People
As a proudly family-owned business, relationships come first and we build these with clients, suppliers and staff alike. These relationships are rooted in respect and honesty. We believe in the ongoing professional development of our staff, ensuring that they are equipped with the necessary skills, knowledge and confidence to thrive in their roles. We also recognise the importance of mental health and hold space for our employees to openly discuss any issues they may be facing. Equally, one of our most crucial responsibilities is Health and Safety and we take this seriously. Therefore, we have measures in place to ensure the comfort and safety of our staff in the workplace and we regularly report on the gender pay-gap to ensure fairness and equality.
Looking for our people-oriented policies? Follow the links below:
Prioritising Safety
In 2012, our Group Managing Director proclaimed, “Safety is the primary consideration in everything that we do” and that statement remains as true as ever, over a decade later. At Gratte Brothers, we believe that everyone has the right to return home safely each day and that a safe workplace, safe equipment and safe systems of work are all non-negotiables. To align with this belief, we revise our H&S Strategy and KPIs year on year to ensure we have the correct processes in place to deliver a safe workplace for all. As a result in 2023, we had only 3 reportable injuries despite 28 million man hours on site, with corrective actions deployed immediately for each of them.
Our strategy is led from the top and our Directors complete Site Safety Tours throughout the year in addition to the regular safety visits and audits undertaken by our dedicated Health & Safety Officers to ensure the active engagement of our entire workforce, at all levels.
To ensure that our people are continuously prioritising their own safety and that of their colleagues, we also have our own Safety First programme, which is focused on engaging our workforce, reiterating our ‘open door’ policy and removing any intangible gap between office and site environments that could exist. Forums, comment cards, safety representatives and quizzes are just some of its functions and have been instrumental in helping us to maintain a safe culture. To ensure that safety remains top of the agenda, we’re currently reviewing this programme in order to deliver a visual update as well as some new functions and incentives for 2024!
“Safety is the primary consideration in everything that we do”
Ensuring Wellbeing
A happy workforce is a sustainable, productive workforce. Our family culture places priority on the care of our people, which is why we are constantly developing our wellbeing offering.
Starting with mental health, we have an internal mental health initiative (called Reach Out) which features 21 trained Mental Health First Aiders, plus partnerships with Mates In Mind, membership to a counselling platform with free sessions available for staff, and run regular awareness drives around national weeks (for instance, World Suicide Prevention Day and World Mental Health Day) to bring the conversation around mental health into the mainstream. As part of Reach Out, we run a bespoke ‘roadshow’ which visits Gratte Brothers sites around the country to talk all things mental health.
We operate two internal groups in support of Reach Out. The first of these groups is a Mental Health Steering Group, made up of staff who are passionate on the topic. The other is a Wellbeing Coordinating Group, formed of senior Directors to ensure that we are continually discussing, designing and implementing initiatives to help raise awareness of the importance of mental health, and to provide support for anyone who may be concerned about their own or that of someone close to them.
To ensure that we also provide positive education on the subject, we promote national campaigns throughout the year, such as World Suicide Prevention Day and this year’s topic of ‘Importance of Language’ theme, Mental Health Awareness Week and this year’s theme of ‘Anxiety’ and Back Care Awareness Week where we hosted an in-house yoga session, which could be livestreamed by all of our people and downloaded retrospectively.
Exercise is well-known to reduce stress and boost wellbeing, so, we recently partnered with MyGymDiscounts to offer our staff subsidised gym memberships in addition to a range of discounts for high street retailers, all with the theme of an active lifestyle; from Sweaty Betty to Go Outdoors! In addition, we regularly run active team-building events at our Head Office including in-house yoga sessions, and 2024’s Active For April challenge.
Supporting Development
We believe it is the stability of our workforce, the continuity of our teams and the depth of their experience which drives our capability as a business. We’re therefore passionate about developing our own talent and as a result, we’re proud to have an average length of service of 16.5 years.
To maintain this focus, our Learning and Development Team ensures we have trainees and apprentices in training at all times. We currently have over 40 apprentices working towards formal qualifications across Gratte Brothers Group in a variety of areas from data analysis to software development to design engineering and operational management.
Whilst formal qualifications are vital, continual development even after years of experience is equally essential, particularly considering the fast changing landscape in our industry. So, between 2023-24, our staff undertook 2,100 hours of training on a variety of courses from ‘Introduction to the Building Safety Act’ to ‘Site Environmental Awareness.
Celebrating Milestones
One of our most cherished values as a business is Empowering Our Employees and for us, this means maintaining a working environment that cultivates loyalty and engagement. Every year, we’re proud to renew our commitment to this value by recognising those that have been with the business for 25, 40 or 50 years or who are retiring at our annual Excellence Awards (formerly the Long Service & Retirement Awards). From 2023 – 2024, we were immensely proud to celebrate over 500 years of service for individuals across the Group. Being able to celebrate these every year is what makes Gratte Brothers so special!
Celebrating Our People
We often say that it’s our people that set us apart, and we don’t take that for granted. For team-building, stress-busting and memory-making purposes, we regularly organise fun events for our sites and offices. Whether that’s an ice-cream van visiting sites on a hot day, or the infamous Gratte Prix visiting a regional office, it’s fair to say that we work hard, and play hard too!
Policies
Gender Pay Gap Reporting
As one of the UK’s leading independent building services companies, we prioritise transparency, equality and fairness in all aspects of our operations. Alongside our other social values, we recognise the importance of addressing gender disparities in the workplace and are committed to fostering an inclusive environment where all individuals, regardless of gender, have equal opportunities for growth and advancement. Through our Gender Pay Gap Reporting, we aim to provide transparent insights into our company’s pay gap, driving accountability and facilitating informed decision-making towards achieving gender equality in our workforce. We work tirelessly to reduce the gender pay gap, and although greater change can’t come soon enough, we’re proud of the milestones we reach and the progress we make each year which allows us to become a more flexible and resilient business.
Read our full Gender Pay Gap Report 2023
Older Reports:
Modern Slavery & Human Trafficking
Our company supply chain consists of material and plant suppliers, professional service providers, recruitment and labour agencies as well as trade sub-contractors. Gratte Brothers has a zero-tolerance approach to all forms of modern slavery and human trafficking within its business and supply chain and is committed to acting ethically and with integrity in all business dealings. Through rigorous due diligence, robust policies, and ongoing efforts to raise awareness, we strive to prevent, detect and mitigate and risks of exploitation within our supply chain and operations. Our dedication to combatting these issues underscores our unwavering commitment to social value and ethical business practices.
Below, you’ll find our current Modern Slavery & Human Trafficking Statement as well as a historical log of previous iterations.
Read our full Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking Statement 2023/24
View our older reports, below:
- Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking Statement 2022/23
- Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking Statement 2021/22
- Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking Statement 2020/21
- Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking Policy 2019/20
- Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking Policy 2018/19
- Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking Policy 2018
