SOCIAL VALUE POLICY

As an SME, established in 1992, Opus is an independent, privately owned and financially secure technology provider, delivering end-to-end communications, collaboration, contact centre, mobile, IT, document, and security solutions to public and private sector organisations across the UK and beyond.   

Working together with our industry leading partners, our purpose is to enable businesses to succeed and thrive by providing best-of-breed, tailored technology all backed by world class service and support.  

Opus recognises that the impact of our activities goes far beyond the financial returns that we are looking to achieve, and we are working to embed sustainability into everything we do, with everyone we work with, to create business value and sustainable impact.  

We assist our customers to maximise social, economic, and environmental wellbeing of local communities in accordance with The Public Services (Social Value) Act 2012, The Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act 2014 and The Wellbeing of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015. We have a direct responsibility to the communities in which we operate to maximise social value in terms of economic, social, and environmental wellbeing. We conduct our business socially and ethically. We obey the law, encourage universal human rights, and protect the environment. We aim to create an environment that not only embraces creativity and diversity but is financially rewarding for the people who believe in us.  

Scope  

Opus is committed to creating a sustainable inclusive society actively managing our operations in ways which optimise our value to the communities in which we work. Social Value is therefore intrinsic to everything we do, for this reason we manage Social Value through a suite of interdependent policies and procedures, which collectively deliver our objectives.    

Our Social Value Policy has been designed to ensure that we consider and maximise the social value and beneficial impact that we bring to the communities we work within. This policy covers all our activities as well as the activities of our supply chain including suppliers and service providers. It lays out our management objectives as well as the specific activities that we will undertake to ensure that we meet the aims of this policy.  

People  

We support our people with care and compassion and continually offer them opportunities to learn, develop their skills and advance their careers, with an unwavering commitment to equal pay and creating an inclusive work environment. Our focus on sustainability across our business not only improves our own competitiveness it also helps us attract, motivate, and retain the best people.  

Feeling connected, being included, and knowing that each of us belongs. These experiences are grounded in the technology tools we use, our physical locations, our behaviours, and the culture we all create together.    

We recognise our people throughout the year for who they are, what makes them unique and the valuable contributions they make through their work.  

Our commitment to inclusion and diversity creates an environment that unleashes innovation, allows our people to perform at their best and underpins a culture where everyone has an equal opportunity to belong, advance and thrive.  

Whilst many companies believe innovative technology is the answer, we know it’s only part of the solution, with the most successful organisations elevating their people and harnessing human potential to create sustainable competitive advantage.  

Equality  

Opus does not discriminate against staff on the basis of their gender, sexual orientation, marital or civil partner status, gender reassignment, race, colour, nationality, ethnic or national origin, religion or belief, disability, or age. The principle of non-discrimination and equality of opportunity applies equally to the treatment of former staff, visitors, clients, customers, and suppliers by members of our current workforce.  

Opus is committed to:  

• Promoting workforce diversity by targeting harder to reach and under-represented groups and communities.  
• Providing accessible, entry-level employment and training opportunities for local people and develop future talent.  

• Upskilling and developing the competence of our workforce through a structured training and development regime.  
• Promoting fairness, inclusion, and respect principles.  

Employment and Skills:  

Our people are important to us. We want everyone to have equal opportunities to grow and improve through training and personal development. We will:  

• Establish inclusive labour markets through our recruitment process to ensure roles are designed such that the broadest possible range of individuals can apply and are advertised in ways to ensure they are aware of the opportunities. We capture a broad spectrum of information from those who apply for roles including where they live and how far they progress in the process. This information feeds into our Equality, Diversion and Inclusion Steering group which oversees the development and delivery of all related policies, systems and procedures.  

• Provide our employees with the appropriate education, and training and skills.  
• Provide access to good working conditions.  
• Maintain our Living Wage accreditation, to prevent individuals, families and communities being held back from reaching an acceptable minimum standard of living.  
• Ensure that, to comply with the requirements of Procurement Policy Note (PPN) 14/15, and to meet this obligation, for any public procurement of contracts with a full life value of £10 million and above and duration of 12-months, we will support the skills development and delivery of the apprenticeship commitment. Our apprenticeship programme enables us to assess and develop our employees in a structured and planned way and this demonstrates commitment to supporting, developing, and maintaining skills required.   

Work-life Balance  

Homeworking has evolved our work practices and created new possibilities; not only is it beneficial to our business but also improves our employees’ work-life balance.  

With the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, homeworking allowed us flexibility to continue our business operations whilst prioritising our responsibility to our staff and customer’s health and wellbeing.  

Post the lift in COVID-19 restrictions, an increasing number of employees have continued to work from home or entered a hybrid model of home and office working. This has benefitted Opus by providing:  

• Flexibility and agility.  
• Improved employee retention by attracting new talent outside of the traditional company demographic (for example, whilst headquartered in Reigate, Surrey, Opus now has permanent homebased employees residing in Cornwall, Hertfordshire, Norfolk, Oxfordshire, Suffolk, Warwickshire, and Worcestershire, coming to the office when required or on an ad-hoc basis).  
• Increased productivity with improved staff health and wellbeing.  

• Increased work/life balance.  

Community  

As a local, independent business itself, Opus actively support our local shops and economy through our procurement practices, so as to provide greater job security for local people.  

• Where possible we try to source products and services from local suppliers and encourage and promote a wide and diverse base of local suppliers and businesses.  
• Take action to support the physical and mental health of employees and influence suppliers, customers, and communities in this regard.  

• Opus seeks to be a good corporate citizen within its local community, and aims not only to meet, but to exceed, its corporate social responsibilities. This includes:  

• Donations to a number of charities (Macmillan, Barnardo’s and Alzheimer’s to name a few).  

• Wherever possible, we engage in events relating to local businesses and corporate issues, including those concerning the environment and sustainability.  

Environment:  

Our ISO 14001 Environmental Management Standard certification supports our long-term commitment to reducing its environmental impact – putting sustainability at the heart of our business.    

Opus aims to cause minimal damage to the environment through all our activities, including sourcing, distribution, use and disposal. We will ensure we have access to up-to-date legislation and best practice through a number of sources e.g., our retained consultants, attendance at local events (such as Green Business Network Workshops and Environmental Fairs), and through manufacturer environmental stewardship updates.    

To further the aims of this policy we:  

• Provide adequate environmental training for all staff.  

• Assess the environmental performance of all suppliers.  
• Seek continual improvements in our environmental and sustainability performance and develop a set of environmental targets and action plans, if required, to ensure success in meeting our aspirations.  
• Use resources efficiently to reduce waste and maximise value.  
• Play our part to reduce air pollution, noise, vibration, and nuisance within local communities to improve health.  
• Promote sustainable and ethical procurement.  

Supply Chain and Market Place  

Opus views suppliers as an integral part of our business and works with them to obtain the absolute best value from goods and services we order and supply to our customers. We seek to supply products from manufacturers whose design and construction activities are undertaken in a manner compatible with sustainable development.  

• We give consideration to quality, reliability, logistics, supply chain information and maintenance requirements to offer, as far as possible, a sustainable choice to clients.  
• Measure progress towards a more sustainable future using Key Environmental Performance Indicators.  

• Where the data is available, Opus considers the amount of Operational Energy, Water use and Waste discharges of production processes, in order to help customers, make informed choices designed to increase sustainability.  

• Assist our customers to understand/reduce their own environmental impact, and/or to assist them in their efforts to secure certifications such as ISO14001.  

• Where requested, Opus will provide information on such relevant data as energy usage pertaining to specified orders and/or time periods.  

When considering product design/ features and advising clients, we understand the need to encourage sustainable use. In particular, we:  

• Will try to recommend purchase of materials/products whose energy input to longevity ratio means they are more sustainable.  
• Will take account of sustainability scores, where available, for various products.  

• Try to advise that any timber and timber products, are recycled or from well-managed, sustainable sources and are Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified.  
• Assess the whole life environmental performance of all purchases.  
• Avoid the use of environmentally harmful products, such as CFCs, non-FSC timber or timber products, unapproved pesticides, asbestos materials, peat, paint with lead or VOC content greater than 5%.  

Opus has a strict policy of engagement with Suppliers which requires Board level assessment and due diligence to be carried out across a range of aspects for each Supplier – financial, technical, operational, commercial, core functionality (HR, Quality, Environmental, ISO and Business Continuity). Where the customer requirement (and therefore the proposed Supplier) covers a specialised, price-sensitive, or high-risk aspect to the project or service, it is also likely that Opus will conduct a wider Suppliers selection process through tendering or Best Value evaluation process.   

Climate  

Opus is committed to achieving Net Zero emissions by 2050 and our Carbon Reduction plan is published on our website – https://www.opustech.co.uk/carbon-reduction-plan/   

We project that carbon emissions will decrease over the next five-years to 53.5 tCO2e by 2027.  

Completed Carbon Reduction Initiatives  

The following environmental management measures and projects have been completed or implemented since the 2019 baseline. The carbon emission reduction achieved by these schemes equates to 15.97 tCO2e, a 19.53%ge reduction against the 2019 baseline and the measures will be in effect when performing the contract.  

• Electric company vehicles only.  
• Closed London office reducing railway travel.  
• Hybrid working.
• Implement timers to automatically switch off televisions in head office.  
• To effectively manage our environmental impacts, we continue to operate a ISO14001 certified environmental management system.  
• Annual Environmental Awareness training for all staff.  

Future Carbon Reduction Initiatives  

In the future, we hope to implement further measures such as:  

• Implement the use of energy-efficient lighting in all areas of head office.  
• Executive Board leading by example demonstrating best practice behaviours in carbon reduction starting with the introduction of electric-only vehicles.  
• Implement a salary sacrifice scheme for electric vehicle leasing.  
• Continuing to work with our landlord to switch electricity supply to renewable energy.  
• Continued investment in technology enabling us to interact remotely by means of reducing business travel.  

• Look into using a hotel booking platform enabling businesses to reduce and remove their carbon footprint from hotel bookings.  

All the above areas are covered by a range of separate interlinked policies including Environment, Sustainability, and Procurement.  

Conclusion  

To realise our Social Value objectives, we recognise the need for and are committed to communicating these objectives to our suppliers, potential and existing employees, customers, and wider stakeholders.   

This is achieved via our procurement and recruitment processes and our existing communication channels including the business plan, intranet, employee consultative committee, newsletters, team briefings, staff induction processes and stakeholder engagement.  

This policy and the actions arising from it will be annually reviewed as part of the business planning process which involves the Opus senior leadership and management teams with final approval via the Opus Board.