Social Value

What we do

Our social value activities focus on communities local to our head office and on our employees.

We’ve broken down our activities based on how they benefit:

• The community
• The environment
• The economy
• The wellbeing of our employees

Benefiting the community

ORH is committed to supporting charities.

Every year we choose and support a ‘charity of the year’, offering assistance such as administrative support or help from professional services they may struggle to access, rather than solely providing financial donations.

Several of our employees continue to support a previous charity of the year, ABC to Read, acting as reading mentors in local schools to help build confidence in young people who find reading a challenge.

Through the Operational Research Society, we regularly bid for and carry out pro-bono work for charities, offering our analytical, optimisation and modelling capabilities. 

In the past, we’ve helped ‘Sense’ develop a tool for exploring data about the deafblind population in the UK, and supported the Citizens Advice Bureau in North Lancashire in understanding the demand for their services and optimising the allocation of volunteers to maximise the clients that could be seen for advice.

We donate to various charities.

Every employee is given an individual donation fund to allow them to support the causes that mean the most to them.

Each quarter, our employees nominate additional charities for support, and a company-wide vote is held on how to distribute the company charity donation fund.

We promote awareness of careers and recruitment opportunities relating to known skills shortages.

We regularly attend events organised by the Operational Research Society to promote Operational Research and STEM subjects in general to school children.  This includes visits to individual schools and participation in national events.

Wherever possible, we build charities and non-profit organisations into our supply chain.

Benefiting the environment

Our environmental management policy is ISO 14001:2015 certified – verification of ORH’s desire to deliver its services and products in a sustainable way and reduce our impact on the environment.

Our ‘Environment and Sustainability’ policy details our commitment to reducing our carbon footprint through measures such as carbon offsetting, use of green energy tariffs, and hybrid working to minimise travel.

We also appointed a ‘sustainability champion’ to ensure that we continue to monitor and reduce our carbon footprint.

ORH’s Carbon Reduction Plan sets out our aim to become carbon neutral by 2025.

In 2024, we became Carbon Net Zero one year ahead of target. 

Our ‘Sustainability Plan’ contains specific targets and measures built on the foundations of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. 

Benefiting the economy

Wherever possible, we intentionally build local microbusinesses into our supply chain.

We are active members of Reading Connect – a local charity and business community partnership that brings different sectors and businesses together for a better local environment, community and economy.

We have joined the Real Living Wage Foundation.

All our employees are paid a Real Living Wage.

We strive for equality in pay.

As a company of fewer than 250 employees, we are not required to measure our gender pay gap.  However, as part of our commitment to fair and equal pay, we do calculate our gender pay gap each year.

In three of the last four years, our gender pay gap has been slightly negative, meaning that the median hourly pay for men is slightly lower than the median hourly pay for women.

We externally benchmark our salaries on an annual basis to ensure that we consistently pay our employees at market rates.

The wellbeing of our employees

Our employees are the heart of our organisation, and we take several pro-active steps to help ensure and improve their wellbeing.

To promote a healthy work-life balance, we are currently participating in a trial to introduce a ‘true’ nine-day fortnight (that is, with no compressed hours) as part of a national campaign.

The physical and mental wellbeing of our employees is important.

Over 12% of our workforce are First Aid trained, and over 15% of our workforce are Mental Health First Aiders.

We offer reduced memberships at a local gym, and provide free fruit to our staff.

All employees have equal access to a range of employee assistance schemes, including an employee health cash plan and private medical insurance.

What our employees think

We regularly take place in the Great Place to Work^TM survey, which is completely anonymous.

In the 2023 survey, we were voted as one of the top 100 best workplaces (small organisations) for employee wellbeing.

In that survey:

• 97% of employees agreed with the statement “ORH manages its impact on society responsibly”
• 93% of employees agreed with the statement “ORH is working to reduce its environmental impact”
• 97% of employees agreed with the statement “ORH genuinely prioritises employee wellbeing”