In Sync With Swink

We are incredibly proud to say that we have recently been given a Social Return on Investment Award by one of our partners – Swink.

Of course, it's something we want to shout about from the rooftops. However, more impressive still are Swink themselves and their mission to help neurodiverse people, particularly those with autism, into the workplace.

Let’s take a look at the great work that Swink are doing; as well as the success they’re having in driving social change and genuinely making the world a better place.
 

A Great Mission

Swink is a data analytics and accessibility specialist based in the Netherlands. Though they have an office in Amsterdam, most staff work remotely like many other businesses.

They currently have 20 employees: 70% of whom have autism. However, while 54% of people with autism are unemployed, at Swink, their employees’ neurodiverse skillsets are hugely beneficial – as they are highly analytical with an excellent eye for detail.

Swink is a certified benefit corporation – which means they actively demonstrate that commercial success and making a positive contribution aren’t mutually exclusive. In fact, in their work as B-corp they are proving that combining the two can provide significant commercial upside for their clients as well as their staff.

Most of Swink’s work is in the public and finance sectors and they have a number of clients within the healthcare industry too. We’ve been working with them since our co-founder Vincent de Winter, met Niels van Buren, Swink’s CEO, on a finance project. After a successful collaboration, Vincent recruited Swink to help with the high technical nature of our work.

Real Benefit

“Right now we’re working with Swink on several active projects in the area of Digital Analytics,” said Vincent. “And we continue to see real benefit from our continued collaboration in the form of customer satisfaction.”

The certificate we received from Swink acknowledges the social impact that we’re having by partnering with them. By Swink’s own calculations, in 2020 We Are North's Social Return on Investment equated to €23,000.

They came to this number by multiplying the number of hours that their team contributed to our projects by the SROI value (calculated by an independent consultant). Every €1 invested in Swink is noted as €1.95 – given that this also helps with lowering the cost of unemployment and reducing the impact on the welfare system.

While we’re delighted to be recognised for our contributions, this isn’t philanthropy. The project work that Swink does is excellent – something that’s confirmed by their continued success and growing client list.

But that said, We Are North shares Swink’s ambition. We wholeheartedly support their goal to help promote neurodiversity in the workplace. And we’ll continue to do – certificate or not.