We are committed to engaging with our occupiers, shareholders, suppliers and wider community.
The Board acts to promote the long-term success of the business for the benefit of all our stakeholders. We have in place a framework for conducting business across the Group, in a way that makes a positive contribution to society while minimising any negative impact on people and the environment.
"Our Picton Promise is made up of five key commitments to our occupiers, including Action, Community, Technology, Support and Sustainability."
We work closely with our occupiers, shareholders and other stakeholders and ensure we maintain our company values, positive working culture and alignment of our team.
Our occupier focused approach ensures our sustainability focus extends beyond our assets, and to occupier agreements and engagement. Working with our occupiers is at the heart of what we do, both to understand their needs and meet their current and future requirements, and to work collaboratively to strive to reduce our environmental impact.
We continually look for ways to improve the experience that our occupiers have within our buildings.
The Picton Promise was created to bring together the five main commitments we make to our occupiers which cover: Action, Community, Technology, Support and Sustainability.
We have an occupier engagement programme in place which ensures regular and simple lines of communication, workspace in which our occupiers’ businesses can be successful, space which supports the wellbeing of our occupier’s employees and a proactive approach to sustainability.
Health and safety and integrating wellbeing
We are fully committed to making our buildings a healthy and safe environment for our occupiers and their visitors, our employees, contractors, and the public.
We therefore ensure that they comply with the relevant health and safety legislation and guidelines.
The health and wellbeing of our occupiers is important to us and we are committed to incorporating wellbeing benefits at our buildings to support our occupiers with healthier lifestyle opportunities.
By integrating wellbeing within our buildings we ensure we create spaces that our occupiers want to be in. The health benefits of incorporating wellbeing initiatives are clear, not only enhancing physical and mental health, but also creativity, collaboration and productivity.
We seek to introduce improved occupier amenities, including cycle storage facilities, changing rooms and showers.
We also recognise our role in supporting our occupiers' transition to more sustainable transport solutions and are working to identify buildings where we can install electric car charging points across our portfolio.
Fairness and equality
We believe a diverse workforce is key to maximising business effectiveness. We aim to select, recruit, develop and promote the very best people and are committed to creating a workplace where everyone is treated with dignity and respect, and where individual difference is valued.
This is accomplished by:
- Ensuring equal opportunities in the recruitment process
- Paying fair and competitive salaries and having reasonable family and wellbeing policies
- Being opposed to any form of less favourable treatment, whether through direct or indirect discrimination, harassment or victimisation, accorded to employees and applicants for employment on the grounds of sex, sexual orientation, marital or parental status, disability, race, religious beliefs, age, ethnic or national origin, or any other protected characteristic.
Employee alignment
We have a dedicated management team whose entire focus is on creating long-term value for our shareholders. Our employees are fully aligned through our remuneration policy, ensuring that outperformance is suitably recognised in both annual bonus and Long-term Incentive Plan awards.
Diversity and inclusion
We recognise the benefits of diversity and the value this brings to the Group.
We aim to maintain the right blend of skills, experience and knowledge within the Group.
We value the contributions made by all of our employees and believe that a diverse workforce is key to maximising business effectiveness.
Picton Board
 | Number | ||
 | Male | 4 | |
 | Female | 2 |
Rest of team
 | Number | ||
| Male | 5 | |
| Female | 4 |
Total
 | Number | ||
| Male | 9 | |
| Female | 6 |
Performance and development
We aim to provide a business environment that inspires our employees and encourages them to realise their full potential by giving them access to development and training opportunities.
This is attained through the following key principles:
- Development should be continuous; employees should always be actively seeking to improve performance
- Regular investment of time in learning is seen as an essential part of working life
- Development needs are met by a mix of activities, which include internal and external training courses, structured ‘on the job’ work experience and through interaction with professional colleagues
Health and wellbeing
Health and wellbeing is critical to the business, both within the property portfolio and also within the office environment.
Our commitment to providing a safe and healthy working environment for all employees is achieved by:
- Adhering to the appropriate health and safety standards
- Providing a working environment that enables employees to work effectively and free from unnecessary anxiety, stress and fear
- Offering private health benefits to all employees
- Ensuring employees can report inappropriate behaviour or concerns through the whistleblowing policy
- Having appropriate family friendly policies
We rely on the support of our shareholders and their views are important to us. We seek to actively engage with our shareholders and senior management hold regular meetings with shareholders and feedback from these meetings is also reported back to the Board. This feedback may be on operational matters, financing strategy or dividend policy, as examples. The Annual General Meeting also provides an opportunity for the Directors to meet with shareholders and to answer any questions they may have.
We are committed to supporting the local communities where we own buildings. We aim to continually be improving the impact of our buildings within local communities through not only providing space to local businesses, but also through the improvement of local areas and minimising the environmental impact of buildings themselves.
Our community and social value policy is founded on our core values and sets out our approach to community engagement, procurement, environmental stewardship, unbiased recruitment, and employee wellbeing within the context of community and societal value.
Our charitable giving policy aims to invest in our communities at grassroots level, to make a positive difference to the local areas in which we own property.
We seek to support charities who:
- Drive positive social change
- Respond to specific local needs
- Create a positive community impact
- Are committed to improving local areas
We continue to support a variety of charities, principally through The Funding Network, whose aim is to achieve long-term social change.
The Funding Network enables individuals to join together to support social change projects. They are the UK’s first public open giving forum and have been described as the ‘Dragons’ Den’ for charities. They have raised over £10 million for over 1,500 diverse local, national and international projects.
We also run an occupier led charitable matched giving initiative supporting all our occupiers in our portfolio in their local community based fundraising efforts.
Our employees are also encouraged to play a positive role in community activities through our charitable partnership with youth charity Coram.
Our team's individual charitable fundraising is also supported through our matched giving process.
We are committed to conducting our business in a fair and honest manner and ensuring our suppliers operate in an ethical way and share our business principles in observing relevant laws and regulations.
We are fundamentally committed to ensuring that there is no slavery or human trafficking in our supply chains or in any part of our business.
View our Modern Slavery Statement
We seek to maintain productive and long-term relationships with our business partners and suppliers and have a Supplier Code of Conduct in place to ensure our suppliers operate in an ethical way and share our business principles in observing relevant laws and regulations.
Our Supplier Code of Conduct is designed to promote safe and fair working conditions and the responsible management of social, ethical and environmental issues in our supply chain.
All suppliers have published or stated an approach which is consistent with our values.