Corporate Social Responsibility
SPS Facilities supports the idea that a company should play a positive role in the community and consider the environmental and social impact of their business decisions.
At SPS we are committed to operating as an ethical and socially responsible business. Our policies and operating procedures underpin this commitment in the following ways:
Hidden
Local Community
We value the opportunity to give back to the communities in which we operate via financial of sporting associations and clubs, education bursaries, and various charities. Likewise, SPS seeks wherever possible to contribute to the community through the support of local businesses and employing local people.
People
SPS does not agree with subcontracting all work and credits the direct engagement of staff as being central to our success. The majority of staff members are directly employed, enabling us to have long-term staff members and client partnerships. Whilst many of our competitors choose to franchise or subcontract their work as a preference, we believe that the subcontracting/franchising model should be used only as required, as it ultimately leads to client dissatisfaction via a lack of client management, insufficient communication, high staff turnover, incorrect assignment of service hours and overworked and under paid cleaners.
Environment
SPS is committed to continually improving our environmental performance, preventing pollution, and minimising and controlling our waste in order to provide safe working and living environments. To do this we have set a number of objectives and targets so we may be able to measure our performance against them. Some of these objectives are listed on our policies with a more in-depth breakdown on our integrated objectives list. This integrated objective list is reviewed continually for compliance and improvements throughout the year.
Modern Slavery
SPS Facilities operates within a direct employment model of engagement. Operational staff are engaged using the relevant industrial instrument as a way of ensuring all legislative requirements are met as a minimum standard. By utilising Modern Awards and National Employment Standards as the instruments, conditions are assured to meet minimum standards and minimum living wages levels are guaranteed.
SPS has developed a bespoke time and attendance platform that allows employees to capture time spent on client assets. This information balances to set budgets and cost centres and flows through for timely payroll processing, with award interpretation automatically applied. This ensures all Award conditions are met and employees receive correct wages and entitlements for the work performed.
Mental Health & Wellbeing
SPS Facilities believes that the mental health and well-being of our staff is key to organisational success and sustainability.
We will establish healthy workplace practices to promote and maintain the mental health and wellbeing of all staff and encourage staff to take responsibility for their own mental health and wellbeing.
Sponsorships
SPS directly supports the many communities in which it operates in the following ways:
SPS supports our business sectors with sponsoring and attendance at conferences throughout each calendar year. SPS supports and attends the Association of School Business Administrators Ltd (ASBA), School Business Managers Association Queensland and Lutheran Education Queensland Business managers conferences.
SPS has provided a number of educational bursaries in partnership with its clients SPS believes that the provision of these types of awards is an excellent way of directly supporting local communities in a lasting manner. We believe that access to training and education is vitally important in all people’s lives. We continue to seek opportunities to be involved in the provision of these types of awards.
SPS provides corporate sponsorship for a number of community organisations that we believe promote healthy, active, and responsible lifestyles such as:
- Brisbane Big City BBQ, an event that has raised over $600,000 for Drug Arm and the Lord Mayors Community Trust since 2006s
- Gladstone Bridge to Brisbane Fun Run
- Bridge to Brisbane Fun Run; Clean-up Australia Day;
- Local sporting clubs
- SPS has provided ongoing sponsorships to not-for-profit organisations such World Vision
- SPS makes regular donations to bodies such as the Christchurch Earthquake Appeal, the Premier’s Disaster Relief Appeal, the Victorian Bushfire Appeal and the Indonesian, Tsunmai Appeal, Brisbane Floods.
SPS Facilities takes an active approach to indigenous employment and participation. We are also researching mentoring programs in-house that can bridge the cultural gap and educate our existing team on how to best navigate cultural differences.
We engage with Indigenous employment agencies across Australia to boost our Indigenous representation and we also have a Reflect Reconciliation Action Plan to guide our progress. We consider workplace diversity to be one of the most important strengths of a company and as such, we are motivated to grow our indigenous employment base and improve our understanding of indigenous culture as we progress through our reconciliation journey. At SPS Facilities, we are committed to increasing indigenous representation, both in-house and across our business activities. We support indigenous procurement wherever available, and we are motivated to support the growth of indigenous businesses as we grow ourselves. For SPS to remain a competitive national contract cleaning entity and achieve greater community outcomes, our active participation in the Reconciliation journey is essential.
Through our keen involvement, we will be able to provide more opportunities for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island peoples, while simultaneously assisting SPS Facilities in reaching its strategic corporate responsibility and financial goals. In addition to contract opportunities, SPS aims to align with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander-owned businesses for the provision of cleaning and office supplies and employment placement assistance where possible. Our hope is that by working with Indigenous-owned businesses we can positively contribute to the ongoing success of these businesses and hopefully the positive flow-on effect for both individuals and communities. We are pleased to report a high indigenous participation rate across our business activities.
As examples of our indigenous procurement efforts, we obtain stationery supplies designed by indigenous artists through AIME, a charitable organisation dedicated to supporting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students through schooling, and tertiary education and providing resources and assistance in gaining future employment opportunities. SPS Facilities has previously commissioned Indigenous artist, Kimba Fatiaki, to create an artwork for display in our new Brisbane headquarters. Kimba’s art is influenced by his Tongan and South Sea Islander heritage, and his family originates from the Yawibara Mob, who are from the broader Mackay area and are ancestors of the Leap.
This commissioned artwork is proudly displayed in our boardroom and inspires us to think of new, innovative ways to increase Indigenous procurement moving forward.
