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Our Mission: Empowering you to find a job aligned with your values

The situation is urgent.

The social and environmental crises are accelerating and there is no longer any doubt: our economy must be transformed quickly. There is work to be done.

And it's a good thing: 92% of French people want to give more meaning to their work, and 57% want to work in a job that meets environmental challenges, according to a study we conducted in March 2022 with the Audencia school.

At the same time, tens of thousands of jobs already exist, and millions will be created to meet these challenges.

  • The Social and Solidarity Economy already represents more than 10% of employment in France,
  • 27% of executive jobs are "greening" according to APEC, i.e. they include an environmental dimension,
  • and 1 million green jobs will be created by 2050 according to ADEME, i.e. jobs directly linked to the preservation of the environment, in fields such as waste or wastewater treatment, management of natural reserves, renewable energy, etc.

Our raison d'être is to allow these citizens in search of meaning to meet these committed actors in order to reorient the job market together and put it at the service of the ecological and social transition.

Because choosing a job that has an impact is the most powerful individual lever to act on the transformation of society.

OK, that's all well and good, but what exactly is an impact job?

Good question my dear Marcel.

We'd love to have a straight answer for you, but we don't really have one.

Why not? Because in fact, the notion of positive impact is very much linked to each one of us, to what we care about, and to our sensitivity towards certain subjects.

Of course, there are some rules: working on the design of a connected fridge is not really a positive impact job. We detail in the rest of this page the rules we have set for referencing recruiters.

But in detail, you can consider that a job in the CSR department of a large group is a positive impact job - because it contributes to transforming this company to lower its carbon impact for example - and another person may object that this company does not yet respect the planetary limits and therefore it is not an impact job for them.

And the worst part is that you're both right.

And when we have said all that, what do we do?

We made 3 decisions to structure our approach in building the platform.

CHOICE No. 1 - Offer the broadest possible vision of positive impact employment

We have decided to propose a maximum number of structures and impact jobs and training. What they have in common is that they all contribute in some way to the transformation of society.

By the end of 2022, we will have nearly 6,000 structures recruiting on the platform and offering more than 20,000 job offers each year, as well as 50 training organizations. They break down into 6 types of organizations:

  • Positive impact organizations: these are organizations whose core business is to transform society (definition by Thierry Sibieude, of the Positive Impact Chair at ESSEC), to participate in the ecological and societal transition and/or to reduce inequalities. The financial gain is secondary and the impact is the purpose of the structure. We find here in particular all the non-profit associations
  • Responsible products and services: these are companies that design products or services that are less polluting, but that also pursue an economic objective. For example, an organic cosmetics company
  • Transition partners: These are organizations that, through their actions, help other structures to have a positive impact on the planet and society. This could be a CSR consulting firm, a specialized HR firm like Omeva, or a structure like jobs_that_makesense
  • The actors of the awareness of the transition: These are companies whose objective is to educate and inform as many people as possible about environmental and social issues. This is the case of specialized media (Carenews), training organizations that we reference (3A, ESI, ecolearn, ...), awareness workshops such as La Fresque du Climat, 2tonnes, carbon footprint measurement applications (Carbo),...
  • Public utility services: We consider that public service has a positive impact, because it is about working for the common good. This category includes jobs in local authorities as well as waste treatment companies, water treatment companies, low-carbon energy companies, etc.
  • Companies in transition: These are traditional companies that are undergoing a transformation to improve or reduce their impact. We only present job offers that contribute to this transition, such as CSR Manager, Carbon Footprint Project Manager, etc. The company does not necessarily have the will to transform the company, and we do not know its degree of transition.

CHOICE N°2 - Take maximum measures to ban greenwashing and socialwashing

When creating a company space on the platform, we ask the organization to specify :

  • The sustainable development goals to which it responds, among the 17 UN SDGs
  • Its social and/or environmental impact, in a clear and precise paragraph
  • Its impact measurement, if it has one
  • All the documents that can attest to its transparency, in particular: financial and social balance sheet, ethical charter, right to disconnect, press release on the company's mission, social and environmental objectives, salary scale, impact report, legal status, financing structure,...
  • Its status or specific legal structure, if applicable, for example ESUS or Entreprise à Mission
  • The trustmarks or certifications it has obtained from external organizations. At the end of 2022, we have referenced about fifteen labels & certifications, such as B Corp, Bleu Blanc Zèbre, Mouvement Impact France, Zei... You can find all labels on this page

When we have a doubt, we have also set up an internal analysis grid to define whether a company can publish ads on jobs_that_makesense.

We mainly use this grid in the case of companies in transition, which today represents less than 5% of the organizations present on the site. We analyze 3 main criteria:

  • Is the sector of activity compatible with a 1.5°C trajectory and the respect of other planetary limits? We base our analysis on the Shift Project's studies and other reports on the subject.
  • Is the company committed to economic, social (internal and external) and/or environmental transformations, notably towards inclusive and sustainable behaviors? For this point, we look at what the company says (on its website, for example), and monitor press articles on the subject.
  • Is the company linked to minor or aggravated cases / scandals / illegal activities? We analyze the press coverage on the subject. This point is moderated if the company has, since the affair, taken decisions and implemented actions in order to evolve on this situation.

CHOICE N°3 - Give you all the levers to consciously choose the impact company that suits you

We leave the power to you, because you are the one who has the best definition of impact for you.

As a candidate, we provide you with a maximum number of filters for your search: according to the causes you care about, the trust marks, the sectors of activity, and soon the type of structure. You can filter your search on all these elements in order to have the offers that correspond to you completely.

For each structure on the site, we present all the documents and transparency elements we have: impact study, trust labels, social and environmental objectives, mission, salary scale,... All these elements are available on the structure's page.

We are going to work on this subject in particular in the future, to allow you to select only the offers that really correspond to you and to give you a maximum of transparency on each structure.

We are not infallible. Even within our team, we sometimes have trouble defining what is impact and therefore what can or cannot appear on jobs_that_makesense. We have ongoing debates on the subject, and that's what makes this project so rich.

If you have a doubt about an offer or a structure that is present on jobs_that_makesense, contact us to let us know.

We need your help to build a trustworthy platform for everyone.

This platform is above all yours.

And what is our impact?

🤗 Our social impact

We consider that we have 2 levels of social impact:

  • The core of our mission is to enable as many citizens as possible to find a positive impact job and for impact structures to recruit committed profiles. Our impact is measured by the number of recruitments actually made thanks to us. In 2022, we are not yet in a position to measure this indicator precisely, but we are working on it (in particular through the implementation of questionnaires for recruiters and candidates). To approach this indicator, we are currently measuring the number of applications made on the platform: 95,300 applications in 2021, and around 210,000 in 2022 (x2.2)
  • We also aim to make as many people as possible aware of the positive impact employment sector, to encourage them to take action (professional retraining, transition, application of a CSR approach within their company, social entrepreneurship, etc.). Consequently, we also measure the number of people affected by our actions. The most reliable indicator to date to measure this impact is the traffic of our website: 500 000 unique visitors in 2021, and 1 000 000 in 2022 (x2)

In order to best account for our social impact, we began a self-measurement in October 2022 with free benchmarks from our partners. In parallel, we are working with the entire makesense team on our roadmap to identify the data and impacts of our work. Our goal is to release our impact measure during 2023 and make it an annual event. We also want to use this metric in our decision making.

🌱 Our environmental impact

Digital activities: as a web platform, we have significant digital usage, which is our main environmental impact.

  • Our computer fleet is leased, and partly made up of reconditioned equipment. Our partner is committed to reconditioning or recovering computers at the end of their life, to reduce the carbon footprint as much as possible.
  • Our servers are located in Belgium and run on 82% carbon-free energy. Their average carbon intensity is 110 gCO2eq/kWh. We currently use Google Cloud solutions, which has committed to using only low-carbon energy by 2030.
  • We use many digital tools to run the platform: CRM, SAAS software, emails, social networks,... These tools have a significant carbon footprint.

At the moment, we have not yet worked on reducing the carbon footprint of our digital business. We have recruited a CTO for January 2023 who will be in charge of rebuilding our platform "model", and who will also be in charge of studying the priorities for the evolution of our infrastructure and our tools in order to reduce our impact.

We share our offices with the entire makesense team, in the 12th arrondissement of Paris. The Sensespace is a committed and eco-responsible space, in line with our values: second-hand furniture, zero waste, compost, green electricity, many ecological initiatives have been developed and continue to be developed! Moreover, makesense is a member of the Carillon network, a local network of solidarity places for homeless people that we regularly welcome at Sensespace.

⚖️ Our governance

Opal Organization : We operate with all makesense teams on the principles of the Opal Organization theorized by Frederic Laloux, or liberated enterprise, whose founding principles are evolutionary purpose, plenitude and self-governance. In concrete terms, this means that our organization is horizontal: there is no hierarchical system between us, and each employee has an operational referent who enables him or her to develop and ensure that his or her skills are enhanced, as well as an HR referent. As far as decision-making is concerned, the process depends on the impact of the decision: in the case of a limited impact, each employee is autonomous; if the decision has a collective impact, a request for advice is required and all employees can give their opinion on the decision.

Remuneration model: Our remuneration model is transparent and is based on three criteria: a common base, autonomy in one's work, contribution to makesense and seniority. Each criterion has levels that determine the salary. Again, the principle is self-determination of the salary according to these criteria, and the decision of the employee and a compensation committee meets to study the requests and issue a non-binding opinion.

Our governance is constantly evolving, and we are learning every day to improve it. To learn more, we recommend this article on the topic

Fundraising: In order to fulfill our mission more quickly, we have proceeded to raise funds during 2022 from individual investors. In order not to lose our DNA and to ensure we stay true to our values, we took the time to design the investor compensation model and their governance rights more precisely, moving away from traditional models that we do not wish to replicate. To learn more about these principles, our history and our fundraising, we recommend this article published in Maddyness