At Hendy Group, we’ve been proudly providing a premium service across the south coast for 160 years. Alongside the continued expansion of the business, we recognise the value and importance of Corporate Social Responsibility; our success is not only defined by sales, but by all of the other founding principles and values that allow our business to thrive.
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Our People
We understand that our success depends upon our employees, which is why we strive to equip them with the highest level of skills and experiences possible in order for them to thrive in the workplace. Through our IMI-accredited automotive training academy - The Hendy Academy - We have delivered 40 IMI accreditations, with a further 80 in progress, on a course which advances students' automotive abilities using skill and knowledge-based assessments. This is also the academy we use to assist all of our apprentices in reaching their full potential, with almost 50 apprentices accepting offers on our scheme since Autumn last year.
Alongside their personal progress, we want all of our employees to align with the business strategy, encouraging active participation and engagement through the use of company newsletters, quarterly briefings, regular management conferences and an active company intranet system. In return for this engagement, we look to empower all of those that work for us and we actively recognise and reward great performance in a number of ways throughout the year. This includes a variety of bonus schemes, plus our annual awards event, in which all employees are encouraged to attend.
We endeavour to support and respect our employees every step of the way, and for that reason we pride ourselves on our talent retention, with over 10% of employees reaching 25 years' employment within Hendy Group. In return for their exceptional services, we reward all of these special partners of the business with a luxurious and relaxing day on the coast in order to show our appreciation for the years devoted to our business' growth.
We recognise it is our responsibility to ensure that we have a comprehensive structure of health and safety processes and procedures in place, to allow all team members and other employees working in - or visiting - our locations, to feel safe in their environment and be able to carry out their role without risk to their health. Lastly, an important aspect of business transparency is a mechanism to enable staff and other members of the company to voice concerns in a responsible and effective manner - we have developed a Whistleblowing Policy to enable this.
We are committed to being an equal opportunities employer, and it is our policy to provide employment and development opportunities for all, regardless of age, race, religion, gender, sexual preference, marital status, nationality, ethnic origin or disability. Our recruitment practices are all-encompassing and are based purely on talent and experience to allow for full and fair consideration to all employment applications. We ensure all of our workplaces are free from unlawful discrimination, and all of our staff have a personal responsibility for maintaining a respectful work atmosphere.
Hendy Group is committed to the highest standards of ethical conduct and integrity in its business activities; we will not tolerate any form of bribery or corruption by, or of, our employees, customers, agents or consultants or any person or body acting on our behalf.
The long-term consequences of climate change are a serious concern for Hendy Group and our suppliers. We are therefore continually looking for ways to improve the environmental performance of our operations, ranging from retail to head office and to our manufacturing partners, as set out in our Environmental and Sustainability Policy. We also ensure that all of our employees are aware of the impact of our operations through ongoing training and information.
Working in the automotive industry, we are extremely conscious of our carbon emissions and hope to use local suppliers as much as possible. This not only allows us to reduce the amount of energy wasted during deliveries, but helps us support our local communities, too. We also aim to implement a policy of shared and return load journeys, combining the transportation of vehicles and products from the same destinations in order to reduce our carbon footprint.
Where possible, we choose environmentally friendly options for our packaging and marketing materials and recycle all waste materials. Materials such as used oil, oil filters, scrap batteries, brake fluids, contaminated fuels, waste paint, metals, etc., are separated and sent for recycling or controlled disposal. All hazardous waste is disposed of in suitable receptacles throughout the workplace and will be removed by a licenced contractor who records the date when such waste is removed.
Our newest site at Villeneuve Way, Eastleigh is a great example of how Hendy embodies these environmental standards, recently achieving a BREEAM rating of Very Good, through the use of various technologies and energy-saving processes. These include helping employees with their transport planning, providing access to various public transports, encouraging car sharing and the cycling to work scheme, and installing showers and other facilities within the workplace to allow for these methods of travel.
We have also improved our energy efficiency at this site by removing any gas or oil consumption used for heating on site. Instead, we use the CHP unit water from the next door leisure centre, supplying it directly to a heat exchanger on our site at 95 degrees in order to power the under-floor heating in the showrooms, wet radiator systems in the whole building and hot water in all of the taps. There is also no air cooling in the building, instead, we use active and passive cooling systems alongside low solar gain glass, to maintain the airflow and temperature of the showrooms.
We have also installed Solar PV panels on the roof to fuel the site's electricity requirements. This is something that has already been installed across a number of Hendy locations and going forwards, as we expand further, any new builds will also have all of these standards.
Our plans for the latest Pembury site include a green roof, solar PV, high energy efficiency and rainwater harvesting.
Where possible, we try and limit the amount of waste paper generated. All paper waste (including paper records and confidential documents) generated by Hendy Group is recycled by ShredStation, who use ultra-low emission vehicles to collect from dealerships with 100% of the paper recycled at UK mills. All other materials are either recycled, made into Refuse Derived Fuel, or are sent to Energy from Waste plants to generate energy for the National Grid.
We were particular impressed by ShredStation's commitment to a tree-planting initiative on behalf of customers. Based on Hendy Group having 169 ShredStation consoles at 45kg each, we would anticipate that as part of the Plant a Tree scheme, ShredStation would be planting approximately 7-8 trees per year , generating CO2 and improving the environment for all.
Our customers are at the heart of everything we do at Hendy Group. We therefore believe it is not enough for us to simply satisfy our customers with great customer service; instead, we want their experience to be one of surprise and delight, whenever and wherever they engage with us. We endeavour to ensure that all of our communication with customers is clear; however, we value all customer feedback and suggestions for improvement, to ensure that we can continue to deliver great outcomes.
Across the Group, we invest heavily in customer experience training, which we deliver through our Hendy training academy. This is to ensure that our services fill customers with the confidence that we will do everything in our power to provide excellent customer care and resolve any issues if they are unsatisfied with any of our products or services. We assure that we are continuously refining all areas of the business in order to fulfil our promises and vision in all that we do.
We continuously strive to exceed the expectations of all regulatory bodies and data privacy is a key element of this. We take this extremely seriously and our privacy policy has been developed in accordance with all regulatory requirements, severely reducing the risk of data breaches. In addition to this, we have an appointed Hendy committee that are dedicated to keeping customer data safe helping us further build their trust.
We operate in an environment where our manufacturing partners are extremely influential in terms of our product quality and of the customer experience and service standards required. Our ISO9001 Quality Manual sets out our ethos of 'treating the customer fairly', for example, in terms of offering finance and insurance products.
Our success depends on our employees and the communities in which they live and work, which is why we, at Hendy Group, strongly believe in giving something back to the areas in which we operate.
Our commitment to supporting local communities goes back generations, and we strive to help others through not only donating financially to national and local charities but also by encouraging all of our colleagues to attend and support events that are close to all that are associated with the business. We invite all employees to get involved with their own fundraising by organising events at their individual sites. We pride ourselves in supporting grassroot causes, often donating football and cricket kits to local community sports clubs, donating vehicles to different events and supporting local runs.
As part of the automotive industry, Hendy Group also supports 'Ben', the UK's automotive and related industries charity. This further iterates our support for local employees and communities as the charity helps over 15,000 men, women and children every year by providing advice, friendship, financial assistance and support for a wide range of issues.
We are very proud to announce that in 2019 we formed 'Hendy Foundation', a dedicated charity that provides grants to local projects, people, events and charitable organisations. Our registered charity number is 1180518. The launch of Hendy Foundation coincides with Hendy Group celebrating the milestone of 160 years of business and will take over from where the Group has left off, continuing the long tradition of giving back to local projects and other worthy causes, underpinned by an independent team of dedicated and passionate trustees.
The welfare of Hendy Group's employees and customers make up the heart of the business, which is how we continue to invest and grow in size. We strive to improve both job security and development opportunities for employees and are proud to say that, as of April 2019, we have 2,000 employees, making a significant contribution to the growth and development of the southern regions.
Our Suppliers
At Hendy Group, we understand that we have a social commitment to go above and beyond for our customers and the business. This is why we are dedicated to selecting suppliers who have honest and transparent credentials, and share our ethics of respecting labour rights, health and safety regulations and legal compliances. We also routinely investigate all of our suppliers' environmental standards before entering into a contract. Both potential and existing suppliers must, at a minimum, meet the standards set out in our Supplier Declaration.
We are committed to ensuring that we have a robust approach to addressing modern slavery and human rights abuses within our business and supply chains. We require our suppliers to treat their employees with the same dignity and respect that we pride ourselves on a day-to-day basis. They must also ensure that they provide fair working hours, a safe workplace and an environment free from discrimination, for all of their employees.
We strive to reassure our suppliers that there is a structure in place that accurately represents their brand and supports high levels of customer satisfaction, providing them with the stability they need to invest, grow and protect their businesses alongside Hendy Group. We aim to build solid, long-term partnerships with our suppliers and will continually develop the relationship to give us the confidence that together we are receiving/providing the best quality services and offerings wherever possible.
Our reputation is very important to us and, to help protect this, we will not knowingly do business with any organisation that doesn't share our commitment to dealing with stakeholders fairly and ethically. Our approach to procurement is based on the principles of competitive tendering and dealing with suppliers in a fair and open manner.
Hendy Group also endeavours to use local suppliers where possible, in order to reduce our carbon footprint and support our local community. See Our Environment section for further detail.
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