About Us: Corporate Social Responsibility
Here at Carpenters Group we take Corporate Social Responsibility seriously.
Our approach to Corporate Social Responsibility aligns with our values and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) and incorporates Environmental, Social & Governance (ESG), Diversity & Inclusion and Employee Wellbeing.
Supporting Our Communities
We work closely with a number of grassroots charities; our owners John Carpenter and Donna Scully have always been incredibly passionate about helping the hungry and homeless. They are long-term supporters of the Charles Thompson Mission and Fans Supporting Foodbanks and work with a number of agencies across the Liverpool City Region to accelerate and facilitate the access to help when vulnerable people need it the most. This includes donations to community groups, grassroots sports and foodbanks. We have also partnered with clients and suppliers to provide delivery vans and insurance for L6 and New Beginnings, Improving Lives.
The work of Donna Scully and Carpenters Group was recognised at the Liverpool Echo Regional Business Awards as winners of the Outstanding Charity Support award 2021.
In 2020 our team raised £82,000 for charity
Our colleagues are incredibly passionate about giving back and doing the right thing. Whilst we’ve had to limit some of our usual activity in the past 18 months we’ve still taken part in virtual races, held virtual raffles, events and competitions and have supported organisations such as Macmillan, Claire House, Trussell Trust, The Marina Daglish Foundation, Comic Relief, Women’s Aid – to name a few!
Impacts of Covid-19
The devastation that we have seen this year has been unprecedented and the support that our colleagues have shown has been phenomenal. The Trussell Trust reported a soaring 81% increase in emergency food parcels from foodbanks in its network during the last two weeks of March 2020 compared with the same period in 2019. We recently pledged to support the Right to Food campaign as we believe that no one should go hungry and that the right to food should be enshrined in legislation. This step supports the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal of Zero Hunger, and, our corporate responsibility strategy is founded on the UNSDGs and the creation of effective actions and solutions.
Partnerships
Here at Carpenters Group we believe in using our voice to support and champion causes in a way that deliver real impact. We are committed supporters of Access to Justice, collaborating with the Vauxhall Law Centre and raising funds for the North West Legal Support Trust. We are a founding member of Whizz-Kidz business alliance and have a long-standing relationship with Headway, Wirral. We also use our social media platforms to share stories and gain support for charities across the UK.
Environmental Sustainability
Carpenters Group are fully committed to improving the impact that we have on our environment and in light of the global pandemic, our approach to our environmental impact has shifted focus and we are committed to understanding how the situation presented by COVID-19 can provide opportunities to build back better. Examples of this include removing printers from all offices, continuing to reduce paper and printing and focussing on employee led behavioural campaigns.
Carpenters Group is committed to:
- Continual improvement of our environmental performance by monitoring progress against our objectives;
- Prevention of pollution and reduction of environmental impacts;
- Compliance with relevant environmental legislation;
Diversity & Inclusion
Since its early days, Carpenters Group has believed in choosing the best people for the job, regardless of their background or circumstances. By removing any barriers to entry, investing in the tools to support progression and creating the right working environment, we have been rewarded with some fantastic results. 56% of our 1000+ workforce are women, 50% of our Executive board, and our Operations Board and across the business 58% of managers and team leaders at Carpenters Group are women. It is an essential part of our business that women are integral to our leadership team and decision making to provide a gender balanced perspective in understanding what colleagues, clients and customers need and want. Our CEO, Donna Richards, recently spoke to Insurance Times about how we achieved gender equality at senior levels and what this means for the business. You can read this article here: Gender diversity is a business enabler – Carpenters Group | People & Opinion | Insurance Times.
As for many businesses, the events of the last year have put the spotlight on diversity and inclusion and opened up discussions about how we can celebrate difference, whilst ensuring equality of opportunity across all of our business practices and policies. These discussions at leadership level made us realise, quite honestly that whilst we have done well in relation to gender that we still have more to do. This year we have entered the Social Mobility Employers Index for the first time and we are excited to be participating in the 10,000 Black Interns Initiative and look forward to welcoming our first intern in 2022.
We annually publish our Gender Pay Gap results but 2021 has also seen the publication of our first accompanying Gender Pay Gap report, which can be found here: Carpenters Group Gender Pay Gap Report 2020 | Carpenters Group.
Employee Wellbeing
From the outset, we’ve made it clear to colleagues who have caring responsibilities that we will be flexible to accommodate their work life balance, ensuring that our working families and carers feel supported and empowered, whatever form this may take. In 2020, we anticipated that we would need to do more in relation to mental health and therefore appointed a network of Wellbeing Champions who took part in Mental Health First Aider training and are now skilfully able to support colleagues across the business. Every champion is incredibly passionate about mental wellbeing and they meet regularly to support each other through potentially challenging conversations with colleagues. That everyone is talking about this subject so openly in the workplace is a real win for us. We have also invested in online Pilates classes and a monthly meditation session to provide people with the chance to try something new that can help to calm and soothe. Carpenters have remained conscious throughout that people’s personal circumstances have been affected across the board, and times are hard for many – whether through mental health concerns, bereavement, partner redundancies and a host of other difficult situations.
Our Programmes
