KnowledgeEuropean public tender
Social return: what is asked and how to deliver it
Many Dutch public buyers ask you to spend part of the contract value on people who are distant from the labour market. This is called social return. Bidding is usually the easy part. It goes wrong in delivery, when nobody remembers it had to happen.
Written by the Atvalio editorial team: people who spent years bidding on tenders themselves. About us
How it is usually asked
The form differs per buyer. Common is a percentage of the contract value, for example 5%. Below that sits a value per type of contribution: what does an hour or a year of a given hire or activity count for? Many Dutch municipalities use the so-called building blocks method for this. Sometimes social return is a requirement, sometimes an award criterion that earns points.
| Contribution (per year, per 36-hour FTE) | Value in one public tender |
|---|---|
| Hire on social assistance, less than 2 years | € 30,000 |
| Hire on social assistance, more than 2 years | € 40,000 |
| Hire on unemployment benefit, less than 1 year | € 10,000 |
| Young disabled person (Wajong) | € 35,000 |
| Work-based apprenticeship | € 15,000 |
| Internship | € 5,000 |
| Own staff doing community activities | € 100 per hour |
| Purchasing from a sheltered workshop | Based on invoices |
Source: the social return clause of a municipal tender on TenderNed, the Dutch tender platform. Other buyers use other amounts. Part-time and part-year contributions count proportionally.
A fictional example. Your contract is worth € 1,000,000 a year and the requirement is 5%. Then you need to show € 50,000 of social return per year. That could be one hire who was on social assistance for more than two years (€ 40,000) and two interns (€ 10,000). Note: often only new contributions count, not work already covered by the paid contract.
What it costs you
Social return is not a percentage you hand over from your revenue, but it is not free either. A new hire or intern has to be recruited, onboarded and supervised. Include those costs in your pricing, and check whether the contribution fits work you already do. Buying from a sheltered workshop, or an apprenticeship for a vacancy you had anyway, is often cheaper than building something new.
Where it goes wrong: the handover
In practice it rarely goes wrong at the bid. It goes wrong once the contract is won and operations start up. Everyone is busy with the first weeks of work, and the social return commitment fades into the background. Until the first report is due, or the deadline when it counts.
A good handover from sales to operations is therefore essential. It can be done in different ways, as long as it is fixed: who is responsible, what is due when, and how we report. Some buyers require a social return plan within two months of the award. Put that date in the plan straight away.
- One ownerAt the start, name one person responsible for social return. Not sales, not everyone.
- The commitment in the kick-offInclude social return in the handover to operations, with the amount, the form and the deadlines.
- Reporting from month oneTrack contributions from the start. Reconstructing afterwards takes more time and gives less proof.
Social return rarely fails at the bid. It fails when operations start and nobody remembers it.
HOW ATVALIO HELPS
Atvalio takes the social return clause from the tender documents: the percentage, the basis, the value per type of contribution, the deadlines and the reporting, with the page. It works out what the obligation means for this contract and carries the commitments into the handover to operations. You decide how to meet it.
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