Social

Interserve believes in contributing to the well-being of the communities in which it operates.

Help for Heroes - our chosen charity

Help for Heroes (H4H) was our chosen charity for 2010 and 2011 and, due to the success of the partnership as well as a staff vote, the relationship with H4H will continue for 2012. H4H provides direct, practical support to those wounded in UK military service and has raised £125 million since 2007.

Employees across the Group raised over £76,000 in 2011 to complement Interserve's donation of £25,000.

Yukon River Quest - Interserve/London Irish

Interserve and Aviva Premiership rugby team, London Irish, (pictured right) have come together to raise funds for Help for Heroes by taking part in the Yukon River Quest.

The 14th annual Yukon River Quest canoe and kayak race starts on 27 June in Whitehorse and ends 1 July at Dawson City, Yukon, Canada. Athletes come from around the world to test their endurance, racing day and night along 715 km/440 miles of rugged river shoreline to the Klondike in the most spectacular paddling race in the world, known as "Race to the Midnight Sun".

To find out more follow the team blog and you can donate via our charity giving site.

Local charities

We support numerous local charities in the UK and internationally, both as a business and through the hard work of individuals who take up causes that are close to them or to our clients. In 2011 we gave £10,000 to two worthy charities:

• Great Ormond Street Hospital's Raising the Roof campaign.
• The Safer London Foundation (the Metropolitan Police's charity supporting community-led crime prevention/reduction projects).

Several smaller donations to other charities brought 2011's total to £50,785.

Interserve Employee Foundation

The Interserve Employee Foundation, launched on 2 February 2012, aims to improve the quality of life and life chances for people in the community where we live and operate, utilising the skills, capabilities, resources and enthusiasm of Interserve's employees. Through the Interserve Employee Foundation, we encourage our staff to run fundraising events and donate their time by Giving a Day of Their Time.

Diversity is fundamental to our business. We operate in many different environments, in numerous roles, for a wide range of clients. To do this effectively we need an equally diverse workforce, and in order to maintain our success we welcome the widest variety of people who have the appropriate skills and enthusiasm.

Once someone is part of the Interserve Group they have the chance to contribute and develop in whatever way their abilities and the opportunities we can offer them allow. We need to make the most of all that our employees have to offer so that we can give the best possible service to our clients and develop our business for the future.

Fairness and respect for individuals creates the sort of positive atmosphere that generates its own success. Our policy supports the fundamental belief that all our employees, including potential recruits, are equal regardless of gender, race, disability, sexual orientation, age, religion, religious belief or any other reason that might be assumed to limit their contribution or potential.

All employees have a personal responsibility for the practical application of equal opportunities, demonstrated by respect for the individual, in their everyday dealings and working relationships with colleagues, customers, suppliers and other parties.

We have an established policy that disabled persons, especially should they become disabled in the course of their employment with the Group, be employed where circumstances permit. We endeavour to ensure that disabled employees benefit from training and career development programmes in line with other employees. Find our more about Employee engagement.

The success of Interserve’s business is dependent on recruiting, retaining, developing, motivating and communicating with appropriately-skilled, competent people of integrity at all levels of the organisation. With active human resources management and Investors in People (IiP) accreditation in many parts of the Group, we manage our people professionally and encourage them to develop and fulfil their maximum potential. IiP sets a level of good practice for staff training and development to achieve business goals and provides a framework for improving business performance and competitiveness. Our strategy is to gain IiP recognition, where applicable, throughout the entities we control. We have accreditation at the Group Centre, throughout our UK construction businesses, in most of our international operations and in several support services contracts.

Following a three-day audit by the Skills Funding Agency, the work of our team was assessed as being completely error-free – eliciting the comment from the SFA auditor that, in her 12 years’ experience, she had not seen this achieved by any other organisation.

We run several programmes:

• Skills for Life
  This involves literacy and numeracy training. As the programme has developed we have devised our own model using online tools and our in-house infrastructure in addition to employing tutors who visit our sites. We sit on the employer reference group at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.
• Apprenticeships
  Interserve was the first-ever large organisation to pilot and develop the Cleaning Apprenticeship, consisting of an NVQ level 2 in cleaning and support services, Adult Certificates in numeracy and literacy, a Technical Certificate and a British Institute of Cleaning Science accreditation. The first qualified apprentices completed the course at the end of 2010. We are currently in the process of developing an FM Advanced Apprenticeship.
• NVQs
  Interserve pioneered the FM NVQ level 3 and delivers NVQs in many areas including refrigeration and air conditioning, security and customer services.

We are also piloting a return-to-work programme for the long-term unemployed, having taken on some 80 people in this position over the last two years without a formal programme in place.

At the beginning of 2011 we launched a new careers platform, e-Recruit, which is aimed at existing employees as well as potential new ones. It streamlines the whole process of transferring and recruiting, and enables staff to see career opportunities across the whole Group.

The success of individuals committed to their personal training and development is recognised through the well-established Interserve Training Trust. Following a record number of entries the Chief Executive presented 45 people from across the Group with awards in September 2011 at a ceremony in front of the Group’s senior management.

Effectively engaging with local residents and communities plays a major role in the successful delivery of our contracts. Ensuring neighbours are informed and involved engenders trust, promotes good relations and enhances our clients’ reputation. We have worked in partnership with local residents in diverse, multi-cultural localities and during our contracts our Community Liaison Officers engage with local residents and communities. In addition, we establish and support community and resident engagement forums as well as support educational institutions through:

• Sharing resources
• Donating materials
• Work experience
• Work-related learning

Examples of our engagement:

• Interserve has signed a three-year partnership and donated £75,000 to the Safer London Foundation (SLF), the independent charitable arm of the Metropolitan Police. Interserve and SLF are also working together on the Aspire Project to match ex-offenders with mentors from our business to support them through sustainable training and employment. We have provided, free of charge, portable appliance testing to all items within their Head Office building. A working group is being formed from staff working within the Civil Government Business Unit with the brief to come up with ideas and projects for the staff to help in the local community for SLF.

• Interserve is a Founding Member of the Transformation Trust, an education charity which funds extra-curricular activities in state schools to inspire and enthuse young people so that they go on to achieve their full potential. Since 2009 over £2 million has been committed to the Trust, which is currently supporting four charities working in over 50 Building Schools for the Future across England. Sir David Bell, Chair of the Transformation Trust, said: “I am delighted that Interserve is joining the growing ranks of our Founding Members. The interest from the private sector - and in particular from companies involved with the national BSF programme - has been overwhelming. The backing of firms like Interserve is vital for the continuing growth of the Transformation Trust as we move towards our ultimate goal of ensuring that schools across the country can access the Trust’s support, so that every child has the opportunity to take part in activities which help them unlock their real talents and potential". We were a sponsor of the Trust's first anniversary party, held at the O2 Arena in London. Around 12,000 children celebrated in style at the Rock Assembly with a free concert, during which the winners of a national competition for young film makers and designers were announced.