FMJ Facilities Management magazine providing industry-specific intelligence to FM and property professionals
The support services group to the social housing and care sectors has recently appointed a new Employee Director, Jay Whistler.
Mears is one of the few PLC companies in the UK that has a dedicated employee director, and has gone even further with an additional one focused exclusively on helping and supporting disabled employees within the group.
There are 14.1 million disabled people in the UK and more than 4.4 million disabled people are in work. Mears says it is committed to making positive changes in the industry and Whistler will lead the steps supporting activities that promotes the employee experience via the company’s social values and diversity.
Speaking about the new role, Executive Director, Alan Long commented: “We wanted to create a role specific to the needs of disabled colleagues following our review of how we support our workforce. We want to be a company where individuals can get on whatever their background, and for disabled colleagues I know having Jay keeping up the momentum on this at the board will I hope lead to a fuller working experience.
“Mears is still one of a very small number of PLCs who have one employee director, let alone two, so I hope this is seen by all of our colleagues and underlines the importance we place on hearing from you at the very top of our organisation.”
Whistler said: “I have extensive experience working with the vulnerable and disabled and believe I can bring a lot of understanding to the new role to create an environment at Mears where every individual truly matters.
“I want to share best practices across the group and work to support the voices that may not have been heard. By doing this I am confident we can create a genuine balance within the workplace.”
Informa, the organisers of Facilities Show, together with FMJ magazine, have teamed up to launch a questionnaire which aims to offer a useful snapshot of where the facilities management sector is now, and an outlook on the future.
For instance, are you asking workers to begin to return to the office with a hybrid home/office work schedule? Are you revising your premises to enable more flexible ways of working and as such have your workplace strategies, including sustainability, wellbeing and engagement had to be radically rethought?
Your anonymised answers will contribute to a report on the biggest challenges and opportunities facing facilities managers; now, and anticipated in the next 12 months.
To take part click here.
