Social Impact – Employment
Social value initiatives extend beyond our own workforce with Alcema team members undertaking voluntary work tackling local disadvantage, e.g. involving school children in talks and work placement/apprentice opportunities.
Social Value and ESG Policy
As part of Alcema’s Social Value and ESG Policy we are always looking at ways to incorporate and offer support to the surrounding community as well as a workforce often overlooked. One of the ways we can achieve this is by taking a ‘local first’ approach, which we do with workforce and businesses for each project we take on.
As Alcema has grown our supply chain has developed and increased also, members of our supply chain are always sought on a ‘local first’ basis also, driving project-locality employment and reducing travel, thereby reducing carbon emissions.
Part of our Social Value and ESG Policy is to offer work placements to those who would have been otherwise excluded from opportunities in the past. Keen to break with past stigmas within the construction industry Alcema considers all equal regardless of background and culture.
Building a diverse workforce
We look to attract a diverse work force, offering work to target where there are community inequalities within a project locality, such as older workers and inexperienced candidates. We have a recruitment of ex-offenders policy in place and we proactively ensure and measure project-specific employee targets, to ensure fair representation of all.
Social value initiatives extend beyond our own workforce with Alcema team members undertaking voluntary work tackling local disadvantage, e.g. involving school children in talks and work placement/apprentice opportunities.
MAXIMISING SOCIAL VALUE BEYOND THE WORKPLACE
Alcema seeks to give a voice to the underrepresented and offer opportunities to all. The company ethos of Alcema encourages the team to look for any additional ways social value can be supported within the workplace as well as beyond this. Activities the team have been involved in have been wide and varied.
PUPIL PARTICIPATION
As part of the project with Thomas Hickman Primary School the team installed outdoor electricity sockets to enable a nativity play could take place under covid restrictions and also held a drawing competition for the children, laminating the pictures and displaying these on the hoarding.
At Pebble Brook SEND School they installed a tanoy system to provide for the local mosque to use the playing field for Friday prayers under covid restrictions. They also included as much ‘Pupil Participation’ as possible with this project to encourage the children to get involved and learn from a young age the importance of listening to the opinions of others. They involved the children in the design of how the rooms were set up and gave them tours of the facility throughout the length of the project. They also included a new wall to be built by construction students at the front of the school. Supervised by Alcema team members this was seen as a rare opportunity for students to gain ‘hands on’ experience which was welcomed by students, teachers and parents.
THE ‘ALCEMA STAMP’
These are just a few examples of how significant Alcema considers Social Value to each and every project. The team are increasingly aware of the responsibility to maximise every opportunity to support this and they are proud to do so. This is a defining characteristic of the ‘Alcema stamp’ left with every project.
