Workpro team makes Scottish Business Pledge

by Workpro Case Management Software on November 21, 2018

Workpro team makes Scottish Business Pledge | Workpro Casework

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We are proud to engage in the Scottish Business Pledge. For us this is not just another badge, the pledges build on work already done to invest in our people, the wider community and business development overseas.

The Scottish Business Pledge is a government and business partnership that champions fair employment practices and sustainable business growth. Making the pledge was a logical, easy step for us as we have been operating under most of the shared values for some time.

From paying fair wages and ensuring we pay suppliers on time, to involvement in initiatives to encourage young people and women into IT careers, we seek to “treat others as we wish to be treated”.

We believe all elements within the pledge are to be embraced and promoted, because these aspects make for good business in the modern world.

The pledges are:

Paying the real Living Wage
No inappropriate use of zero hours contracts
Action to address the gender pay gap
Environmental impact
Investing in a skilled and diverse workforce
Workforce engagement
Innovation
Internationalisation
Support your community
Prompt payment

These values have already been key contributing factors to our success.

Big areas for us are around respectful treatment of people, especially our own. We believe it is good business to encourage engagement – hearts and minds really does take things to a higher level.

A practical example is how our team worked out how best to serve the growing need for out of hours working, without racking up overtime costs and burning people out. Our customers rely on Workpro to manage their customer complaints, HR cases and other issues. Many can’t have maintenance work done during working hours. With an increasing number of overseas customers, “out of hours” has become blurred, as 9pm here in the UK is still core time in USA. To address this, the Workpro team instigated cross-skills training and a workable rota. They now provide sterling service while still getting adequate time off.

Gender balance has traditionally been an issue in our industry but that is changing, albeit too slowly given the severe skills shortage in the IT industry in Scotland. Our strategy is to “grow candidates”, hence we support local school and university communities. Every summer we offer a paid placement to a female STEM student through the excellent Careerwise initiative run by Equate Scotland. We also support CodeClan, the Digital Skills Academy based in Edinburgh – two staff members came to us via this route.