We work closely with our partners and clients to identify local social value projects to get involved in.
This local approach makes all the difference.

Through the development of branch social value plans, we can push the boundaries to deliver real impact, enabling individuals and the communities in which we operate to flourish and thrive.

‍Mears Group have implemented a number of activities to ensure we continue to improve the wellbeing of people and the communities we serve, including:

• Mears Social Value awards programme to support our social value agenda and recognise excellence in delivering social value in departments and branches across our business.
• Mears Community Fun Days and Community Rooms at various locations across the country.
• Mears Care Community Cafe opened in 2018, which caters for the elderly and less able in the Troon and Prestwick area.

Mears works in some of the most marginalised communities in the UK. We recognise that we have the opportunity to make a positive difference by creating chances for learning and career development, providing individuals in those communities with entry routes into employment.

Employee Director, Claire Gibbard:

Employees are a key stakeholder in any business and Mears prides itself on valuing its employees – its greatest asset. I am proud to be able to represent and promote the Mears culture in the business. One of the reasons I decided to join Mears is because of its social value and community work.

Supporting Apprenticeships

Mears has long provided apprenticeships. More recently, we have expanded our opportunities from traditional trade apprenticeships, to a range of apprenticeship routes across the business. Our specialist Land Referencing, GIS and Data Management part of the business, TerraQuest, was recognized this year for its special commitment to train and support young unemployed people, reaching the finals of the Government Opportunities (GO) Excellence in Public Procurement Awards for Northern Ireland.

As part of our service to Northern Ireland Land and Property Services, we, along with our partner BT, were required to provide 52 hours of paid work for New Entrant Trainees in the form of apprenticeships, traineeships or employment contracts. By the beginning of the year, we had already exceeded this target providing 236 person-weeks of employment. We also provided business in education activities within the Belfast area including work placements and skills workshops for young people and curriculum support for primary school teachers on computational thinking.

At Mears we are committed to building a diverse and inclusive culture that reflects the communities which we serve; one that attracts and retains best talent and enables our colleagues to thrive. It’s about the bigger picture of creating environments that are diverse and inclusive.

At Mears we have built and inclusive and diverse culture by:

• Enabling our colleagues to have a bigger voice – listening to and acting on feedback
• Having greater diversity in middle and senior levels, including the Board
• Holding better diversity and inclusion information about all of our colleagues, so we can manage everyone as individuals
• Creating an environment which organically increases the representation of women and BAME people at all levels
• Addressing the impact of an ageing workforce while also respecting the benefits that older employees give to the business.

Mears’ Approach to positively impact Supply Chain Environmental Value

Mears is responsible for the maintenance of 15% of all social housing in the UK – more than 700,000 homes. We visit more than 30,000 people several times a week to deliver care and support in their homes. We recognise we have a big responsibility to minimise the environmental impact of our activities. For an organisation of our size, even small changes can deliver big impacts.

At Mears, we believe we are more effective in delivering social value where we can share resources, skills, experience and financial support with our supply partners. To ensure a consistent approach throughout our supply chain, we expect our suppliers to have or adopt similar business principles to our own.

Our suppliers are required to acknowledge the significance of social, environmental and ethical matters in their conduct and must have a commitment to working towards improving quality standards and performance in these areas. Above all, we expect suppliers to be able to demonstrate compliance with all the UK, EU and international legislation that apply to business operations from Modern Slavery, AntiBribery and Health, Safety & Wellbeing laws to product specific regulations.