Angela Halliday, Director of Social Impact for Sodexo UK & Ireland
5 Minutes with Angela Halliday, Director of Social Impact for Sodexo UK & Ireland
Angela Halliday is the Director of Social Impact for Sodexo UK & Ireland, leading the integration of social value into the company’s core strategy. Rather than running isolated projects, she empowers teams across the business to take ownership of social impact.
With a background in the third sector, Angela focuses on embedding long-term change, using education and engagement to make social impact a shared responsibility. She champions impact measurement beyond numbers, using storytelling to capture real change.
Angela also works closely with public sector clients, ensuring that social value commitments are meaningful and deliverable. As Sodexo prepares to launch its Social Impact 2030 Pledge, she remains committed to making business a force for good.
Tell us a little bit about your role. What does being Director of Social Impact mean?
As Director of Social Impact for Sodexo UK & Ireland, I see myself as an internal consultant. I don’t directly ‘do’ social impact; instead, I support teams across the business to embed it into their work.
“I adopt the four ‘Es’ when I speak to anyone, I educate, engage, enable, and empower others to take ownership of social impact within their roles.” - Angela Halliday
Sodexo is a huge company, how do you embed social impact across such a large organisation?
With over 30,000 employees in the UK and Ireland, we don’t take a one-size-fits-all approach. Instead of running isolated social value projects, we ensure social impact is integrated into our everyday work. We focus on long-term, strategic embedding so that everyone, from frontline staff to leadership, understands their role in creating impact.
“Much like health and safety has become a shared responsibility in business, I believe social impact should be too.” -Angela Halliday
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What’s the commercial driver behind social value for Sodexo?
There are real business benefits to embedding social impact, It helps attract and retain employees, strengthens brand reputation, and aligns with the expectations of our clients. Many of our public sector clients expect a strong social value proposition, and we want to go beyond just meeting requirements.
“Being a purpose-led business makes commercial sense, and all the evidence shows it leads to better productivity and profitability.” - Angela Halliday
Measuring social impact can be challenging. How do you approach it?
Numbers alone don’t tell the full story. While we track data for governance and compliance, the real impact is best captured through storytelling. We focus on hearing directly from the people whose lives have changed because of our work, rather than relying on financial proxies that can sometimes be misleading.
Public procurement is a big area for social value. How does Sodexo ensure it delivers on commitments?
We embed social value into our bids as a fundamental part of our offering, not just something we add to meet tender requirements. We have a baseline social value proposition across all contracts and then tailor our approach based on the needs of the specific communities we serve. Our bid teams are trained to think about impact in an authentic, deliverable way.
What are the biggest challenges in social impact for large companies like Sodexo?
One major challenge is balancing corporate expertise with hyper-local needs. We have to ensure that while we leverage our scale and experience, we also remain agile enough to respond to the unique challenges of different communities. Another challenge is addressing the perception that large businesses are only about profit.
”Authenticity is crucial - we have to demonstrate that our work is genuinely making a difference.” - Angela Halliday
What’s next for Sodexo?
We recently launched our Social Impact 2030 Pledge, setting out four key commitments to guide our work over the next five years. This is the next step in ensuring social impact remains deeply embedded in our business and continues to evolve in a meaningful way.
If you’d like to learn more, feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn!
Link to: Sodexo 2030 Social Impact Pledge
How can we help
At Samtaler, we understand the importance of your social value commitment. You’re here because you care about your business's impact on society and want to improve. We want you to succeed, and we know from experience that achieving social value requires skill, strategy, and support.
To find out how we can help, send an email to hello@samtaler.co.uk
