Amey
A news round-up of stories in the FM sector
Infrastructure services and engineering company Amey has announced the winners of its employee-focused Springboard to Net Zero campaign to generate ideas to help the group reach its net zero ambitions. Ideas submitted by 262 employees were evaluated using a five-criteria scorecard to decide whether they tackle a suitable problem and provide innovative solutions as well as assessing their impact, scalability potential and whether they could be put in place across the group. Two submissions were picked as winners and six runners-up will be supported to refine their ideas for possible implementation next year. The winning ideas were:
- Carbon psychology – This suggests using a set of questions created by a psychologist to map the behaviour of Amey’s sites and offices. it would allow the group to set a roadmap to change, focusing on target areas for improvement.
- Energy-saving incentives – such as installation of solar panels for employees working from home.
Andy Voase, Amey’s chief operating officer, said: “We all recognise the importance of tackling climate change, but there is no silver bullet – the solution lies in a myriad of individual and collective actions.”
Corps Security has formally launched Corps Together, a campaign to improve equality, diversity and inclusion engagement across the group. The programme began over a year ago to create a culture in which heritage and differences are valued and which treats inclusion as an expectation, not an aspiration. A group of volunteer employees, known as guardians, was recruited to take responsibility for six protected characteristics: age, sex, religion, disability, gender and race, and to keep a calendar of key dates of faith festivals, LGBTQ History Month, Pride Month and Black History Month to run celebratory events.
The initiative includes the introduction of an ED&I charter setting out a company-level commitment to each colleague to underpin the Corps value Everyone Matters. The senior team reviewed all Corps policies, procedures and recruitment processes to ensure ED&I best practice, introduced a Corps Together website, a short video and a quarterly magazine to engage people, together with a helpline/email line to support staff in raising a ED&I issue. There is also annual mandatory E&DI training for everyone in the business through MOONHUB’s virtual reality training platform. Corps is also exploring the adoption of ISO 30415 – the business quality standard in ED&I.
The Chartered Management Institute (CMI) this week reiterated its call on the government to introduce mandatory ethnicity pay gap reporting for large employers. It is also encouraging businesses to embrace management and leadership training to promote more diverse and inclusive working environments.
The institute said its research shows that only 33 per cent of managers’ organisations are taking at least one measure in relation to ethnicity pay gap reporting. Forty-three per cent of respondents reported that their senior management teams had no staff from diverse ethnic groups; only 47 per cent of respondents said their firm was taking steps to increase the proportion of employees from diverse ethnic groups through recruitment practices.
Environmental solutions firm Veolia is taking a stand in response to reports from frontline staff about a rising tide of abuse from members of the public this year. The firm says incidents have doubled, with a 118% increase compared to the same period last year.
It has launched StreetKind, a new campaign to thank residents who recognise the contribution of its teams – and to take stronger action against those who abuse or endanger staff by pursuing more prosecutions. The campaign builds on previous company initiatives focusing on building a safe workplace.
Travel caterer SSP Group has appointed Patrick Coveney to the role of group CEO. He takes over from Simon Smith and will start in the role from March 31, 2022.
Image credit | Amey
