A Living Wage Employer has been named as one of the fastest growing companies in Europe! Based in the North East, construction and roofing company Hodgson Sayers believe that paying the Living Wage has been key to their success.
This comes on the back of more good news from the construction sector where there are now 125 Living Wage accredited companies, with the number growing by 76% over the past year.
In a recent survey of the Living Wage Employer network construction companies reported that accreditation has:
- Enhanced the organisation's reputation as an employer - 86%
- Differentiated the organisation from others in the same industry - 63%
- Improved relations between staff and managers - 63%
- Increased commitment of Living Wage employees - 68%
- Improved recruitment of employees into jobs covered by the Living Wage - 57%
Mike Wade, Finance Manager at Hodgson Sayers, blogs on the importance of the Living Wage at Hodgson Sayers:
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Hodgson Sayers has been accredited by the Living Wage Foundation for nearly three years and the experience has been wholly positive.
It has also coincided with a truly astonishing period in the history of the business.
We are a construction company with traditional skills that has grown significantly and has gone on to win a plethora of national awards. The most recent accolade is our listing in the Financial Times 1000 Fastest Growing Companies in Europe.
We like to think there is a link between our accreditation and our success. First and foremost, we are a people business. While the senior team are in the privileged position of taking the business forward, the lifeblood of the company is our people.
We are also very much part of the local community. Nearly all our staff live close by, they went to school locally and many of them have stayed here to raise families.
Embracing the Living Wage was a very important milestone for us. The senior team carefully examined the case for accreditation and it all made great sense. There were the obvious business benefits such as that well-paid staff are motivated and more productive. Retention of staff significantly reduces training and recruitment advertising costs. Long serving employees create strong teams.
They were important factors, but uppermost in our minds was the fact that embracing the Living Wage was simply the right thing to do. It chimed perfectly with our core values that guide all our transactions - honesty, decency and integrity. We don't want people coming to work and worrying about money and if they have enough to get them through the week. The wellbeing of our staff is as important to us as it is to them, we have a responsibility - a duty of care.
Furthermore, economically, there is now much greater uncertainty than at any time in the last 20 years. This makes all of us, as individuals, uneasy and less confident in the future. For that reason we at Hodgson Sayers want to support, develop and encourage our people - and that includes ensuring that those at the bottom of the ladder are not left behind financially.
We also know that the money we pay our staff will mainly be spent within the local community supporting shops, cafes, leisure outlets, garages and restaurants. We see this as a real benefit of accreditation as it is a certain fact that people who feel comfortably off are willing spenders while those who feel under pressure financially tend to save. The impact of the latter on the local economy could be very serious.
So, for us at Hodgson Sayers we believe that content staff help build great companies and positive communities and that links perfectly with our core values.