Social
Social sustainability is a commitment we make to our colleagues, our local operations, and our local communities. Taking care of their welfare, and mental and physical wellbeing is fundamental to our culture.
Ongoing employee engagement
Our employees are at the heart of our Company and are the reason for our success. Employee engagement is key to maintaining and developing our vibrant and inclusive workplace culture.
Our recognition and rewards programmes celebrate employee and team achievements, reinforcing our collaborative value, as well as individual successes.
Living our values
Our employees created our core values. The employee and stakeholder processes reflect our approach and enable us to create a global culture built on our principles. It is these principles in which our employees genuinely believe. All our employees, from recruitment and onboarding to performance and development, align with these values and these are demonstrated via their actions throughout the year.
Diversity and inclusion
Through collaboration, education, and a shared commitment to equality, we aim to create a workplace where everyone feels a sense of belonging, and where diversity and inclusion are not just goals but lived realities, shaping the success and vitality of our organisation.
Diversity and inclusion are integral to our core values; driving innovation, fostering creativity, and enriching our culture, while ensuring all colleagues feel supported, valued and respected. We believe that a diverse workforce brings together unique perspectives, experiences and talents, and together they create a dynamic environment that drives us forward.
We are dedicated to creating a workplace that embraces differences, including (but not limited to) race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, age and religion. Our commitment to diversity is not just a statement — it is an honest and continuous journey. We actively seek to challenge biases, remove barriers and promote equality and fairness at every level of our Company.
Inclusion is intrinsic to the Company to ensure all our employees feel valued, heard, and empowered to contribute their best work. We drive our efforts in inclusion to ensure we have a workplace where we not only welcome diverse voices, but also that we actively seek them; and where everyone has equal access to opportunities for professional growth and advancement.
Our Equal Opportunities Policy ensures that all employees, clients, contractors and those we encounter are treated equally, with fairness and consistency. We design our ongoing diversity initiatives to raise awareness and promote cultural competency, unconscious bias awareness and inclusive leadership throughout the Group.
Awareness initiatives we ran during FY24 include International Women in Engineering Day, and International Women’s Day.
Our HR function
We regularly assess and monitor our policies and procedures to identify areas for improvement, striving to create an environment that is free from discrimination and embraces the opportunity that diversity brings. All recruitment processes aim to ensure fairness, equality and consistency for all candidates, removing any potential barriers to employment.
The Group globally employs 221 employees, an increase of 31%, from FY23, comprising of a gender split of 33% female to 67% male. We are pleased to note that at senior management level, we have retained gender parity with a 50:50 female and male split in FY24.
Training, development and wellbeing
We recognise how crucial employee mental health and wellbeing is for both personal and professional success. We are committed to ensuring we have an environment that prioritises the mental health and overall wellbeing of our employees, as well as encouraging professional growth through training and development.
All employees have access to our employee assistance programmes, which provide professional guidance on physical, mental and financial wellbeing. We encourage employees to access any support they may need, while promoting an openness around mental health discussions to help reduce the stigma around mental health in the workplace.
These are just a few of the wellbeing awareness initiatives that we have run during FY24:
- Employee Appreciation
- Stress Awareness
- World Health
- Learning at Work
- Men’s Health
- World Wellbeing
- International Safe Place to Work
- National Wellness
- World Mental Health
- World Menopause Day.
These themes and campaigns help create a supportive environment where individuals can thrive both personally and professionally and feel able to actively seek support.
We design our training and development programmes to empower our employees with the skills, knowledge and resources they need to excel in their roles and help them to reach their full potential. We invest in continuous learning, coaching, career advancement pathways and leadership development initiatives, so our employees are agile, adaptable and equipped for future succession and challenges.
Employees receive training, some of which is mandatory, across a multitude of essential areas such as diversity environmental, health and safety, cyber security and data protection.
Prioritising health and safety
The health and safety of our employees is a key priority for us. We reinforce our approach to health and safety across the Group via awareness initiatives and mandatory health and safety training for all our employees when they join the Group. Our Internal Audit function regularly inspects our operational facilities, equipment, emergency plans, welfare and working practices to ensure we provide a safe working environment for employees.
Our Safety Health Environment and Quality Committee comprises representatives across the Group and focuses on topics including health and safety, risk management, emergency procedures, accident and incident reporting and reviews, data protection, IT security and environmental waste reporting. The Committee also evaluates changes in regulations which may affect the Group, communicating these changes and collating and reviewing feedback from across the Group.
Our ‘Toolbox Talks’ programme for employees address key areas throughout the year to ensure that we equip our employees with the right knowledge and skills for them to be able to work safely and effectively every day.
Supporting Local Communities
Our social value commitments promote sustainable practices and social wellbeing.
We nurture positive relationships with our local communities and engage in initiatives that support sustainability, economic development, and social inclusivity. We aim to recruit local to the areas in which we operate and support emerging talent with their career aspirations through the increasing number of apprenticeships within our teams. Across our global family, we recruited 83% of our employees locally, with 17% working at a national level.
We engage local companies where we can to support our goal to source locally. This approach underscores our commitment to generating positive impact in the communities where our operations are rooted.
We are committed to building relationships with local educational establishments and training providers to promote the Group. We offer our expertise and advice by attending local career fairs and employment workshops and provide career opportunities where possible.
We encourage our employees and partners to volunteer their time to support different local community projects, which are selected by the Group in consultation with our local communities.
In FY24, our community initiatives included:
- Supplied and installed new flooring, kitchen, decoration, and security cameras in a local facility for local residents and the community to use.
- Donated employee time, food, and support to local community foodbanks
- Engaged in community clean-up programmes
- Ran apprenticeship programme
- Ran coffee mornings and support for vulnerable and elderly in our operational community locations.
- Provided residents at a sheltered housing accommodation with a Good Friday lunch.
- Supported St Mungo’s Charity to address homelessness in London.
Collaborating with suppliers
We have designed our Sustainable Procurement Policy to promote social and environmental awareness. We work with many small and medium-sized suppliers that are at the start of their sustainability journey. We regularly review the robustness of our supply chain resilience to ensure we can operate our global operations uninterrupted.
