CSR Statements

Striking the balance between people, planet and profit

The service that we provide directly affects the lives of our candidates, contractors and clients as well as our consultants and staff. We are also part of the wider community; interacting with many different stakeholders and suppliers in the course of our work.

As a Group, we must widen our perspective and think about how our ethical, social and environmental responsibilities fit alongside our corporate values of innovation, development, financial good practice and business excellence.

Our success depends on many factors: how we treat our employees and the people around us, how we choose to get involved in the wider community, and how effective our environmental policies are.

Our people

Recruitment is a business about people, and any commercial advantage we have depends primarily on the quality and motivation of the people that we employ.

There are three broad areas to our employee policies:

Equal opportunities and diversity

• We are enthusiastic about recruiting and retaining high calibre employees for ourselves and for our clients, regardless of age, sex, race, religion or disability
• We give full consideration to applications from disabled applicants where they can fulfil the requirements of the role
• Wherever possible, we provide training, development and promotion for employees who become disabled
• Spring Group is a founding member of Supplier Diversity Europe: an organisation that works in partnership with businesses to include diverse suppliers within supply chains across the UK and the rest of Europe

Effective communication

Effective communication is key to success and we involve our staff in our business aims and performance:

• The Spring Group ‘Round Table’
  This is held on a regular basis and chaired by the Chief Executive Officer, Peter Searle. Representatives from across the Group are updated on developments and potential changes that could affect employees. We encourage questions and discussions and all information is cascaded to our colleagues.
• Spring Loaded
  This regular email newsletter is circulated to all Spring Group employees. It promotes social activities and highlights business achievements, individual performance excellence and internal questionnaires.

Training and development

The Spring Group Learning Portal makes a wide range of on-line development resources available to every Spring Group employee in the form of articles, summaries, management pocket books, websites and practical learning guides.

It also provides information about the Open Courses and Development Programmes provided by our Learning and Development Team.

Developed in partnership with the Ashridge Business School, the portal helps employees to develop in their current roles and to prepare for future roles.

Our environment

At Spring Group, we understand that our normal business activities have an impact upon the wider environment; recognising our responsibility for achieving good environmental practice.

We have a number of key environmental targets for 2009:

To achieve ISO14001 accreditation

ISO14001 is the international standard that provides a structure for companies to develop, implement and maintain an environmental management system. This important accreditation will allow us to formulate policies and processes that take into account our impact on the environment.

To increase our level of recycling

In order to achieve this and to ensure that waste is disposed of safely, we are establishing recycling facilities at our major sites. Facilities have already been introduced to Bouverie Street and plans for BBP and Hanley are well under way.

To reduce emissions by reducing business travel

During the course of the year, we want to reduce our business travel by 5%. We’ll do this by encouraging car sharing and making better use of alternative methods, such as conference calling.

To reduce the level of paper consumption by 15%

In 2008, we each used 4,600 sheets of paper! With a few simple steps such as using double sided printing and electronic technologies instead of paper, we can significantly reduce the demands we make on finite natural resources. We have also introduced recycled paper throughout the organisation.

We actively encourage staff and suppliers to support us in our aims and to share our philosophy on waste, energy and recycling.

Charitable giving and involvement in the community

Each year our employees nominate a charity to be the focus of the year’s fundraising events and activities across the organisation.

Individual and group activities are organised throughout the year and Spring Group’s Marketing department helps to arrange many of them.

Past activities have included: sponsored bike rides, charity pub quizzes and The Great Northern Run. Spring Group offices nationwide take part in monthly dress down days as a way of involving all employees in charitable giving.

This year, we have chosen to raise money for Macmillan Cancer Support, an extremely worthwhile charity that helps to improve the lives of people living with cancer.

One in three of us will get cancer at some stage of our lives so it is a cause that many of us can relate to.

In recent years, Spring Group has helped to raise money for:

• ‘The Shaw Trust’ in 2004
• ‘Get Kids Going’ in 2005
• ‘Well Child’ in 2006
• ‘NCH’ in 2007
• ‘Action for Children', formally 'NCH’, in 2008

The Group has also lent its support to The Prince’s Trust.

The South Africa Bursary

Twice yearly, we provide a bursary for projects in South Africa.

Most recently, we worked with the Alpine Primary School in the Mitchell’s Plain area of Cape Town. With 1,320 pupils aged between five and twelve years old, the school had no recreational grounds on which the children could play and exercise.

This is an under-developed and disadvantaged area and with the school only receiving funding from the Government once every four years, any money they get has to be spent on urgent building repairs.

So, on 13th March 2009, a group of volunteers from Spring Group and First Event visited the school and, using wheelbarrows, sand, wood, nets and rope ladders, started to build the Jungle Gym; a structure designed for health and fitness and, more importantly, fun.

The Jungle Gym was greeted with a huge sense of excitement and will no doubt make a difference to the children at Alpine for years to come. Spring Group also donated a bursary of £2,000 to the school to help with books and learning materials, and will continue to do so on a bi-annual basis.