Bringing businesses together to get more people into work

Project Monday is a national initiative for an inclusive working life. The ambition is to help ensure that everyone who wants to participate in working life has the opportunity to do so, through joint efforts, experience sharing and concrete tools for social sustainability. The association, whose target group is the business community, will become the country's leading knowledge base on work inclusion and social sustainability, and act as a bridge between companies, initiative organizers, social entrepreneurs and public actors.

A working life where everyone has a place - a national effort

In his New Year's speech, Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre launched the "Youth Promise" with the goal of lifting 150,000 young people into work and education by 2030. He emphasized that this requires a major effort in which the business community must sign up. Project Monday is taking this call seriously and is bringing together all the good forces in the business community in a joint effort to make social sustainability concrete and measurable.

Project Monday's vision is crystal clear: A working life where everyone has a place. This is not about fine words or good intentions, but about concrete action from the business community itself.

- The business community is a bottleneck. We need to be honest with ourselves about whether we are doing enough to reduce exclusion and promote work inclusion. Project Monday challenges the business community to take greater responsibility and lead the way in the effort for a more inclusive working life," says CEO Monica Irmi Vogt.

Monica comes from the position of Head of Fundraising and Grant Management at the Bellona Environmental Foundation. She has extensive experience in creating change at the intersection of politics, business and sustainability. Vogt built the BUA Foundation from an idea to a nationwide organization with several hundred employees and volunteers. BUA works for the inclusion of children and young people in leisure activities through the lending of sports and outdoor equipment, and has received the Oslo Environmental Award as Voluntary Organization of the Year.

- Work inclusion is a leadership responsibility. If we are to succeed in building a sustainable and competitive future, we need to utilize the full range of resources and talents in society. We don't need more analysis, we need concrete action from those closest to the solution - the business community itself," says Monica Irmi Vogt.

Ensuring Norway's competitiveness with work inclusion

Inclusion is absolutely necessary to ensure future competitiveness and maintain the current welfare system. The number of people of working age is falling sharply in Norway The government's perspective report states that human capital is Norway's most important resource

Now the work begins to gather the forces of business and industry to contribute to the effort that Prime Minister Støre called for in his New Year's speech

Norges Bank also expressed concern about rising unemployment in its interest rate decision in June. When Statistics Norway publishes new unemployment figures for June at the end of the month, this will be a timely reminder that we must act now to ensure that more people have the opportunity to participate in working life.

Chairman and initiator Tor Rønhovde, CEO of Compass Group Norway, has assembled a solid team of senior executives on the board: Johan Persson (Country Manager, SEB), Stig L. Bech (Partner, Haavind), and Marianne Solberg (Chair of the Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions) have all accepted board positions in Project Monday. He emphasizes that "far too many" are outside the work community and that all companies - not just non-profit ones - should take responsibility. He believes that social sustainability is about everyone who wants to have a real opportunity to get a job

Project Monday stems from his passionate commitment to creating real change.

Measurable difference in one year

Membership recruitment and development of the certification tool will start in the fall of 2025. Project Monday provides companies with tools, networks and certification that make it easy to document efforts and impact

The concept of ESG has become established in the vast majority of Norwegian companies, and there is a particular focus on climate and the environment. One of the goals of Project Monday is to develop a certification for "the difficult S" in ESG that goes beyond the current statutory requirements. The aim is not more reporting requirements, but more targeted and structured work on social sustainability in business. This type of certification will help more companies to implement concrete measures to increase work inclusion.

During the first year, the organization will:

- Organize valuable networking sessions for member companies

- Initiate the development of certification tools for social sustainability in companies

- Provide unique access to best practices from pioneering companies in work inclusion

- Offer assistance in strategy development for social sustainability in member companies

Membership is offered through three fixed price levels, regardless of company size - designed to ensure broad participation and easy access to the community.

Join the team

Project Monday brings together the business community in a joint effort to promote work inclusion. This is a task that the public sector and the voluntary sector cannot solve alone, but the business community is close to the solution. By joining forces in the business community, we get closer to the solution.

For more information, contact:

CEO Monica I. Vogt mobile: 977 49 460, e-mail: monica.vogt@prosjektmandag.no