SOCIAL ISSUES
We must value other people as we ourselves would wish to be valued.
480 graduates up 20% this year
Accident frequency rate 0.05 per 100,000 employees
Through NISP our efforts helped divert 565,600 metric tonnes of material from landfill
scott wilson and the wenchuan earthquake
Scott Wilson responded swiftly to the devastating Wenchuan Earthquake that rocked Sichuan and Gansu provinces in China in May 2008. The Scott Wilson Group immediately gave funds to the International Red Cross and the Chinese Central Disaster Relief Fund and generated more than £15,000 from staff via our charity, the Scott Wilson Millennium Project. Scott Wilson's local staff from offices throughout China and Hong Kong gave generously of money, time and professional services. Some staff took leave to enter the quake zone to assist in emergency relief efforts. One of our China JVs was assigned to manage the reconstruction of the Mianzhu Second Ring Road, an important arterial route for the transport of food and relief materials to the affected areas.
Within days of the quake, we donated massive tents to our Scott Wilson Millennium Project partner, the Wolong schools. When the heavily-damaged schools were shut down for the rest of the academic year, the authorities used the tents as the operational command centre for Wolong, famous for its Giant Panda Research Centre which sadly was destroyed. While we are relieved that there was no loss of life among Wolong students, we were saddened to learn that some students have lost a parent and other parents have been permanently handicapped and can no longer earn income. We are exploring ways to assist these students' families.
Scott Wilson was honoured to attend the ceremony on 12 May 2009 commemorating the first anniversary of the quake at the relocated Wolong Middle School in Longchang County, Sichuan as guests of the local authorities and school.
introduction
In this section we set out our approach to corporate responsibility by reference to our internal organisation, external relationships, and in relation to our skills, services and projects.
In terms of internal organisation, we describe our policies and practice related to employment, occupational health, safety and welfare, stakeholders and the activities of the Millennium Project, our staff charity.
In terms of our external relationships, we describe our policies and practice related to human rights, discrimination and anti-corruption.
within scott wilson
employment
Scott Wilson’s goal is to “be an employer of choice”.
Our relevant policies relate to Internal and External Communications, Dealing with a Concern, Recruitment & Employment, Learning & Development, Reward & Recognition and Use of Drugs & Alcohol.
Scott Wilson employs approximately 6,000 people, across 80 offices. Its key operating regions are the UK, Asia Pacific, Europe, India and the Middle East.
One of our key tools for seeking to be an employer of choice is our Graduate Development Programme. This provides a planned training programme for all new graduates designed to equip them with the skills necessary to be successful consultants. During the year, notwithstanding the difficult economic circumstances, there were 480 graduates enrolled in the programme. This represented a 20 per cent increase on the previous year.
We also seek to measure our success as an employer by reference to the number of voluntary leavers. During the year, the percentage of voluntary leavers as a proportion of the total workforce was 14 per cent. This represented a 12 per cent decrease on the previous year.
Dealing with a Concern, the Group’s whistleblowing policy, recognises that staff can face issues of conscience and could be confused as to the appropriate action. The policy gives practical guidance on how to act and provides safeguards against dismissal or victimisation when reporting malpractice. No cases of malpractice have been identified over the past year although individual staff have sought guidance from their mentors in relation to how to deal with client relationships.
In the current economic climate, Scott Wilson has had to implement redundancies. In order to ensure that this process is as transparent as possible, an Employee Council has been formed. The Collective Redundancies Consultation Committee is a group of employees nominated to represent Scott Wilson’s regions and sectors, for the purposes of collective consultation over the three months following redundancy announcements.
The UK Railways Sector operates a Company Council where employee representatives and the Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association (TSSA) meet regularly with senior management for consultation on matters affecting the business.
Scott Wilson has recently elected staff representatives to consult on TUPE transfers mainly in the acquisition of Benaim and the transfer out of AMscott.
occupational health, safety and welfare
Our relevant policy relates to Health, Safety and Welfare at Work.
We record data on both the number of days lost due to accidents and the accident frequency rate. During the year, the accepted indicator of days lost due to accidents was 1,345 per 100,000 employees and the accident frequency rate 0.05 per 100,000 employees.
stakeholder engagement
Our relevant policies relate to Internal and External Communications and Client Satisfaction.
Our stakeholders include our shareholders, public and private sector clients, sub-consultants, suppliers and the communities in which we work. The key attributes of our approach are good communications, the willingness to listen and learn and the ability to resolve problems and realise community growth and cohesion.
A Group Supply Chain Manager was appointed in March 2009 and has begun to review and refine Scott Wilson’s procurement policy. The intention is that more goods and services will be procured centrally rather than by individual offices. This will, amongst other things, enable closer scrutiny of a more limited number of suppliers. The aim is that suppliers should subscribe to the principles which we use in our own business.
We continue to act as a sponsor for RedR, the organisation that provides engineers to support disaster relief. We provide financial support to the organisation and we have meetings with the senior staff of RedR to discuss ways that the organisation can make more use of volunteers from member companies. As a result of these discussions, Martin McCann, RedR’s Chief Executive, visited six of our offices and made presentations to interested members of staff.
projects in countries with non-democratic regimes
an approach to engagement
- What is the FCO guidance on the country?
- What are the client’s corporate responsibility (CR) policies?
- Is the client committed to any global CR norms/practices, e.g. UNGC?
- Is the client committed to striving to implement international best practice, e.g. IFC Performance Standards and supporting EHS guidelines?
- What is the relationship between the client and the regime?
- How will the project benefit the regime?
- Will stakeholder participation be possible, free and open?
- What has been the experience of other consultants/developers working in the country?
- Is there a realistic opportunity of raising awareness of and implementing international best practice in relation to environmental and social sustainability?
- What are the potential reputational risks to working in the country?
external relationships
human rights
Our relevant policies relate to Working with the Community and in particular to our commitment to respect the protection of internationally proclaimed human rights and to make sure we are not complicit in human rights abuses.
Scott Wilson is a global enterprise and receives requests to work in many countries. Some of these countries may have non-democratic regimes and in some there may be evidence of human rights abuses, forced labour or child labour. We need to assure ourselves that anything we do cannot result in such abuses. Accordingly, and on the basis of experience, we have now developed a checklist of actions when considering requests to work in ‘difficult’ countries. This is reproduced above and we would welcome comments.
discrimination
Scott Wilson encourages diversity and recruits, promotes and rewards employees on the basis of merit alone.
anti-corruption
Our relevant policies relate to our Values and Ethics and Share Dealing.
Scott Wilson is committed to trying to eradicate corruption which distorts markets and can result in projects yielding fewer environmental and social benefits than planned. We continue to play an active role in the Anti-Corruption Forum in which one of our staff members has acted as voluntary Coordinator of the Developing Countries Working Group. We have also gained a greater understanding of the issues associated with combating corruption through a number of project appointments which are described opposite.
services, projects and awards
range of skills/services
Our staff include individuals with professional skills and experience in communications, community engagement, equalities, health, resettlement and social impact assessment.
notable projects
We have chosen five projects to demonstrate our professional involvement in projects designed to promote community engagement and empowerment, anti-discrimination and anti-corruption.
BLACKWALL REACH, TOWER HAMLETS
Scott Wilson’s Social Regeneration and Engagement team has designed and implemented a wide ranging, innovative and effective community engagement strategy for a multi-cultural, but predominantly Bangladeshi, community in Tower Hamlets. This neighbourhood renewal project, led by the Homes and Community Agency (HCA), involved exploring the concept of sustainable communities with residents, local voluntary organisations, the local school and a mosque group, through facilitated discussions, workshops and public events. Using a wide range of communications and engagement approaches we have facilitated the debate around key options and more recently an emerging master planning strategy to develop a consensual approach to the regeneration of the neighbourhood. Scott Wilson is currently developing a unique Community Charter with the community against which to measure forthcoming regeneration and procurement proposals.
EQUALITIES IMPACT ASSESSMENT
The Equalities Impact Assessment (EqIA) of the London Development Agency’s Corporate Investment Strategy 2009–2013 (CIS) was undertaken to demonstrate the potential benefits and recommend ways to avoid discriminatory or negative consequences for a particular group. This high level EqIA established the baseline using existing reports, explored the potential implications of the 17 CIS programmes before examining the distribution of effects across eight equality groups. Recommendations were then made focusing upon the specification of the programmes, their delivery and monitoring.
DIBAMBA RESETTLEMENT ACTION PLAN, CAMEROON
The Dibamba Resettlement Action Plan was prepared for a major power company in Cameroon. This Plan was based on international best practice providing for reinstatement of livelihoods and not just direct financial compensation for crops and other assets as per the national legislation. We also facilitated the appointment of local NGOs to facilitate livelihood reinstatement training and incorporated community representatives into the compensation overseeing committee.
ANTI-CORRUPTION
One of our consultants undertook a diagnostic study of corruption in the construction sector for the World Bank in Ethiopia. The study report was recognised as having contributed to Ethiopia’s subsequent decision to join the international Construction Sector Transparency (CoST) initiative. We were also appointed as Monitoring and Evaluation Consultant for the pilot phase of the CoST initiative. Participating countries are Tanzania, Zambia, Malawi, Ethiopia, Vietnam, the Philippines and
the UK.
awards
We reported last year on the Millennium Fund and specifically the role of our staff in planning and constructing a new primary school in Mozambique. We were delighted when Michael Pidgeon, a member of the organising team, was declared Young Consultant of the Year at the British Expertise Awards for his work in Mozambique.