SOCIAL VALUE STATEMENT

IIZUKA is committed to delivering social value across our business. We operate in a way which supports our employees, local community and the wider environment and all activities are embedded in our ‘business as usual’ policies and procedures.  We support all the social value themes and detail our activities below, along with which themes they relate to.

Breaking down barriers to opportunity

Our policy of recruiting the best people for our roles has currently resulted in a workforce that reflects the diversity of our local community, including 25% non-white/non-British, more than 20% female and 12.5% with a disability.

All staff employed by IIZUKA are paid a salary which equates to more than the national living wage, including our apprentices. We can confirm that any subcontractors pay their staff above the national living wage too. 

We provide in-work training and support to all staff, from short skills-based courses to supporting staff through degree programmes. 

Almost 20% of our workforce consider themselves to have a form of disability. We discuss an individual’s requirements with them and provide specialist equipment, for example standing desks, and flexible working practices, and we promote awareness throughout our workforce. We also provide any training or skills development identified.

We provide flexible working opportunities to all staff, including hybrid working to allow for working from home for up to three days per week. We have provided specialist equipment to facilitate working from home for those staff with specific needs. We also provide childcare vouchers as part of our benefits package to support those of our team with young children.

IIZUKA has published policies on Equal Opportunities and Disability and Modern Slavery which can be found on our website at www.iizuka.co.uk.  Staff who are involved in recruitment, management and appraisals are also trained in how to identify and tackle signs of modern slavery and human trafficking. For our workforce, we have Grievance and Whistleblowing policies and procedures available via the company intranet (and shared with all new starters as part of their onboarding process), which also provide contact details of our independent human resources contractor, who is available to all staff for advice and support.

Build an NHS fit for the future

In addition to providing Case Manager to customers in the NHS and related services, we operate in a way to protect the NHS by supporting the general health and wellbeing of our entire workforce. 

We have hosted wellbeing sessions for our team with specialists, and offer all of our workforce free (and anonymous) access to counselling services if they want them. All staff are also offered the opportunity to opt in to private healthcare as part of our benefits package. 

We also provide cycle facilities in the office, to facilitate staff cycling to work - around 25% of staff regularly cycle into work.

We accommodate staff with particular needs, for example we have standing desks to support physical wellbeing and engagement plans to support staff with mental health needs.

Kickstart economic growth

Since 2021 we have appointed four apprentices, all from our local community. We have offered roles to ‘mature’ apprentices (27+) allowing people a real opportunity to change track in their careers. Two of our apprentices have come from a hospitality background, where their chances of progression were limited and impacted by Covid 19.

We have also offered to sponsor apprentices for our larger customers, supporting them to employ young people in their local communities who can work on implementing or using our software. 

In our wider community, we are partnered with St Basils, a local charity which supports young (aged 16-25) homeless people across Birmingham and the West Midlands into housing and work. We have donated around £26,000 to the charity over the last two years and are currently working on a programme of volunteering to support their ‘You Can’ programme which helps young people get into work by providing mentors and advice on work applications, CVs and careers in software development. We have also volunteered to help them decorate a new facility which offers low-cost accommodation to young people in Birmingham City Centre, allowing them to thrive.

Many of our suppliers are local SMEs. We pay our suppliers promptly, many within one week of receiving an invoice. 

Make Britain a clean energy superpower

We use only green electricity and have modified our offices to be energy efficient, for example installing an MVHR rather than costly heating and air conditioning.

Our small fleet of company vehicles are all electric. We encourage staff to use public transport to commute and we only use public transport to attend any business meetings (preferably the train.)

We recycle all appropriate business waste and have recently been awarded a First Mile Silver award.