Working at SUEZ

Called Safety in Mind, our comprehensive health and safety programme was devised with the input of employees across the organisation a decade ago. It is designed to promote a positive safety culture. As well as training, this involves ‘Safety in Mind conversations’ when team members can discuss any aspect of safety, ‘near miss’ reporting and investigation and ‘vigiminutes’ – assessments of tasks to identify hazards and prevent accidents.

This industry-leading programme has underpinned a significant improvement in safety performance – especially over the last five years, when the three main indicators for incident frequency and severity fell by around half.

Our wellbeing programme had its origins in the Wellness for All charter drawn up by our employees in 2019. It recognises the importance of wellness in the workplace and beyond it, and how we must empower our people to maintain a healthy work/life balance.

In 2020, we accelerated the programme amid the pandemic, and last year appointed a dedicated Wellbeing and Inclusion Manager.

Our inclusion and diversity plan was launched with strong support from senior leaders. They recognise that a successful and sustainable business needs to attract, retain and engage all the talent available within our communities.

In a series of ongoing listening sessions, board directors heard colleagues from minority groups describe their lived experience. All are members of our 50-strong Inclusion and Diversity Network, which meets quarterly to review inclusion and diversity activities and planning.

More than 1,500 employees across the business had completed unconscious bias training by the year-end. The course has been well received.

Through webinars and other events, we raise awareness of different areas of diversity, including autism, dyslexia, LGBTQIA+, and cultural festivals, such as Diwali.

Three additional networks have been formed for ethnicity, LGBTQIA+ and disability. Members provide support, make suggestions for how we can improve as an employer and help raise awareness.

An equal opportunities employer, we also aim to widen the career opportunities for employees – for example, through talent management – and new recruits.

We operate dedicated schemes for interns and work placement experience. In 2021, we provided 16 placements under the government’s Kickstart scheme. Our company has stepped up apprentice training in recent years. In 2021, we signed up another 55, working across a wide range of functions. We also co-designed and delivered an apprentice exchange programme with Unilever.

In addition, we work with the Business Disability Forum and Leonard Cheshire charity to provide work experience, and job offers where possible, to disabled people.

We value the skills of ex-military personnel, have stepped up our recruitment efforts, and set up an active support network for veterans and their families across the company. More than 280 employees are veterans. The Defence Employer Recognition Scheme awarded us its gold medal in September.

Several of our contract teams work closely with local employment initiatives. In Surrey, for example, we create opportunities for prison leavers with the New Futures Network. Our involvement ranges from sponsoring a bicycle repair workshop in HMP Ford to job offers. In October 2021, we shared our experience at an employers’ summit, and our regional manager met Justice Secretary Dominic Raab to discuss how the government could improve the process for employers.

One of our sustainability principles is to connect with the local community. Everyone is encouraged to take part in, or organise, at least two events per year – often as a volunteer. Following feedback from our employees in 2021, each employee is entitled to a day’s paid volunteering in 2022 for a good cause, which also triggers a £5 company donation to Macmillan Cancer Support.

These activities, which are in addition to our charity sponsorship and funding of community projects, range from litter picking to working with local schools and hosting visits at our sites.

SUEZ experts are active in industry bodies and forums, and they offer advice on national policy reform and the challenges facing our customers.

We also commission original research and host events to illuminate issues critical to the circular economy. These efforts include ...

• Two days of events at Glasgow’s COP26 focusing on key issues absent from the conference agenda – resources and consumption – in partnership with the Green Alliance, Aldersgate Group and ReLondon.
• Joint research with the British Chambers of Commerce on business attitudes to social value.
• A guide to maximising social value through local authority procurement, produced with consultants Eunomia.
• Our continuing webinar programme (launched amid the pandemic in 2020) explored different aspects of the triple bottom line in 28 webinars with 3,560 attendees.
• An interactive digital map showing recycling performance by local authority area.
• Recommendations to curb microplastic pollution from car tyres were set out in a report co-authored with environmental research practice SOENECS.
• A SUEZ customer conference attended by over 70 delegates.