Building a Better Society Our Corporate Social Responsibility Report 2018 Maintained Employee Engagement at Of69% Skipton Colleagues Contents 88% Are Dementia Friends

Building a better Society Our Corporate Social Responsibility Report 2018 Maintained employee engagement at of69% Skipton colleagues Contents 88% are Dementia Friends One of The Ranked as the best 04/05 06/07 Sunday Times building society for Robert East – Chairman Introduction and CSR Strategy Overview 100 Best customer experience and TOP Building Companies to Society Work For - for the out of 295 UK 7thbrands in the Nunwood 08/11 12/15 Customer Experience Our People Our Proposition & Brand 4thyear in a row Excellence survey Over 16/25 26/27 Supported Our Communities Our Environment community164 groups donated£418,000 to UK charities and through our award community groups in the last winning Grassroots 12 months Giving programme We’re proud of our achievements in 2017. Here are just some of the highlights. Over Highest ever customer numbers with over members500,000 have participated in member research members900,000 Reduced carbon of our emissions by 95%waste is diverted from landfill and recycled 9.26% Over raised for Alzheimer’s£88,000 Society and Alzheimer Scotland 02 03 Foreword Robert East – Chairman Skipton Building Society This report outlines the four key ways we’re helping to build a better Society today, through our people, our proposition & was founded in 1853 by brand, our communities and our environment. people who had a clear We’ll cover the four areas in more detail in this report. In the social purpose. They wanted meantime, I’ve picked out a few highlights that make me really to help people buy homes proud to be part of Skipton. and provide a safe place In 2016 we entered into a three-year charity partnership with for their savings. In short, Alzheimer’s Society and Alzheimer Scotland. Since then our colleagues and customers have shown an unprecedented Skipton was set up to help amount of support, raising more than £88,000, but it’s the build a better Society for things we’re doing beyond fundraising that are truly remarkable. its members. The Society-wide drive to support our charity partners has resulted in 69% of our colleagues becoming Dementia Friends. That means over 1,500 have attended sessions to improve their understanding of dementia and, as a result, they’re better equipped to support people who are affected. And our award-winning Grassroots Giving programme continues to go from strength-to-strength. A lot of its success is down to the passion and commitment shown by our branch colleagues, who support the initiative every year. Engagement of our people remains high at 88% and we have “…Skipton was once again been named as one of the Sunday Times 100 Best Companies to Work For. In 2017 we were proud to be one of set up to help just two financial institutions in the UK to achieve Investors in People (IIP) Platinum. build a better During 2017, we reflected on our purpose and, whilst the world continues to change, our purpose remains the same – Society for to help more people have a home, save for their life ahead and support their long term financial wellbeing. In 2018 we its members.” will continue to focus on building a better Society, taking into account global social, economic and environmental changes. I hope you enjoy reading the report and if you have any thoughts on the things we’re working on, please contact us by emailing [email protected]. Robert East Skipton Building Society Chairman 04 05 Introduction and CSR Our strategy is broken down into the Strategy Overview following areas As a mutual organisation we’re We work hard to help our savers put money away Our People for their future and use the money they save to 01 • Developing a customer centric culture by maintaining colleague engagement owned by our members, not help our other members own their own homes. and focusing on colleague wellbeing shareholders. When you save It’s our mutual purpose and underpins everything or borrow money from us, you we do. • Developing our people so they have new skills and grow as individuals become a member of Skipton But equally, we pride ourselves on building a • Encouraging diversity and inclusion that matches the communities we operate in. better Society and putting our members at the Building Society, which means heart of all the decisions we make. With this in you have a say in how we are run. mind, in 2017 we created a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) strategy to make sure we Our Proposition & Brand carry on having a positive impact on our members, 02 • Demonstrating that our founding social purpose, ‘to help more people into our people, our communities and the environment. homes, help people save for life ahead and support long term financial wellbeing,’ is a force for good in society • Continuing our focus on being an empathic organisation which really listens to our members • Ensuring we can serve members across all our channels. Our Communities 03 • Working to become a dementia friendly organisation • Raising awareness and aligning our community activity to our social purpose • Taking the Society into the community • Helping people to help themselves. Our Environment 04 • Minimising the environmental impact of our activities • Working towards a more cost effective, carbon neutral environment for our colleagues and members. 06 07 One Team Our People Ownership Trust Key areas of focus Our people Reward and recognition • Fostering a customer-centric Skipton colleagues are the people who make it The STAR Awards is our colleague recognition programme. It stands Leader of the possible for us to consistently deliver fantastic for Special Thanks And Recognition. There are ten awards structured Year STAR culture by maintaining colleague experiences for our members. Their relentless around our values and behaviours and colleagues nominate teams award 2018 engagement and focusing on focus on our values of One Team, Ownership and individuals who they think have gone the extra mile. Marc Stewart and Trust is what creates an inclusive culture Financial Advice colleague wellbeing at Skipton. Jackie Didcock won Leader of the Year STAR award 2017 Colleagues Support • Developing our people so “I was overwhelmed and proud to have won this fantastic Manager Our people help to create a customer-centric award. I can’t describe how humbled I felt to have been made they have new skills and grow culture and we’re proud to have achieved high shortlisted, let alone win. As a leader I have always put the levels of employee engagement for the seventh 511 as individuals development and welfare of my team at the heart of what STAR award year running. This is measured by our independent I do, so for them to nominate me shows that the effort I put nominations annual employee survey. The surveys focus on • Encouraging diversity and in is appreciated.” in 2017 culture and engagement and tell us what we’re inclusion that matches the doing well and where we need to improve. As Jackie Didcock, Regional Manager, Intermediary Relationships. communities we operate in. a result of the feedback colleagues give us, we’ve been able to improve things like colleague wellbeing, reward and recognition and how we For the fourth year in a row invest in colleagues. We’ve we’ve been named as one of maintained The Sunday Times 100 Best employee Companies to Work For. engagement at 88% Wellbeing Arron’s story Actively taking steps to promote health and wellbeing is an integral “Support is something that’s very valuable to a person who suffers with their mental health. part of our culture and we recognise colleagues have a broad I can honestly say that Skipton has been very supportive of me when I’ve needed it. From spectrum of needs inside and outside of work. Over the past year senior leaders visiting me while I’ve been off work, to the way I’m supported in my current we’ve reviewed and improved our wellbeing programme to make role by all members of my team and our HR department. sure it supports the physical and mental welfare of our colleagues. “My team are very understanding and I never feel ashamed to say when I’m not feeling This includes improved access to our confidential employee great and I have a flexible working pattern, which has helped massively. assistance programme – Lifeworks – as well as a wide range of Arron Melvin education and awareness sessions for colleagues. “I’ve also been made aware of the counselling services available through Skipton – it’s been good to have someone to talk to who’s not directly involved in my situation. Our ‘Tea and Talk’ sessions give colleagues the opportunity to share experiences and talk about their mental wellbeing in a safe, supportive environment. Digital Analyst, Arron Melvin, has experienced “More recently Skipton supported my ambition to raise awareness of mental health through first-hand how we help colleagues who might need extra support. bite size learning sessions, which I have delivered to teams across the business.” 08 09 Investing in our colleagues FINANCIAL We invest in colleagues in a number of ADVICE different ways. The Connecting our Future Financial advisers of the future Pension schemes apprenticeship scheme is in its third year. Twenty-seven colleagues have This year, we added more spaces to our ‘Aspiring We’ve introduced a higher default progressed through the scheme with a Financial Advisers’ training programme, so even more contribution rate when colleagues reach further eight due to start later this year. people were able to make the most of this unique the age of 35, and by increasing the development opportunity.

Load more