Scottish Business Pledge - February 2020 Newsletter
Welcome to the latest edition of the Scottish Business Pledge newsletter, bringing you updates on what has been happening across the Business Pledge community since the refresh in October.
Welcoming the news that Stewart Milne Group had become the 700th business to join the Scottish Business Pledge, Business Minister Jamie Hepburn said: “ I am delighted to announce Stewart Milne Group as the 700th business to make a commitment to the Scottish Business Pledge. In particular it is great to recognise a construction company making this commitment to addressing the gender pay gap while also demonstrating the best practice that we are keen to see throughout the industry”.
Stewart Milne Group Chief Executive Stuart MacGregor said: “The Scottish Business Pledge sits perfectly with the Stewart Milne ethos and values. Our commitment to attracting people into the industry and providing the best training, mentoring and learning experience, can only be strengthened by signing up to the pledge and we look forward to introducing more elements and ultimately becoming the leading example of best practise for the UK construction industry.”
Read more about Stewart Milne Group.
Stewart Milne Group join a growing number of like-minded businesses to have made their Business Pledge commitment.
Click here to find out who else has joined the Business Pledge community.
Also, the latest Pledge statistics can be found here.
Caroline Colliston, Chair of the Scottish Business Pledge Business Leadership Group, says: “The Business Pledge is a growing community of like-minded, forward thinking businesses who share the values of creating greater economic success through sustainable, inclusive growth. This should be celebrated!
The Business Leadership Group has a role to promote the Business Pledge and to identify more ways to support you to continuously improve how you translate the Business Pledge values in your business to boost productivity and competitiveness as well as better demonstrate fairness, equality, opportunity and innovation.
The Business Leadership Group would be delighted it if you could celebrate your commitment with other like-minded businesses by:
- sharing this newsletter with other forwarded thinking, like-minded businesses in your network;
- telling at least one other business about the values and benefits of the Business Pledge as well as why it resonates with your own company ethos or plans to grow;
- posting an update or article like this one on LinkedIn by Jenny Stewart, partner at KPMG and BLG member, or this one by Jon Armstrong of Changeway );
- adding the Business Pledge logo to your company websites, email signatures, etc. – some marketing tools are available at [https://scottishbusinesspledge.scot/stakeholders-toolkit/]; or
- using the Scottish Business Pledge hashtag to tweet or retweet messages about your commitment to the Business Pledge and the various pledge elements: #ScotBizPledge
Also, if there is anything else you feel would be useful to better support you to progress in the various aspects of the Business Pledge please contact: ScottishBusinessPledge@gov.scot
Our latest business to business (B2B) event, on 21 January, focused on the gender pay gap. A workshop session provided an opportunity for attendees to discuss key challenges and potential steps to take to successfully address the issue. This was the second event focusing specifically on the gender pay gap. Following the feedback at this event, we have updated the website to offer greater clarity around the specific criteria to demonstrate. Please let us know if there is any more information you think we should include that would help to make this clearer – your feedback to ScottishBusinessPledge@gov.scot would be very welcome.
Some of the key themes focused on the types of positive action that can be taken to tackle the gender pay gap, such as: diversity officers; revised recruitment practice; salary progression (grades/steps); and introducing flexible working where practical to do so.
And on 29 January in Glasgow a panel of guest speakers (Wendy Pring of KCP Ltd, Sophia Goring of Business Stream and Warren McIntyre of Zero Waste Scotland) led an interesting discussion on how to meet the Environmental Impact Pledge element focusing on the challenges and opportunities for businesses arising from the transition to a low carbon economy.
In addition to these events we also ran a webinar on the gender pay gap as part of the introduction to the wider updates to the Business Pledge in September last year. The webinar can be viewed here.
Further sources of additional support and advice include Family Friendly Working Scotland , Close the Gap and the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC).
A programme of upcoming business to business events will be available on the Business Pledge website shortly. If you feel you have a good story to tell and a can share some of your learning with the Business Pledge community, we’d love to hear from you at: ScottishBusinessPledge@gov.scot
Business Pledge Members’ Network
Business Pledge partners will shortly receive an invitation to join the Members’ Network, the space for members to engage with each other, to share best practice or ideas and to access information on the B2B events once the calendar is available
We would ask you to look out for an email from webex.com entitled “Scottish Business Pledge invited you to the team on Cisco Webex Teams” (it may be diverted to your spam folder by your email provider so please keep an eye out for it). Once you receive the email you should click on the “Join Scottish Business Pledge Now” button and follow the instructions to join. If you have any problems joining please contact: ScottishBusinessPledge@gov.scot
Website updates – video case studies, animations, statistics
You can watch the latest video case studies on the Pledge website here: City Building Glasgow and Beyond Green. There are also three new video animations which you can view on the home page here.
Transition
An important reminder that the transition date for the refreshed Business Pledge is fast approaching. To ensure that we can continue to endorse your Business Pledge commitment, please send us information about how you meet the new core element relating to Gender Pay Gap, and, should you choose this option, the Environmental Impact element.
A form to help you provide that information can be found here, on the Business Pledge website.
We would be grateful if you could share your transition form by 20 March 2020.
Please note that if you are unable to provide sufficient information for the new-look Business Pledge structure by 31 March 2020, we may no longer be able to recognise your existing Business Pledge commitment.
We look forward to continuing to work with you to build stronger businesses and a fairer Scotland.
The First Minister’s Award for Manufacturing Leadership celebrates the competitive and innovative manufacturers who contribute to the Scottish Government’s vision for inclusive growth.
This is an excellent opportunity for your company to be recognised and celebrated. As a manufacturing company committed to the Scottish Business Pledge, you may already be fulfilling many of the Award criteria, such as championing fair work and inclusivity and investing in the skills and wellbeing of your employees.
The winning company will receive the award at the SMAS National Manufacturing Conference on 26 May, and will also benefit from a package of prizes designed to support continued growth and innovation.
Entry is open to all manufacturing companies based in Scotland – to enter, just fill in the simple nomination form here. The closing date is Tuesday 17 March at 5:00pm.
Got a question? Get in touch with us at: FM.ManufacturingAward@gov.scot