Highland Council. Every employee is trained to exceed customer expectations and most people in this highly skilled and trained workforce are disabled.
Haven Products currently employs 138 people and 112 of these individuals are severely disadvantaged in the job market. The company’s mission has always been to provide quality employment and jobs to disadvantaged people while operating as a commercially sound venture. David explains how Haven achieves its social goals through commerce:
“Employees all have different needs, values, capacity, skills and difficulties. It is up to the business to clearly define its purpose, why it exists and how it intends to operate to all its employees, ideally involving them in building up plans for the business to meet these goals.”
One of the main challenges that social firms face is prejudice from potential customers because they employ a proportion of people with disabilities and/or other disadvantages. This has led many social firms to keep somewhat quiet about their social mission due to the preconceptions people still have about disabled people and the quality of work they produce. David says:
“It is too simplistic to say that working with people with disabilities is the same as with those who are not disabled. Employees with learning disabilities often bring to the workplace skills such as loyalty, commitment, high attendance levels, good teamwork and the ability to perform consistently well on repetitive tasks. However, there are inevitably areas in which they are not as strong and our job is to balance the needs of the business with that of our employees.
To manage this tension effectively, the business needs to have team leaders, supervisors and managers who are fully committed to the ethos and purpose of the business which is around providing meaningful employment and development opportunities to people with disabilities. The management must be clear about their responsibility to make a difference to the lives of disabled employees.”
David Whyte will be facilitating the workshop ‘Managing the tension between being a business and achieving a social mission’ at the Social Firms UK annual conference taking place at Reading University from 23 to 24 June 2008.

Social Firms UK aims to create employment opportunities for disadvantaged people through the development and support of social firms. For more details see www.socialfirms.co.uk and to buy from social firms visit www.trade.socialfirms.co.uk