About The Circle
Who We Are
The Circle is an award-winning Scottish Community Interest Company (Circle Scotland CIC, Company no. SC515218) with what it calls a "More Than Profit®" ethos — meaning the business aims to use its profits to fund positive social change. Founded by Kirsty Thomson in 2015 (who set up Along Came Kirsty in 2012 to provide business support to the third sector, merged the two ventures in 2019, and stepped down as CEO in 2024), The Circle has been named on the NatWest SE100 list — the UK's top 100 social enterprises.
Where will I work?
The Circle is headquartered at Dudhope Castle, Barrack Road, Dundee, DD3 6HF, with a second hub in Glasgow. The Circle Workspaces operates fair-rent, flexible workspaces for socially-minded organisations across both cities. The Circle Mobility project is Dundee-based and hires out mobility devices and bikes "to help make Dundee more accessible." Tenant organisations that share the workspaces include Turning Point Scotland, Barnardo's Youth Involvement Family Support Project, Fare Scotland, Action for Children, NHS Tayside Charitable Foundation, GEMAP, Partners in Advocacy, Glasgow Sling Library and Cornerstone — a portfolio that gives a sense of the social-mission ecosystem you'd be joining.
What is The Circle team like?
Following the founder's 2024 step-down, The Circle is led by Co-CEOs Paul Hastie and Ruth Finnan, with Jenny McCarthy as Lead Consultant. The four operating arms — Workspaces, Consultancy, Volunteering and Mobility — share a single mission: to "provide a facility for charities, social enterprises, and socially responsible commercial businesses to access education, training, offices, meeting spaces, advice, information and guidance, educational resources, and social and leisure opportunities." The vision is to "contribute to a vibrant, enterprising and sustainable community with improved quality of life," helping people fulfil their social aspirations through upskilling, work, volunteering, social, educational and leisure opportunities.
Work-Life Balance
The Circle operates a 4-day work week — listed as the first benefit in every job posting on the company's blog. Past funded vacancies (No One Left Behind LTU Programme roles at the Dundee hub) were posted at 30 hours per week with shift-based working and a time-off-in-lieu (TOIL) system in place of overtime pay, demonstrating how the organisation translates the shorter-week policy into concrete role structures. The team also takes a two-week Christmas and New Year break each year as part of the standard holiday allocation.
Perks and Benefits
Verbatim from The Circle's recruitment posts: a 4-day work week, 28 days statutory holiday inclusive of public holidays (pro-rata for part-timers), two weeks of paid annual leave allocated over Christmas and New Year, a company pension scheme with NEST, internal training opportunities, inclusion in many networking and social events throughout the year via the membership community, and "the opportunity to be part of one of Scotland's most exciting new start-up, award-winning organisations."